Mazin B. Qumsiyeh – Sharing and Repairing the West Bank
Author, educator and activist Mazin B. Qumsiyeh formerly worked at Duke University and Yale in the medical field. He returned to Palestine in 2008, where he established the Palestine Museum of Natural History (PMNH). Today it has 8 employees and Mazin and his wife, Jessie, are full-time volunteers. The associated Palestinian Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability (PIBS) currently works with women entrepreneurs and also has a native animal rehabilitation facility.
55 people registered for this live seminar and 21 attended, mostly from the USA but also participants from Egypt, Germany, Canada, Mexico, and Costa Rica. Mazin attended via zoom from Palestine. If you watch and like this video, please tell others about it! We’d like to see increased viewership over time.
Mazin mentioned his book “Sharing the Land of Canaan” about peaceful coexistence between the different ethnicities and religions in Palestine and Israel. The paperback version is available on Amazon. Look below for a direct link.
A great many of Palestine’s ancestral farmlands and orchards have been destroyed; bulldozed and replanted with non-native pine trees. These pine plantings have been at the expense of native biodiversity and have been the cause of much wildfire the past few years, subsequently causing erosion and ecological disaster. Meanwhile, much of the water flow to the West Bank has drained wetlands and water tables, causing further depletion of biodiversity.
Whereas historically 70% of Palestinians made their living from agriculture, now only 7% do so today. 28% of Israelis live below the poverty line.
The practice of “Zionism” has caused prolific ethnic cleansings over several decades. Only 6 million native Palestinians still live there, many of which are now internally displaced. Only 8.39% of the land base is now nominally Palestine, and that is under Israeli military occupation.
Mazin’s book: “Sharing The Land Of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle” https://www.amazon.com/Sharing-Land-Canaan-Israeli-Palestinian-Struggle/dp/0745322484
Another resource: “Edible Wild Plants: A Tradition in Palestine” https://thisweekinpalestine.com/edible-wild-plants/ by Roubina Bassous/Ghattas.
