Letter from Bethlehem: Mazin Qumsiyeh

 I want to thank the 22 readers who donated to the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability (PIBS palestinenature.org/donations) in honor of my birthday in the past week. PIBS looks for donations (of all sizes) AND volunteers to advance work towards sustainable human and natural communities in Palestine (brief/6 minute video of our work https://youtu.be/qt8OTGoS198 ). 

On 7 October 2023, I received an email from a Zionist who said I should go to Jordan since the will take teh West Bank after they clear Gaza. I did not respond but te next day he sent another message saying "in retrospect: go the US where you lived because we will take Jordan". I responded then that they have already "taken" the US so no logic in moving from one Israeli  (Zionist) occupied territory to another. I had left the US (and a six figure income as a medical geneticist) to go back to Palestine in 2008. My wife and I are very lucky to be able to work as volunteers 15 hours a day 7 days a week & no vacations building institutions and helping te ripple effect of the global uprising. Publishing 20 research papers/articles per year, building infrastructure, overseeing programs of education, working with great staff and other volunteers, and speaking to thousands every year gives us satisfaction beyond words (action being the best antidote for despair). As a bonus, 55,000 of you get these messages (hopefully many read and act on these) and many send us encouragement. Those in our family circle continue to grow in numbers. For example, our upcoming trip to Norway in June will bring us many more friends.

Our work with children highlighted in case studies of Nature Positive Universities
https://www.naturepositiveuniversities.net/case-studies/
Artistic bridges quotes from our children at PIBS
https://read.bookcreator.com/library/-NptjAFjhCUTfN6WbxOq/book/NMy-Lz5MTHyqJj_bGaX1ZQ/s98KjSrMTiO3S3paJFS_6Q
Sister Martha Blog about her work with us and children
https://saccvi.blogspot.com/2025/04/a-hopeful-pilgrim-sr-martha-ann-kirk.html

The secret mission to rescue the UN’s vital Palestinian refugee archive
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/14/secret-mission-palestinian-refugee-archive-unrwa-israel

Fascist Zionist gangster BenGvir and his henchman reception of humanitarians kidnapped and mistreated.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1007088325181515
Where are governments to protect their own citizens? (write to them, make noise)

Israeli lies https://muhammadshehada.substack.com/p/the-true-story-of-israels-creation

Stay Humane, act, and keep hope and Palestine alive

Mazin Qumsiyeh
A bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home
Professor, Founder, and (volunteer) Director
Palestine Museum of Natural History
Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability
Bethlehem University
Occupied Palestine
http://qumsiyeh.org
http://palestinenature.org