Letter from Bethlehem: Mazin Qumsiyeh

 Nakba, Birthday, NORWAY, Marathon

This coming week we commemorate the Nakba, the large scale ethnic cleansing that accompanied the declaration of a Jewish apartheid state 15 May 1948. I have relatives who lost their homes in Jaffa (a city that was largely ethnically cleansed and subsumed into “Tel-Aviv”). See https://qumsiyeh.org/chapter4/ on this chapter of the ongoing Palestine tragedy.

This coming week is also my birthday and as in all such days we remember our mothers. My mom’s last day included few words she could utter but one was the name of her friend Hayah Balbisi, massacred in Deir Yassin by Zionist forces 9 April 1948. While my body ages, I still try to keep the pace as a full time volunteer (7 days a week, 15 hours per day) and donor at the Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability. Soon we open the new Museum of Natural History and new Heritage Garden. Thus, for those who contemplate sending birthday wishes or gifts, please consider supporting this project (financially, logistically, in-kind, by visiting, by volunteering etc.). Below are some relevant links:
-Short 6.5 minute video of our work https://youtu.be/qt8OTGoS198
-Donate: http://palestinenature.org/donations
-Volunteer: http://palestinenature.org/volunteer/
-Visit: https://palestinenature.org/visit
-Check out daily activities at https://www.facebook.com/PIBS.PMNH

The level of horrors in the ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing in Palestine and Lebanon is truly shocking and well documented by all human rights organizations as well as the UN (rapes, torure, pogroms, ecocide, carpet bombing and erasing mcommunities). This a glimpse pf survivng hostages (dozens died under torture)
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1700139727811088
Yet the resilience is staggering. Yesterday we held the Palestine Marathon in both Gaza and Bethlehem to end the genocide and for freedom. Watch
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2164979151125365
https://youtu.be/MxF31YX3cBU

I know you can get frustrated and depressed occasionally, but PLEASE keep speaking and acting for Palestine. It is making a difference. It is trickling up to political leaders. Even Saudi Arabia just denied use of ts airspace for (Israel Epstein) US military. Again please keep writing, speaking, donating, and acting..the ripple effect is spreading and hundreds of millions ARE acting and making a difference.

NOTE for those in Norway: Jessie and I will be traveling to NORWAY in June (next month) to give talks. Let us know if you are there and can help
 
Thank you & Stay Humane, act, and keep hope and Palestine alive

Mazin Qumsiyeh
A bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home