IDA AUDEH
Despite Zionist attacks on the people and land of Palestine, Mazin Qumsiyeh believes in a shared future between Israelis and Palestinians. (PHOTO COURTESY JAMAL NAJJAB).
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, October 2023, pp. 58-59
Waging Peace
CONDITIONS IN Palestine are pretty dire these days, but Mazin Qumsiyeh—a Bethlehem University professor and founder of the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability—is an optimist.
As part of a 12-state tour of the United States to talk about Palestine and to raise funds for his center, Qumsiyeh addressed a group of 50 people assembled at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Arlington, VA on August 16 to discuss “Decolonization of Minds and Nature in Palestine and Globally.” A scientist by training, he structured his remarks with a medical metaphor: If Palestine is a patient, what are the environmental symptoms of the problem, what diagnosis best explains the symptoms and what is the appropriate treatment?
Despite the undeniable distress afflicting the patient, Qumsiyeh exudes optimism regarding the long-term prospects, related in part to the innate strengths the patient draws upon: Palestine was historically a multiracial and multilingual country with rich biodiversity. The attempt to turn it into a Jewish state has required the use of overwhelming force, yet even with that, Israel hasn’t succeeded in its goal.
The environmental damage has nonetheless been massive. Water sources and even the Dead Sea water levels are diminishing. Israel taps aquifers within the West Bank and then sells the water to Palestinians at high cost. Turning a rich agricultural tradition that relied on rainfed plants into one that relies on irrigation is more labor and resource intensive. The destruction of indigenous trees and their replacement with European pines served political, not ecological, purposes (primarily to disguise the presence of earlier Palestinian settlement), and when fires break out, these nonindigenous trees are quick to burn (and reveal the terraces built by Palestinian farmers centuries ago).
The assault on indigenous farming through various means—the apartheid wall, which separates villages from their farmlands; vicious settler attacks on farms; attacks on sheep and goats; the banning of the traditional practice of foraging for herbs—has a single purpose: to make indigenous life unsustainable. Israel deprives Palestinians of land by designating tracts as nature reserves and protected areas, yet places them adjacent to (environmentally destructive) military firing zones.
These are only some of the environmental symptoms of settler colonialism, not difficult to identify because so many countries have gone through similar experiences. Throughout his remarks, Qumsiyeh drew parallels with the experiences of Indigenous people in North America. The least bloody resolution to settler colonialism is not a “two-state solution” but rather the intermingling of the indigenous and foreign populations, as occurred throughout Latin America, the Caribbean and elsewhere, he said.
Just as having a strong immune system is key to resisting infection, popular resistance is essential to resisting and recovering from the deliberate harms of settler colonial policies. Qumsiyeh argues that Palestinians have a tradition of resistance (he wrote about this in his book Popular Resistance in Palestine) and clearly draws inspiration from that work.
A good portion of the presentation described projects of the biodiversity center to address some of the challenges faced. The motto of the center is “RESPECT.” Self-respect and respect for our own resources are essential to liberation from mental colonization, he said. Next is respecting others, and beyond that, respecting animal and plant life. The sum total is a sustainable community.
Among the many and varied activities of the institute is the collection of ancestral knowledge about agriculture; Qumsiyeh sees such efforts as a top priority. Thanks to a small U.S. government grant, they launched an education program to teach children how to reduce waste and plastic use. They are raising funds to expand and renovate the center, and they welcome volunteers. Check out the institute’s activities at <palestinenature.org>.
—Ida Audeh
