More encouraging news

Last week I shared some good news and asked if any readers could share their good news. Many readers responded. Here are just a few examples of responses which remind us that millions of candles are lit in a sea of darkness

Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden are true American heroes that stood up for truth and for human rights and who are targeted by a US government intent on Israelization of the US society (compare with the hypocricy of the US administration).  An Irish politician calls Obama what he is, a hypocrite

http://youtu.be/CnJCvKA-oEU

Millions of Egyptians are now saying: we do not want an Islamist government supported by the West and taht serves in US/Israeli interests

Sumoud in Palestine http://nahidaexiledpalestinian.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/sumoud/

“As long as the Za’atar remains. . .” http://mondoweiss.net/2011/06/as-long-as-the-zaatar-remains-3.html

Army to Duma: “Stop building!” Duma to army: “We’ve built already”
http://palsolidarity.org/2013/06/army-to-duma-stop-building-duma-to-army-weve-built-already/

Student wins right to display Palestinian flag at Texas graduation

http://electronicintifada.net/content/student-wins-right-display-palestinian-flag-texas-graduation/12531

Israeli government ramps up anti-boycott fight [and admits rise in wave of “delegitimizing” the apartheid state]

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ben-white/israeli-government-ramps-anti-boycott-fight

California university chief admits failure to curb divestment campaigns

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora/california-university-chief-admits-failure-curb-divestment-campaigns

The House That Broke The Camel's Back

http://www.roitov.com/articles/wadiara.htm

Some 1,500 Israeli Arabs block major road in protest over home demolition

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/some-1-500-israeli-arabs-block-major-road-in-protest-over-home-demolition.premium-1.532590

Jewish voice for Peace asks for action: 40,000 Bedouin People Displaced = Human Rights Disaster
http://org.salsalabs.com/o/301/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=13809

Prawer plan approval means ethnic cleansing; actions In England http://act.palestinecampaign.org/lobby/102

Israel Approves Prawer Law Expelling Bedouins http://www.roitov.com/articles/bedouin.htm

The Romance of Birthright Israel: To apply for a Birthright trip, participants need just one Jewish grandparent—and to pass a screening interview. (Practicing a religion other than Judaism is an automatic disqualifier.) After their ten days on Birthright, participants may postpone their return by up to three months to travel in the region, and it is not unheard of for progressives to “birth left” in the West Bank afterward (as I did)—though Birthright policy is that anyone discovered to have a “hidden agenda” of “exploiting” the free trip “to get access to the territories” to promote “non-Israeli” causes can lose her spot. [I know many who came to visit with us after in Bethlehem] http://www.thenation.com/article/161460/romance-birthright-israel#

Here in very rural Western Massachussetts, one small community put on a comprehensive 2-day educational event titled: "Palestine 2013: Art, Crafts, Film, Food and Politics."… We showed 5 films by and about Palestine: "5 Broken Cameras", "Occupation 101", "Salt of this Sea", "Steadfast Hope" (made by Presbyterian Church USA's Israel/Palestine Mission Network), and "Paradise Now."  We had a professionally hung show of original Palestinian art plus a display of a mock apartheid wall with photos of graffiti art on it.  We sold imported Palestinian crafts, olive soap, olive oil and olive carvings, we fed 80 people a Middle Eastern feast supervised by a local Palestinian-American, and had a panel discussion involving three separate anti-occupation voices: an American Jew, a Palestinian-American, and an Israeli-American.  It was a smashing success and resulted in more people understanding a sometimes puzzling issue (due to the media here), and eager for more information.

Mazin Qumsiyeh

http://qumsiyeh.org

Biodiversity

What is the real status of the environment in Palestine and how does it compare to Jordan?  I just returned from my latest field work in Jordan.  I started doing field work in Jordan in 1974 and published my first paper on new records of bats from Jordan in 1979 (an undergraduate seminar research project).  The population of Jordan has more than doubled since then.  I started doing field work as a teenager in Palestine in 1971 and the population in the West Bank and Gaza (22% of Palestine) has increased three folds.  650,000 Israeli Jewish settlers now live in the occupied West Bank area in over 135 colonies and some 100 colony “outposts”.  In this email I share with you some issues of environment/biodiversity in Palestine (now Israel) and Jordan with notes and observations from direct involvement and countless field trips.  This is not intended to cover many issues. Let me start with just a couple of similarities and differences between areas east and west of the Jordan valley and then give you links to more detailed studies and a video tape we just finished about our work.

Similarities
-Population growth and pressure impacts biodiversity adversely by destruction of natural habitats, the use of pesticides etc. (we noted dead raptors from pesticide use in both areas even in the latest trips)

-Impact of global warming where average temperatures here will rise some 4-5 degrees centigrade and annual rainfall will decrease by 20-25% over the next three decades.

Differences
-Jordan is populated by its own people and by Palestinian refugees (who have full citizenship) so the management of the country is largely for the benefit of all people.  In Palestine, colonial settlers rule and the native Palestinians are marginalized and squeezed into Bantustans.  This has very negative consequences (see my article below)

-Political colonial considerations make for very poor environmental decisions.  I noted some of these in my article below but also just noted how water in valleys leading to the Dead Sea on the Jordan side (like Wadi Mujib) are kept intact by the Jordanians who pump the water only just before the water reaches the dead sea.  On the West Bank side, pumping was done by the Israelis right at the spring site and so drying up the whole valley (e.g. at Al-Auja).  This was environmentally devastating but its reason was political (to deny water usage to Palestinians in the Jordan valley and help colonize their land).

-The fact that millions of Palestinians remain occupied and worried about where their next meal will come from leaves little room for concern about the environment. Streets are far cleaner in Jordan than in the remaining Palestinian villages and towns and refugee camps (of course 530 Palestinian villages and towns were ethnically cleansed). This also has to do with sense of ownership/control.  Palestinians feel they have no control.  Colonial settlers coming from around the world also do not feel responsibility but only political desire to control and dump their sewage on Palestinian land and do other action that harm the environment (see below).

Acknowledgement: I want to just say a personal thank you to my best friend Prof. Zuhair Amr and to the colleagues from Jordan: Husain from JUST and others from the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN, http://www.rscn.org.jo/).  They are dedicated and hardworking people who care about the environment.  RSCN provided the vehicles and helped arrange our stay in beautiful places like Wadi Mujib and Wadi Rum.  Zuhair uses his own money for this work and his family kindly hosted me in Amman.  We collected important genetic and other data on some rare species.  I also thank the numerous volunteers in Palestine helping us with this work.

Article in proceedings of a conference on the status of the environment (forthcoming publication from Environmental Education Center) By Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD, Professor at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities
http://qumsiyeh.org/environmentalnakba/

A video we did about studies of biodiversity in Palestine.  Unfortunately it is in Arabic (we are now looking to translate to English and I will share that link once available): http://youtu.be/hRa7yZSwEZU

Biodiversity Status in the Occupied Palestinian State: On the occasion of Biodiversity International Day
http://www.arij.org/latest-news/624-on-occasion-of-biodiversity-international-day-.html

Action: Join us in Palestine Biodiversity Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/groups/PalestineBiodiversity/

Pictured: Pregnant orangutan clinging to the last remaining forest tree after bulldozers clear jungle to make way for oil plantation: Heart wrenching scenes as frightened animals lose habitat in Borneo. Many left starving and on brink of death by destruction of trees. Rescuers stun them with anesthetic guns and capture them in nets
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2305277/Pictured-Pregnant-orangutan-clinging-remaining-forest-tree-bulldozers-clear-jungle-make-way-oil-plantation.html

Mazin
http://qumsiyeh.org