We are in the midst of the “Days of Science Festival” in
Palestine (in 18 cities). In Bethlehem District, it is inspiring to watch
hundreds of school children learn basics of questioning and basics of knowledge
acquisition. Students just need opportunities to learn not to be lectured to.
Unfortunately education is taking a back seat among Israelis and Palestinians
to the ongoing daily distorted realities of the governments. For example 43% of
the Palestinian authority budget goes to security (for Israel as subcontractors
of occupation). Israel spent $8 billion just on the expansion and annexation
apartheid wall to steal more Palestinian land. The Oslo and Paris accords
ensured expansion of corruption to unprecedented levels (both in NGOs and
government level). Glittery buildings
and fancy SUVs and hotels ensure the rich in Ramallah and Tel Aviv know little
and care less about the marginalized in our society. Thus 25% of Israeli
children and >50% of Palestinian children live below the poverty line. Otherwise
good people (Palestinian and Israeli) now spend their days begging for aid from
Europeans and Americans and writing progress reports and filling in text and
pictures on imaginary “development activities”. The Palestinian authority
figures and Israeli leaders play games and meet with “dignitaries” in 5-star
hotels hoping they could delay the inevitable collapse of the corrupt system
they created. Perhaps they think that one more year of the status quo means one
more year to accumulate wealth of the hapless people. Meanwhile, the Zionist
Knesset passes a racist “basic” law that consecrates Israel as the state of “the
Jewish people” (Jewish national anthem, laws based on Jewish mythology etc). I
do not know why people complain about the “Islamic State” when Israel has similar
racist laws that set it up as a “Jewish state”.
Insightful letter from US President Thomas Jefferson to
Mordecai Noah, May 28, 1818: “I thank you for the Discourse on the
consecration of the Synagogue in your city, with which you have been pleased to
favor me. I have read it with pleasure and instruction, having learnt from it
some valuable facts in Jewish history which I did not know before. Your sect by
its sufferings has furnished a remarkable proof of the universal spirit of
religious intolerance inherent in every sect, disclaimed by all while feeble,
and practiced by all when in power. Our laws have applied the only antidote to
this vice, protecting our religious, as they do our civil rights, by putting
all on an equal footing. But more remains to be done, for although we are free
by the law, we are not so in practice."
Colonization activities here in Palestine go unchecked: Jerusalem
is being mutated to a Jewish city and its natives removed, and the common
people suffer horridly (house demolitions, killing, jailing, ethnic cleansing
etc). The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. International law and human
rights are not relevant to the racist Zionist “might makes right.” Yet, we do
not have the luxury of despair and we must redouble our efforts even in the
spheres we can work. That is why we teach students at our universities. That is
why over 30 volunteers are working hard every day on the science festival in
the Palestine Museum of Natural History (at Bethlehem University). Changing
behavior is critical to build the human resources needed to reshape the future.
We believe we can make our own future and write our own history. The challenges
we face are both external and internal and the internal challenges are far more
pressing. We must end the mental colonization before we end the physical one.
I end with a message from a South African who participated
in work with the World Council of Churches in Palestine: “Dr Mazin: your
article today reads like a discourse from our apartheid South African history.
It takes me back to my own childhood & growing up, the displacement of
communities, creation of what they called homelands, alienation of family &
friends. Tensions flaring, arrests, loved ones leaving the country of their birth,
some to never be seen again. Violent killings or imprisonment of those who
resisted. All this in the name of religion & the entitlement of one over
another. It was legitimized by many countries around the world. That was why I
couldn't just walk away in 2004 when I volunteered to heed the call of the
Palestinian religious leaders via EAPPI & stayed for 2 years. I later
realised why. It was something I knew, grew up with could relate to & also
knew it would not, could not last forever. Unfortunately the world is so slow
to react to this gross injustice, the same as with apartheid or the holocaust,
or ebola, or South Sudan & so I can go on. Evil can only prevail when good
man do nothing. My comrade never get tired with what you are doing, this too shall
end. Aluta continua!!! In SA we also have another slogan : Amandla - Awethu!!!
(Power to the people). Stay strong, I was born under Apartheid & lived
& worked to see its end.”
I may add that like with South Africa, help of the
international community must be directed at ending apartheid not at making
conditions of imprisonment (colonization) a bit more tolerable to the native
people. Hence I say encourage BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) and
encourage real resistance to the apartheid state of Israel. Try to avoid those
who claim they are resisting in order to get a few more donor dollars! Try to
put your effort (and money) in a direction that produces measurable impact in
that direction.
To see pictures of our activities in the science festival
and more, look for our facebook page under Palestine Museum of Natural History.
Also come visit us anytime.
The battle for Jerusalem
Mazin Qumsiyeh
Professor (Bethlehem University) and director PMNH
Bethlehem, Occupied Palestine
