Join SWANA collective members in a conversation with Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh, Founding Director of the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability (PIBS) at Bethlehem University. A couple of weeks ago, SWANA Region Radio covered Israel’s recent “deal” with the United Arab Emirates and its actually ongoing project of annexation by way of housing demolitions, settlement and infrastructure expansion. Today we continue our coverage of Occupied Palestine with a wider lens. What has been the impact on historic Palestine of Israel’s occupation and much vaunted “development” of the region on the delicate and fertile ecology of this ancient land? Does Israel’s spurious and well-worn propaganda claim to have “made the desert bloom” actually mask its ongoing destruction of Palestine’s environment, its uprooting of ancient olive groves, or its extensive plantations of pine forests to rapidly cover the ruins of the Palestinian villages it has destroyed? Is its massive water consumption exhausting the limited groundwater available even as it denies Palestinians equitable access to that precious resource? What is the impact of its intensive agricultural projects on the Jordan Valley, the Naqab and elsewhere on both the ecology and the flora and fauna of this fragile environment? How has Palestine been impacted by the process of desertification that affects the larger region, from Syria to Yemen and East Africa?
Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh, by training a Zoologist and Geneticist, teaches and researches at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities. He previously served on the faculties of the University of Tennessee, Duke, and Yale Universities. He and his wife, Jessie Chang, returned to Palestine in 2008 starting a number of institutions and projects such as a clinical genetics laboratory that serves cancer and other patients. They founded and run (as full time volunteers) the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability (PIBS) at Bethlehem University, which has become a “Mecca” for visitors to Palestine from around the world. Professor Qumsiyeh has published over 140 scientific papers on topics ranging from cultural heritage to biodiversity to cancer. His many published books include Bats of Egypt, Mammals of the Holy Land, Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human rights and the Israeli/Palestinian Struggle and Popular Resistance in Palestine: A History of Hope and Empowerment. Popular Resistance in Palestine is published electronically (see http://qumsiyeh.org). He especially believes in youth empowerment towards social and environmental causes and serves on the boards of a number of Palestinian youth and service organizations. Qumsiyeh has himself been harassed and arrested for non-violent actions but also received a number of prestigious awards for these same actions.
