Mazin Qumsiyeh Professor and Director Palestine Museum of Natural History Finds Encouraging Words on Speaking Tour In Germany

Humanitarian ships trying to peacefully break the illegal and immoral siege
on Gaza were intercepted by the Israeli navy. But good people will keep
trying to do good things against all odds. See this video for example about
a Gaza initiative with colors https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CX34C2B1nt8

So far my trip to Europe is going great.  And from what I hear from the
volunteers and workers at the museum back in Bethlehem, there are also
great news.  The whirlwind tour of Europe began in Munich and goes through
Leipzig, Berlin, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Zurich, Dornbrin, Bratislava,
Vienna. Nine cites in in 12 days meant lots of trains and other modes of
transportation. Main two purposes are: signing my book on Sharing the Land
of Canaan (out in German now) and seeking collaborations and partnerships
for our nascent museum of Natural History. this gives one time to read and
reflect. I certainly gathered many books and other literature along the
way. I also reflected how two German people I never met actually influenced
my life. One is Mr. Schneller who founded an orphanage school in Jerusalem
that saved my grandfather (who lost all his immediate family members in
World War I). The other is Rev. Schmitz who collected many animals in
Palestine and also founded a girls’ school in Jerusalem. I was a teacher at
that school in 1978-1979. That collection was taken over by Israeli
institutions.

As in previous visit, we got encouraged by the site of remnants of the
Berlin wall. If that wall can fall, then certainly our apartheid wall will
fall. We engaged in amazing conversations with varied people covering areas
ranging from nature conservation, research on biodiversity, early childhood
education, German-Israel relations, apartheid, Nazi-Zionist collaboration,
and much more.

Everywhere I go people are so welcoming and so interested in helping
Palestine and Helping PMNH-BU. Although so far I have been running around
without enough sleep, I feel more energy than ever before. Examples of
collaboration include sending some of our young people to learn things like
taxidermy, museum exhibition design, and modeling nature and artifacts for
exhibition. We also need to send some for acquiring higher degrees and to
return trained in various disciplines (paleontology, arachnology,
entomology, ethnology etc.).   I am always impressed by how much people do
with very limited resources. Many live simpler lives so that they are not
distracted and they can focus on good work. Others have resources and
realize that giving is very enjoyable activity. The national group of
German Palestinian Association (Deutsch-Palaestinensischen Gesellschaft
dpg-netz.de ) is well organized in many German cities and has a beautiful
and highly informative magazine.I could go on and on.

More and more, we realize our priority/challenge is how best to invest in
the young people (especially those who volunteer). This even as we keep the
energy of us older folks. In Europe I met many people of all ages engaged
in BDS and other actions for peace. Kudos to the,. But we also have so many
good young people with great potential. I am sure they/we together can make
miracles. As the great Mahatma Gandhi once said “A small body of determined
spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the
course of history.” This got me to thinking more about the mission of the
museum which includes reshaping ourselves (developing respect for ourselves
first) which brings me to another point Gandhi made: “Our greatness lies
not so much in being able to remake the world, as in being able to remake
ourselves” and similarly “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It
comes from an indomitable will.”  But the key question remains in what
direction should we push ourselves and how do we proceed to change
ourselves.

Mazin Qumsiyeh
Professor and Director
Palestine Museum of Natural History (PMNH)
Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability (PIBS)
Bethlehem University
Sustainability, Youth Education and Empowerment
http://www.palestinenature.org
info@palestinenature.org
Tel 970-22773553