Why I moved back to Palestine 18 years ago?

I wrote from Palestine to my listserve in August 2008 to explain my move from the US back to Palestine (18 years ago!):

"Difficulties in life make us who we are and help us improve. In this I am thankful even to those self-declared enemies and protagonists who sometimes succeeded in what they aimed to do and sometimes failed but always provided me with good lessons. So perhaps a tinge of me wants more difficulties. I look back with nostalgia at my upbringing under Israeli occupation. I look with nostalgia at the time I was teaching in the West Bank. I talk to my elderly diabetic mother everyweek and she tells me stories of what is going on on the ground. Her stories include things like people dying because of being prevented from going to health clinics, students denied the right to go to school, lands confiscated, children shot in the back of the head, extra-judicial executions, further acts of ethnic cleansing, and more. I also go to Palestine every year and I see the apartheid system getting worse. Walls surrounding towns and villages, US weapons that killed or maimed friends and colleagues, economic strangulation, and much more. But both mother and I see so much good work being done by good people of all faiths and backgrounds. "My last visit was of July last year. The hate I witnessed from settlers, from occupation soldiers, and yes from some natives was so thick in the air and permeated everything. The racism, the segregation, the apartheid walls... and all the other things I occasionally share with you through this cyberspace. BUT, there is also lots of love.

Love is not usually expressed in words in Palestine. Even among family members it is rare to hear the words "I love you". Love is expressed at a far more meaningful sense in caring, asking how your health is, offering food, hospitality, offering your clothing and what little you have etc. These are acts of love. In the US, I witness acts of love perhaps two or three times a day in person (I see many more on the emails and other news sources). In Palestine, in my last visit, I witnessed acts of love in the dozens every morning. In one day of a nonviolent demonstration in Bilin and then in the Hospital where Ibrahim Bornat was taken after being shot, I witnessed hundreds of acts of love. They came not just from Palestinians but from Internationals and even Israelis who were with us. In the US, writing a letter to the editor or demonstrating in front of a congressman's office are acts of resistance (and yes love). In Palestine, teaching a child to read, eating, drinking, breathing, living, and everything we do in life there are acts of resistance (and love). This is because that is not what the colonial Zionist movement wants (they want us all out to create a more uniform "Jewish state" that is cleansed "nichsayon").

Activism for human rights is not only a duty but it is one of the most rewarding things to have done myself (marriage, having a son, writing books are others). Activism falls truly under the category of enlightened self interest which is what philosphers and sages of old have encouraged us to practice. So in that sense I am still going to be doing similar acts . My focus will shift though:

• Teaching at Bethlehem University (a new masters program in Biotechnology, course in human molecular genetics);
• Working on environmental/conservation issues we ended up establishing a large institute now employing 10 people and dozens of volunteers;
• Building a laboratory for clinical genetics that employs Palestinian graduates;
• Doing other activities that create job opportunities (see for example by going to http://www.pcr.ps/ and click on outsourcing Palestine project at right);
• Writing more books (the next one on my agenda to complete is on history, theory, and practice of Palestinian non-violent resistance over the past 128 years);
• Giving help where I can (my dream is to start a "food not bombs" chapter);
• Continue the never-ending work to improve myself and fight the demons within;
• Having fun!

And as our newly departed poet Mahmoud Darwish wrote:

I long for my mother's bread, and my mother's coffee, and her touch.
Childhood memories grow up in me Day after day.
I must be worthy of my life.
At the hour of my death, worthy of the tears of my mother.

I have a home in Beit Sahour, a lovely town despite the colonial occupation. Please look at these two videos of my hometown.

It also seemed the right time on the 60th anniversary of the Nakba (the ethnic cleansing of Palestine) to focus more on helping in Palestine while still maintaining a base in the US.

With humility and serenity, I will try to be positive, productive and helpful as one of millions struggling under occupation/colonization. My regular email messages may slow down or get way shorter. These emails will also undergo a change away from posting things from secondary sources. Since I will be on the ground more, I will report more of what I observe in Palestine and occasional suggestions for unique and inspiring actions for peace with justice we can all support.

If I slighted any of you, I apologize. I want to thank all of you for your kind support (especially those who took the time to act on action calls). I also want to thank those in Connecticut who helped make the state a great place to live. You all will be in my thoughts always. If you ever want to take a trip to Palestine, please drop me a note and come visit! In the meantime, stay tuned and best of Love to all."

I wrote a week later (also August 2008):

"Sometimes words are like the cage in which ideas live but cannot really be truly free (Kahlil Gibran). We struggle to describe the Orwellian reality we live in. In this land, a new colonial settler from Russia or Poland or America can roam free, get all sorts of financial gifts (from US and other taxpayers) and settle on land stolen from people whose ancestors farmed it and cared for it for 5000 years. The natives, considered children of a lesser God, are removed from their lands, live in nearby countries in refugee camps or live in shrinking concentration camps in their own homeland. Where else do we have a nation still being built on the destruction of other people's villages, lives, and livelihood? Where else does a 19 year old white racist get away with insulting and degrading hundreds of dark skinned 'others' in words and deeds that evoke KKK and White Afrikaaner racism? This Orwellian disease is not confined to Palestine. It has infected discourses from Iraq to the US. How else to explain denying an ex-president (Carter) the podium at his own party convention for speaking the truth? How else can one explain Vice Presidential Candidate Joe Biden saying he is a Zionist and joining with others regularly to condemn the victims and support racism? ".Ofcourse we could spend (waste?) time exploring the problems but we must focus on the solutions. Focusing on solutions is what so many people here in Palestine (including Palestinians, Israelis, and others) do. In 2001 when that uprising started, I started compiling data for a book envisioning peaceful future based on justice and human rights for all. Published in 2004 and other books like it published since that speak of coexistance and equality in one democratic state resonated well."

Stay human

Mazin Qumsiyeh
A bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home
Professor, Founder, and (volunteer) Director Palestine Museum of Natural History
Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability Bethlehem University Occupied Palestine
facebook pages Personal Institute
French