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The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil,    but because of the people who don't do anything about it

Occupation magazine - Activism Home page  back Print  Send To friend Palestine Museum of Natural History opens in Bethlehem From Mazin Qumsiyeh mazin@qumsiyeh.org We opened the Palestine Museum of Natural History and our botanical gardens (part of the Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University) to the public after an official ceremony on Wednesday attended by University officials and dignitaries. Brother Peter Bray pledged the university’s continued support. Eng. Adalah Ateerah gave an important speech about the relationship with the Environmental Quality Authority and suggested the need to enlarge this to become truly a national monument. Below I included my speech at the opening where I summarized progress and laid out plans going forward. There was a big team of volunteers and staff who worked very hard to see this day. Words of thanks are too small to do justice to all who contributed to making this day possible. Many of you receiving this message who were not there have contributed (some in time and efforts, other financially). We welcome and appreciate all support (see below). We are very grateful for that and invite you to come visit us. I posted selected photos here: https://www.palestinenature.org/opening/ And here is one video of the opening https://youtu.be/kdbHJkpnexQ And a video about our work before the opening https://youtu.be/BPhFLOsEIM0 (now the museum looks much nicer as you saw in the photos: https://www.palestinenature.org/opening/ Opening talk by Professor Qumsiyeh On behalf of Bethlehem University`s Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability and Palestine Museum of Natural History and Botanical Garden, our staff and volunteers I welcome you. Thank you Brother Peter for the introduction. Welcome to our distinguished guests representatives of the university Brother Peter Bray and other officials, Honorary Minister Adalah Ateereh and other representatives of the Ennvironmental Quality Authority, agriculture and education ministry representatives, Mr. Munib Masri, representatives of civil society organizations, our colleagues, donors, and friends. This is a dream come true to arrive at this stage, a culmination of countless hours and countless volunteers. It reflects the ten pillars of transformation from the Buddhist philosophy: generosity, ethics, renunciation, wisdom, effort, patience, truthfulness, determination, kindness, and equanimity. We started preparing and working here in Mar Andrea in August 2014. We had a strategy to officially open the museum after five years but here we are with an opening ceremony in about half the time. We consider this a Palestinian national accomplishment. You received a brochure that highlights our mission and goals in research, education and conservation. I want here to quickly highlight our accomplishments (because you will see them on the ground) and highlight our vision going forward and seek your further support without which we could not do any of this. In research, we managed to publish over two dozen research papers in areas ranging from genotoxicity, to biodiversity of various groups of animals (ranging from scorpions, snails, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals), to museology (museum science), to environmental education. This is applied and collaborative research that helps accomplish our other goals of education and conservation and elevates Palestine’s name in international scientific standing. You can see our research table and display board down below. In education, we hosted dozens of schools, did workshops educating our children on areas like reducing waste, recycling composting, respecting nature, biodiversity, critical thinking, science, anthropology, ecotourism, and more. We also worked with university students and faculty not just at our own Bethlehem University but also at other universities in Palestine and abroad. You can see our education table and display board down below. We also held workshops ranging from taxidermy to math in nature to recycling. In conservation and sustainability, we built models of sustainability including in composting, aquaponics, rain harvesting, organic gardening, solar electricity, and more. We transferred knowledge to farmers and agriculture engineers, for example 12 who came from Gaza and learned aquaponics. We also worked with Environmental Quality Authority to create a management plan for Wadi Al-Quff protected area and are working now on a similar plan for Wadi Al-Zarqa al-Ulwi near Salfit. Our plans going forward are ambitious. We plan to build our PIBS to offer degrees (diplomas and higher degrees) in areas like environmental conservation, permaculture, and museology. We plan a future green museum building of nearly 2000 square meters right here where we are. We plan a mobile museum to go to remote villages. We plan to have a virtual tour of the museum so that people around the world can visit Palestine and learn about areas like its fauna, flora, ethnology, history, and the human spirit that guides us. We will develop museum exhibits that are interactive. We will develop an animal rehabilitation unit. We plan to develop our botanical garden to be a permaculture research facility and a place for ex situ conservation of wild plants and some animals threatened with extinction. This is a huge effort done largely with volunteer efforts and initially only with our own funding and with partnership with you representatives of NGOs, governments, and academia, and others who could not come to join us in this celebration. I would like now to acknowledge those who made this work possible and ask you to stand up. We thank the PMNH advisory board Brother Peter, Dr. Ghassan Handal, Dr. Irene Hazou, Youil Samour, Isaac Shahar, , the departments at the university that made this possible like the finance Department (Youil, Luda, Elie, George, Diala, and others), engineering and maintenance (Nagib, Maher, Jiryis, Raed, Philip, etc), Biology (Dr. Ghassan and students). Please stand up and remain standingز We thank donors from the American Consulate in Jerusalem, the Representative Office of Canada, Consulat General de France à Jerusalem, UNDP/SGP/GEF, Cultures of Resistance, GIZ, Tetraktys/Masar Ibrahim, Hanns Seidel Foundation, Telemachus Foundation, Hope and Play UK, and individual large donors such as Nader Qumsieh, Makram Qumsiyeh, and Rajaie Qubain. Please stand up. We thank all the international and local volunteers (so far over 100 internationals and over 100 Palestinians have volunteered with us and several of them are here with us. Stand up (please name each one of them who are there). I spoke to you on behalf of our internal team whose work is exemplary and relentless. I start with Jessie who spent seven days a week as a volunteer administering and dealing with little and big things. Elias, Mohammad Najajreh, Mubarak, Mohammad Abu Sarhan, Khawla, Reena, Dany, Majd, are core team members that made this possible. Standup please and come here to the front. And I am sure there are some people still seated who either helped us and I forgot to mention them or plan to help us so stand up. Now everyone give yourself an applause. As I said in the beginning, we consider this step a Palestinian national accomplishment. We will now proceed for the opening, and everyone is welcome to take a tour of the museum and garden after the ribbon cutting ceremony. There are 14 garden stations and two halls open to you, and there are paths with maps at each station. Each map shows where you are and what is next. But you do have a choice right after the opening and station 2: you can either go to the museum area and downstairs (Blue arrows) to watch a film and see photos or continue in the garden path along the red arrows and do the films and exhibit room at the end. At 3:30 we will come back here for the reception with delicious food prepared by Bethlehem University`s Hotel Management faculties and students. I hope after you see what we have accomplished with very limited resources and hard work you will agree to give us more of your support. To support us: Donate https://www.palestinenature.org/support-us/donate/ Volunteer ttps://www.palestinenature.org/support-us/volunteer/ Links to the latest articles in this section Refusing the war! Demonstration today, Thur. Apris 24, at 7.30 pm, Habima Square, Tel Aviv Refusing the war! Demonstration today, Thur. Apris 24, at 7.30 pm, Habima Square, Tel Aviv Saturday night protests: No to Netanyahu`s war!