Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh teaches and does research at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities in occupied Palestine. He previously served on the faculties of the University of Tennessee, Duke and Yale Universities. He served on the board/steering/executive committees of a number of groups including Peace Action Education Fund, the US Campaign to End the Occupation, the Palestinian American Congress, Association for One Democratic State in Israel/Palestine, and BoycottIsraeliGoods.org. He is now president of the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People. He advised many other groups including Sommerville Divestment Project, Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project, Palestine Freedom Project, Sabeel North America, and National Council of Churches of Christ USA. He is an active member of a number of human rights groups (Amnesty, Peace action, Human Rights Watch, ACLU etc.). He published several books of which the most acclaimed "Sharing the Land of Canaan: human rights and the Israeli/Palestinian Struggle" which was also translated to Spanish. He also has an activism book published electronically on his web site (http://qumsiyeh.org). His main interest is media activism and public education. He published over 200 letters to the editor and 100 op-ed pieces and interviewed in TV and radio extensively (local, national and international). Appearances in national media included the Washington Post, New York Times, Boston Globe, CNBC, C-Span, and ABC, among others. He also regularly lectures on issues of human rights and international law. He is currently finishing a book on Palestinian civil resistance going back to the beginning of the Zionist project in the 19th century until today.
Netanyahu: What is Said and What is Not
Thursday, 02 September 2010 11:50
Mazin Qumsiyeh
Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel told his governing coalition that he did not promise an extension to the partial suspension in settlement construction when it expires in September (by the way, the suspension did not cover most of the settlement areas which are around Jerusalem, nor did it cover existing construction in other areas, infrastructure, schools and synagogue construction. In other words there was really no suspension.)
Returning from the Friday demonstration in Al-Walaja in unbearable heat (watch video) we note that the talks about the talks about the peace talks are to resume in Washington September 2nd.
Nearly 86,000 Palestinian students sat this year for the final high school unified matriculation exam (called Tawjihi) in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Today the results of the exams were released and they were phenomenal.
It took over 10 hours to cross from Amman, Jordan to the Ghetto of Bethlehem, a distance of 60 miles. From the first moment on the bridge from Jordan, we begin to be immersed in Palestinian suffering. The 19 days outside of Palestine are not possible for most Palestinians. Yet, this was not a vacation and I gave many talks and spent lots of time in cars, trains, and planes. During the travel time, we can have time to think and reflect on many things and this short essay on Palestinian responsibility is a fruit of many hours of this.
