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March 30th marks Land Day in Palestine, a commemoration of Israel’s 1976 determination to expropriate thousands of hectares of Palestinian territory. Six were killed by the IDF during demonstrations back then; tens of thousands more have died at the hands of Israel since.
2014 marks the United Nations’ International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, and though the UN is not a welcome voice within Israeli circles when speaking on the Palestinian issue, it is respected around a World already grown weary of the Jewish State’s serial criminality.
Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh is a Palestinian writer, activist, and scholar who holds a PhD. in biology and is board certified in medicinal genetics.
He also serves as chairman of the board of the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People and coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Beit Sahour. Mazin is recipient of: the 2011 Social Courage Award from the Peace and Justice Studies Association; the American Arab Anti-discrimination Committee’s Alex Odeh award; and has been recognized by the American Friends Service Committee Connecticut chapter. Professor Qumsiyeh left the United States and his teaching position at Yale University to return to Occupied Palestine’s Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities.
In addition to his many articles and papers, Mazin Qumsiyeh’s book titles include: ‘Sharing The Land Of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle,’ ‘The Bats of Egypt,’ ‘Mammals of the Holy Land,’ and his latest, ‘Popular Resistance in Palestine: A History of Hope and Empowerment.’ Professor Qumsiyeh was in Victoria last night, at Camosun College as part of his speaking tour: ‘Palestine Today and in the Future.’ He will be appearing tonight in Vancouver at SFU Downtown, Harbour Centre.
Mazin Qumsiyeh in the first half.
And; before his 2006 ascent to power in Canada, the current prime minister reportedly told an audience at a right wing think tank confab: “You won’t recognize Canada when I’m through with it.” Whether that is true or apocryphal, taking a quick, cross-country check up proves the point; from warfare to health care, environmental protection to ecological rejection, ‘Stephen Harper’s New Government of Canada,’ has certainly broken the national mold, and none in either the Canadian parliament, or the nation’s corporate dominated media seem inclined to pick up the shattered remnants of what once was this country. But, eight years of unprecedented deregulation, and systematic undoing of national institutions later, Mr. Harper and his considerably more hoary “New Government’ cohorts are hardly finished their transformative mission.
Ingmar Lee is a long-time environmental defender, activist, writer, and woodsman. He currently lives with his family in the heart of the ‘Great Bear Rainforest,’ near Bella Bella, where the forests, wildlife, and marine environment are all threatened by various expansive human activities geared for short-term, and largely offshore profit.
Ingmar Lee in the second half.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV Radio broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us news from our city’s streets and beyond for the coming week. But first, professor Mazin Qumsiyeh and Palestine Today and in the Future.
