"olivier / olive tree" by OliBac is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

[This important and delayed compilation is a bit longer than usual but it
takes 7 minutes to read if you do not open links. Please forward to others
at least sections you think they need to see. This post is also at my blog
for easy share:
https://popular-resistance.blogspot.com/2024/10/olives-hope-and-more.html ]

Today is the last day we work on our olive trees at the museum gardens in
Bethlehem (80 trees). Earlier last week we picked olives in our own home
garden in Beit Sahour. This is a form of resistance but it is also
physically and mentally healthy exercise that gets us to understand both
the blessings and the challenges of life. As a communal event, we receive
help from volunteers (local and international) and we get to feel
camaraderie and friendship while we also discuss the horrors of starving
people of Gaza, of children body parts blown by US bombs, of what motivates
genocide, geopolitics, and of our role and purpose in life. T see
pictures/reports on activities at our institute, check out our facebook
page: https://www.facebook.com/PIBS.PMNH
The olive picking season and the olive tree itself has been a sacred part
of our lives for thousands of years. Here is an article I wrote many years
ago about the importance of the olive tree to us indigenous Palestinians:
https://www.transcend.org/tms/2019/10/the-olive-tree-not-just-an-ordinary-tree/

But hope is also rekindled in our hearts from our people. Those who
volunteered with us like the employees of the red crescent society who
helped us pick olives. I am inspired by a Palestinian Tamer who holds two
jobs (one as a guard here at our institute but also helped with olives and
one as a mechanic), thus working 16 hours a day and yet walks his daughter
to school every day. I am inspired by Mosab Abo Taha (see
https://youtu.be/4YqA9j7iPhk and
https://x.com/MosabAbuToha/status/1850713930907463906) and Ramzy Baroud a
brilliant writer who lost his MD sister in Gaza (see
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/ramzy-baroud/) and Lebanese
women Ghadi Francis (https://youtu.be/-LdRTIfBh5c ). I am inspired by this
missionary who walks where Jesus walked, even in time of war (
https://www.umnews.org/en/news/missionary-walks-where-jesus-walked-even-in-time-of-war
).
I could list thousands of people like that that I personally know; someone
should compile a webpage and I am sure we can list hundreds of thousands of
candles in the darkness like those.

Thus, we have hope and faith despite the genocidal onslaught against our
people of Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank and also Syria and Yemen goes (76
years of colonialism, supremacy, hegemony, and control).

The Cactus and the cucumber: A reflection on hope
http://qumsiyeh.org/thecucumberandthecactus/

THINGS NOT SEEN IN THE COMPLICIT WESTERN MEDIA:

Naomi Klein sums things well
https://x.com/democracynow/status/1848726603112612275
Col. Larry Wilkerson & Scott Ritter on how Iran destroyed Israeli attack
while IDF crushed by a recovered Hezbollah  https://youtu.be/9JoIAfK07uM
Zionist plan: Nile to Euphrates https://youtu.be/KMxooA7CQ8g
This is what it looks like when masses of people are transported to
concentration and torture camps in the 21st century. Will the people behind
the wheel one day claim that they were 'just drivers'?
https://x.com/pawelwargan/status/1849084175829078189
Israeli Soldiers SICKENING War Crimes EXPOSED
https://youtu.be/gEo813rYm8g
Nakba happening again in front of the entire world:
https://x.com/Timesofgaza/status/1849378844089647136
and one more massacre (now over 3000 massacres) from Khan Younis
https://x.com/warfareanalysis/status/1849684329582166413
reminiscent of another massacre at same place in 1956:
https://x.com/user104021010/status/1720394748169539715
(yes this is not new)
Kill Them All: The Extermination of Palestinians
https://thecradle.co/articles/kill-them-all-israels-extermination-of-palestinians-in-gaza
UN report confirms MASS RAPE of Palestinian hostages in Israeli torture
camps
https://www.naturalnews.com/2024-10-18-un-report-confirms-mass-abuse-palestinian-hostages.html
Chris Hedges: Extermination works - at first
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/extermination-works-at-first
CIA and a private company to run concentration camp in Gaza
https://youtu.be/RRzkIIw2_us
People of Gaza are starving while Arabs hold lavish feasts
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1171559400958009
Australian-Israeli dual citizen Mark Regev under trial for genocide
advocacy
https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/2024-10-22/ty-article/.premium/australian-israeli-former-diplomat-mark-regev-under-trial-for-genocide-advocacy/00000192-b4e6-d006-a5b3-feee3fa30000
The "President of the European Comission" Ursula von der Leyden not only
has excused every crime committed by Israel (war crimes, crimes against
humanity, apartheid, genocide) but even advocates suppression of free
speech in Europe ala what they have in Germany (no Palestinians flags, no
speech against Zionism or colonialism, no "Free Palestine" slogans). She is
truly a "daughter of nationalist Germany" which committed the genocide in
Namibia and of Nazis and neo-Nazis. And here is a bit about her father and
his role in WWII Germany Who was the father of Ursula von der Leyden in
WW2? . We do not know if her affinity to Israel is a (deluded) way of
making up (she should not because Nazis collaborated with the Zionists who
do not represent Jews and even broke the boycotts of Nazi Germany). She
should know better. The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell criticized
her biased stance which, he said, undermined Europe's geopolitical position
and was at variance with reality of a catastrophic Israel induced
humanitarian catastrophe.
https://www.quora.com/Who-was-the-father-of-Ursula-von-der-Leyen-in-WW2

Stay Human and keep Palestine alive

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
http://qumsiyeh.org
http://palestinenature.org
facebook pages
Personal https://www.facebook.com/mazin.qumsiyeh.9
Institute https://www.facebook.com/PIBS.PMNH