Israel/Palestine Blog 10/21/22, Elie Saikaly

We started the day heading to the Palestine  Museum of Natural History of Bethlehem University.  There we met Prof. Mazin Qumsiyeh, Director of the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability. Prof. Qumsiyeh, previously at Duke and Yale University, now teaches at Bethlehem University.  He had just finished teaching a master’s level course on advanced molecular biology before joining us. You wouldn’t normally expect to find a museum of natural history at a university in a place as economically stressed as Palestine.  His lecture with us connected the dots between the Israeli occupation, settler colonialism, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, and environmental degradation.  His focus is not just educational, but to empower the Palestinian people to use environmental knowledge to improve their lives.

“The Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability (PIBS) and the Palestine Museum of Natural History (PMNH) were established to research, educate about, and conserve our natural world, culture and heritage. We use this knowledge to promote responsible human interactions with our environment.”

Palestine  Museum of Natural History has a diverse collection of Palestinian plants and animals.  The site also includes projects in agriculture with limited water supplies, projects to promote biodiversity and sustainability, and cultural heritage.

We then visited the Cremisan Winery.   The Cremisan Monastery stands on a hilltop between the village of Al-Walajah and the city of Bethlehem. It was started in the nineteenth century. The winery funds the work of the Monastery.  It produces a variety of red and white wines as well as other spirits.