Today is Good Friday, a major holiday in the Western Christian traditions.
My family being mixed Christians always had two Christmas holidays and two
Easters and so on. For us children growing up in the Bethlehem area, there
was a nice rhythm and special feelings of religious holidays even though
our families were not particularly observant. We enjoyed holidays of all
sects and religions. We always looked forward for example to Ramadan one or
two months before it arrives (this year it is in early June). We cherished
the diversity of customs and cultures and religions. Palestine has always
been that: multicultural, multireligious, multilingual, and more. All
attempts to make it monolithic in the past 12,000 years of ‘civilization’
failed. The attempts that lasted longer using fear of the other and
propaganda also failed. The attempt t create a “clash of civilizations”
(ala Huntington) thankfully are always resisted. There is only one
civilization and that is the human civilization. False flag operations to
do that in the past have backfired (e.g. Israel’s Lavon affair to target
western interests in Egypt). Being educated and aware is today more
important than ever. We sympathize with our colleagues in Belgium as they
lost citizens to terrorism (no matter what government is actually behind
that). We remind the world that we Palestinians faced terrorism for nearly
100 years. Please read chapter 8 on violence and terrorism from my book
“Sharing the Land of Canaan” here http://qumsiyeh.org/chapter8/

Just yesterday, Israeli forces executed two other young Palestinians. A
videotape that has gone viral on the internet shows in one case the
“neutralized” the youth Abed al-Fatah a-Sharif who laid injured on the
ground posing no threat to security. Time passes as Israeli security
officials mill around and others evacuate a supposed injured Israeli
soldier. Then a soldier cocks his gone in front of all other approving
security personnel and medics, approaches and shoots Abed point blank in
the head. See the graphic video
https://youtu.be/V5P-ifPzmGQ
https://youtu.be/Fj8rGao47Mg
(Video was taken by Emad abu-Shamsiyah, a B’Tselem member)

As in the hundreds of other cases, this case will be “investigated” by the
Israeli military because the video became public (other cases are not
investigated”. But as always, Israeli military finds themselves not guilty.
But that is what we expect from occupiers/colonizers, nothing more nothing
less. What pains us more is the apathetic people (whether they call
themselves Israelis, Palestinians, Europeans, Americans, or simply human).
We would like to see people act for peace and not just feel disgusted with
the status quo. We must envision a better future and work for it. Please
read the last chapter (titled “looking forward”) of my 2004 book:
http://qumsiyeh.org/chapter13/

And on this good Friday we hope that the weekly Friday demonstrations
against the illegal occupation will not end by executions (but they seem to
be a pattern of this so stay tuned).

A World War has Begun: Break the Silence by John Pilger
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/03/23/a-world-war-has-begun-break-the-silence/

Blind Loyalty to the Clinton Brand Needs Re-Examination
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Blind-Loyalty-to-the-Clint-by-JACK-DRESSER-160324-439.html
Critics aghast at disgusting speech Clinton just gave to AIPAC
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/03/21/critics-aghast-disgusting-speech-clinton-just-gave-aipac

Donald Trump reading the speech that AIPAC aides wrote for him (prepare the
vomit bag)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHmINZRwiZU
and one of his foreign policy team is non other than the crook and criminal
Zionist stooge “Walid Phares”
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2016/03/walid-phares-makes-comeback-trumps-campaign-team

But then again such people as Trump are really bad news for the country as
happened with Hitler who also came to power with hatred and fear rhetoric.
As someone who is also both a US citizen and a Palestinian living in
Palestine, I feel really sad at what the US is going to (further decline
and collapse thanks largely to the suicidal Zionist ideology).

so as Vittorio Arrigoni implored us: Stay human. This is most relevant on
this good Friday.

Mazin Qumsiyeh
Professor and Director
Palestine Museum of Natural History
Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability
Bethlehem University
Occupied Palestine
http://qumsiyeh.org
http://palestinenature.org

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