{"id":14520,"date":"2010-07-22T10:47:19","date_gmt":"2010-07-22T16:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=14520"},"modified":"2010-07-22T10:47:19","modified_gmt":"2010-07-22T16:47:19","slug":"mazin-qumsiyeh-a-day-of-celebration-in-the-occupied-palestinian-territories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=14520","title":{"rendered":"Mazin Qumsiyeh: A day of celebration in the occupied Palestinian territories"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
\n22 July 2010<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 Today the results of the exams were released and they were phenomenal.\u00a0 It is a noisy day of celebration for thousands of people who worked very hard and achieved good results. There was no divisions here, the unified examinations were given in Gaza and the West Bank with cooperation of the ministry of education employees in both places and without political considerations. \u00a0Considering the slaughter of Gaza last year, the results from Gaza were remarkable (and equivalent to the West Bank). \u00a0The highest six students (4 females, 2 males) in the science section got the score of 99.5% and they represent refugees, villagers, and city dwellers, from Asira Al-Shjamaliya (near Nablus), Khan Younis (Gaza), Nablus City, \u00a0West Gaza, Shufat (Jerusalem), and Beni Nuaim (Hebron area).\u00a0 In the humanities section, the top ten come from Tulkarem, Rafah, Nablus, Khan Younis, Qabatiya, and Jenin. My own nephew got 93.6% even though his father died in the middle of these exam (I had shared the story of Hazem with you earlier). This remarkable result by our young people shows the possibilities of the people of Palestine.\u00a0 Of course, the colonial apartheid system limits the options open to our high school graduates but ultimately nothing can stand in the way of determined individuals.<\/p>\n


\nI participated in teaching summer camps at two locations to younger students during the past few days.\u00a0 I have been focusing on teaching and interactions with young Palestinians since I returned to Palestine two years ago.\u00a0 In all these interactions I see the incredible opportunities.\u00a0 Palestine has no oil or other major natural resources except its people.\u00a0 If only our leaders understood the potential of mobilizing our people to liberate themselves.\u00a0 We do not need to rely on endless negotiations or on irrational rhetoric or acts. Three young high school students built an electronic walking stick for the blind (I shared that story two months ago with you). Palestinian students at the Polytechnic University in Hebron just built a solar powered car from scratch (http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/world\/2010\/jul\/18\/palestinian-territories-solar-power-car<\/a>).\u00a0 What we need is a belief in the human potential.\u00a0 We need a denial of the negativism that is fed by corruption, lies, and distortions; I will write more on this in my next message.\u00a0 Meanwhile congratulations<\/p>\n

Here is a must read article for all Palestinians: Towards a Palestinian Political Agenda by Dr. Salman Abu Sitta (two parts) http:\/\/www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk\/articles\/middle-east\/1310-towards-a-palestinian-political-agenda-1<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk\/articles\/middle-east\/1332-towards-a-palestinian-political-agenda-part-ii<\/a><\/p>\n

Israeli army destroys a Palestinian village in the Jordan valley
\nhttp:\/\/imemc.org\/article\/59169<\/a><\/p>\n

17 Year old arrested in night raid in Bil\u2019in
\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=86QAchT2swI<\/a><\/p>\n

Action: As received from Janan Abdu-Makhoul: Free Ameer Makhoul
\nhttp:\/\/www.alternativenews.org\/english\/index.php\/topics\/news\/2734-free-ameer-makhoul<\/a><\/p>\n

Model Action: BDS activists do a musical tour in New York against Israeli apartheid
\nhttp:\/\/adalahny.org\/videos\/off-off-broadway-bds-musical-tour-the-video<\/a><\/p>\n

Mark Braverman\u2019s report on the victory at the Presbyterian Assembly and lays out the nature of the Zionist tactics to thwart Christian action for peace and justice
\nhttp:\/\/markbraverman.org\/2010\/07\/report-from-the-presbyterian-general-assembly-part-2-the-jewish-response\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Health in the occupied Palestinian territories
\nhttp:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/health-in-the-occupied-palestinian-territory-2010<\/a><\/p>\n

Action: Join the campaign to get TIAA-CREF to divest from Israeli apartheid (at the meeting held results were good and there was no opposition but this is expected to change so the organizers of the action want more signatures)
\nhttp:\/\/salsa.democracyinaction.org\/o\/301\/p\/dia\/action\/public\/?action_KEY=4048<\/a><\/p>\n

You are always welcome to visit us in Palestine<\/p>\n

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
\nA Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home
\nhttp:\/\/www.qumsiyeh.org<\/a>
\nProfessor, Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities
\nChairman of the Board, Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People, http:\/\/www.pcr.ps<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD 22 July 2010 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.\u00a0 Today the results of the exams were released and they … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdXTf-3Mc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14520"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14523,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14520\/revisions\/14523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}