EarthAction

Palestinian House of Friendship: News From Nablus

Dear Friends of the Palestinian House of Friendship,

The “silent war” against the West Bank city of Nablus and the entire region continues. In December 2022 Netanyahu named Bezalel Smotrich the Minister of Finance, and Itamar Ben- Gvir, Minister of National Security. Both men are right-wing extremists, lawyers in their 40s living in Israeli settlements on the West Bank, and both are committed to the expulsion of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank. Ben-Gvir has a criminal record and has turned over West Bank policing to armed Israeli settlers who grab Palestinian land, uproot olive trees, and often shoot Palestinians on sight. This is not hyperbole; as of mid-July 572 Palestinians (including 139 children) have been killed, 5,300 have been injured by settlers, and much city infrastructure has been destroyed

In the context of the war in Gaza in which close to 40,000 Palestinians (70% women and children) have been killed since October 2023 (with recent estimates being more like 180,000 people murdered), and the threat of imminent violence on the West Bank, the Palestinian House of Friendship (PHF) continues to offer a sense of safety and hope through activities for children and their families in Nablus, the nearby village of Asira al Shamaliya, and a number of refugee camps.

Smiling Faces summer camp has been reorganized into 8 smaller camps located in separate neighborhoods, giving parents the opportunity to pick up their children quickly, if there is any danger of violence in the community. These camps include traditional Palestinian music and dance, games, and a Green Hands Initiative (planting crops) for children.

PHF has also provided food, shelter, and support to about 80 people from Gaza who lost their jobs in Israel last fall and came to Nablus seeking shelter.

This includes children diagnosed with cancer who are now receiving medical treatment in Nablus hospitals. In addition, PHF has collaborated with the municipality of Asira to set up medical clinics to treat injured people injured by settler violencewhen access to hospitals may be impossible due to army or settler violence.

Mohammed Sawalha, Founder/Director of PHF, iscommitted to peace, and continues to create programs that will give children opportunities for joy and play throughout the long hot summer. But he also continues to think toward the future when there will someday be a free democratic Palestinian state. To this end PHF is offering workshops for adults this summer in which men and women can learn how to participate in a civil society, become trained in how to vote how to conduct elections, run for office, and develop democratic legislative initiatives.

Beginning in mid-August, Mohammed plans to offer these workshops in a pilot program that will initially reach 100 adults in the Nablus region. After evaluation of the pilot program, the workshops will be offered more broadly in the West Bank. The American Friends of PHF are researching possibilities for grants for this innovative project. If you would like to help out with this project, please reach out to Katharine Baker at [email protected].

Mohammed, his staff, and the families of PHF all express their gratitude for your continuing generosity in supporting the Palestinian House of Friendship.

For more info or to donate:

palestinianhouseoffriendship.com

UNCCD PRESS RELEASE: ‘Silent Demise’ of Vast Rangelands Threatens Climate, Food, Wellbeing of Billions

Rangelands cover 54% of all land; as much as 50% are degraded,
imperiling 1/6th of humanity’s food supply, 1/3rd of Earth’s carbon reservoir
UNCCD report points way to restore, better manage rangelands,
urges protection of pastoralism

Bonn/Ulaanbaatar 21 May 2024 – Degradation of Earth’s extensive, often immense natural pastures and other rangelands due to overuse, misuse, climate change and biodiversity loss poses a severe threat to humanity’s food supply and the wellbeing or survival of billions of people, the UN warns in a stark report today. 

Authors of the Global Land Outlook Thematic Report on Rangelands and Pastoralists,launched in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), say up to 50% of rangelands are degraded. 

Symptoms of the problem include diminished soil fertility and nutrients, erosion, salinization, alkalinization, and soil compaction inhibiting plant growth, all of which contribute to drought, precipitation fluctuations, and biodiversity loss both above and below the ground. 

The problem is driven largely by converting pastures to cropland and other land use changes due to population growth and urban expansion, rapidly rising food, fibre and fuel demands, excessive grazing, abandonment (end of maintenance by pastoralists), and policies that incentivise overexploitation. 

What are rangelands? 

The rangelands category of Earth’s land cover consists mostly of the natural grasslands used by livestock and wild animals to graze and forage.  

They also include savannas, shrublands, wetlands, tundra and deserts.   

Added together, these lands constitute 54% of all land cover, account for one sixth of global food production and represent nearly one third of the planet’s carbon reservoir. 

“When we cut down a forest, when we see a 100-year-old tree fall, it rightly evokes an emotional response in many of us. The conversion of ancient rangelands, on the other hand, happens in ‘silence’ and generates little public reaction,” says UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw.  

“Sadly, these expansive landscapes and the pastoralists and livestock breeders who depend on them, are usually under-appreciated,” Mr. Thiaw adds. “Despite numbering an estimated half a billion individuals worldwide, pastoralist communities are frequently overlooked, lack a voice in policy-making that directly affects their livelihoods, marginalised, and even often seen as outsiders in their own lands.” 

Mongolia Environment Minister H.E. Bat-Erdene Bat-Ulzii says: “As custodian of the largest grasslands in Eurasia, Mongolia has always been cautious in transforming rangelands. Mongolian traditions are built on the appreciation of resource limits, which defined mobility as a strategy, established shared responsibilities over the land, and set limits in consumption. We hope this report helps focus attention on rangelands and their many enormous values – cultural, environmental, and economic –  which cannot be overstated. If these rangelands cannot support these massive numbers of people, what alternatives can they turn to?” 

Mongolia will host the 17th UNCCD Conference of the Parties meeting in 2026, the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP), declared by the United Nations General Assembly on Mongolia’s initiative.

Read more here