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Palestine Museum of Natural History

The Palestine Museum of Natural History[note 1] (PMNH; Arabic: متحف فلسطين للتاريخ الطبيعي, romanized: Matḥaf Filasṭīn lil-Tārīkh al-Ṭabīʻī) is a natural history museum in Bethlehem, West Bank. Founded in 2013, it opened to the public in 2017. The museum collections focus on botany, zoology and entomology. The goals of the museum include research, collecting and education to record and amplify the importance of Palestine's biodiversity and environmental heritage.

Palestine Museum of Natural History
متحف فلسطين للتاريخ الطبيعي
Map
EstablishedApril 12, 2017 (2017-04-12)
Coordinates31°43′04″N 35°12′20″E / 31.7178°N 35.2055°E / 31.7178; 35.2055
TypeNatural history
FounderMazin and Jesse Qumsiyeh
DirectorMazin Qumsiyeh
Employees10
Websitepalestinenature.org/natural-history/

Location

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It is part of Bethlehem University and is closely linked to the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability.[2][3] As of 2019 it had 10 full-time staff, both Palestinian and Israeli.[4] The museum also features a botanic garden,[5] a wildlife rehabilitation centre,[6] and an aviary.[7] The museum also runs educational programs for children.[8]

History

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The museum opened to the public on 12 April 2017 and is the first of its kind in Palestine.[8] Its collection began to be established in 2014 by Mazin Qumsiyeh,[9] who many years previously had recognised the need for an archive of Palestinian biodiversity and research programmes to understand its significance.[8][10][11][12] The initial foundation costs were supported by Mazin and Jesse Qumsiyeh and Bethlehem University: with $250,000 donation from the former, supported by $450,000 by the latter.[4]

Collections and research

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Building a collection of Palestine's biodiversity is a core aim of the museum, and field-based research has assembled the collection. One project collected ten species of freshwater snails from Palestinian territories, which were accession into the museum collection.[13] The freshwater mollusca collection expanded and now includes the first record of Planorbella duryi, an invasive species in Palestine, from the museum's own pond.[14] Another research programme recorded the biodiversity and unique species at the protected site of Wadi Qana, the only known site of Pelobates syriacus in the West Bank.[15]

The entomological collection includes Cetoniinae species from the occupied West Bank,[16] as well as building a collection of 340 grasshopper and locust species,[17] a teratological example of Nezara viridula from the museum garden,[18] and the first Palestinian record of the invasive species Cacyreus marshalli.[19] Another find from the museum garden is the first record of a "bat ensnared by a plant in the Arab world".[20] The bat, Pipistrellus kuhlii, was caught in Picris altissima L. Delile.[20]

The collection also includes geology, with a discrete assemblage of molluscan and echioderm fossils collected at Beit Ummar.[21] The botany collection includes examples of Orchidaceae,[22] and macrofungi in the museum's herbarium collection.[23] One vertebrate species collected is an unusual specimen of Heremites vittata.[24]

Museum biologist, Mohammed Abusarhan,[4] describes the PMNH's work as:

“Our work at the Palestine Museum of Natural History deepens our knowledge of the Palestinian ecology and environment. We make field trips to collect samples to study biodiversity in Palestine and publish scientific papers that are the first of their kind in Palestine."

— Mohammed Abusarhan, Natural history, conservation and politics meet in West Bank museum (2019)

The museum has conducted research on the impact on biodiversity of Israeli settlement and the subsequent effects of pollution associated with this expansion.[5] One study examined changes to the diet of eagle owls locally, which suggested a decrease in biodiversity in the region.[25]

As of 2019, the museum was home to over 260 plant specimens, and had just opened an exhibition, funded by the British Council, on collecting Palestinian agricultural heritage through objects and oral histories.[4] Other cultural research undertaken by the museum includes changes in traditional knowledge of wild plants in Artas.[26]

The museum itself has also been the subject of research examining the role of botanic gardens as sites of nation-building and resistance.[7]

Notes

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  1. ^ Not to be confused with The Palestinian Museum of Natural History and Humankind, which is an art installation by Khalil Rabah[1]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Abdel Nabi, Nabila (2023). "Khalil Rabah: The Palestinian Museum of Natural History and Humankind". Veralist Center. Archived from the original on 2023-11-04. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  2. ^ "Biodiversity and hope flourish at Palestine's first natural history museum". Middle East Eye. Archived from the original on 2023-11-04. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  3. ^ "Palestine Museum of Natural History". ngarchitects. Archived from the original on 2023-11-04. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  4. ^ a b c d Yagdi, Amjad (2019-05-06). "Natural history, conservation and politics meet in West Bank museum". www.al-monitor.com. Archived from the original on 2023-11-04. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  5. ^ a b "Palestine Museum of Natural History". Cultures of Resistance. 2016-08-05. Archived from the original on 2023-11-04. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  6. ^ Handal, Elias N.; Amr, Zuhair S.; Basha, Walid S.; Qumsiyeh, Mazin B. (2021-12-01). "Illegal trade in wildlife vertebrate species in the West Bank, Palestine". Journal of Asia-Pacific Biodiversity. 14 (4): 636–639. doi:10.1016/j.japb.2021.07.004. ISSN 2287-884X.
  7. ^ a b Hassouna, Silvia (2023-09-13). "Cultivating biodiverse futures at the (postcolonial) botanical garden". Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 49 (2). doi:10.1111/tran.12639. ISSN 0020-2754.
  8. ^ a b c Nofal, Aziza (2017-04-27). "Palestine launches new museum to promote biodiversity". www.al-monitor.com. Archived from the original on 2023-11-04. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  9. ^ "Palestine Museum of Natural History". www.tikkun.org. 2021-06-04. Archived from the original on 2023-11-04. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  10. ^ Pappe, Ilan; Mansour, Johnny (2022-03-15). Historical Dictionary of Palestine. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 379. ISBN 978-1-5381-1986-0. Archived from the original on 2023-11-04. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  11. ^ Rabou, Abdel Fattah N. Abd; Musallam, Nour J.; Musallam, Eman J.; Elkahlout, Kamal E.; Elnabris, Kamal J.; El-Bashiti, Tarek A.; Aziz, Ismail I. Abdel; Ishneiwra, Reham M.; Radwan, Eqbal S.; Saada, Hana S.; Shafei, Ashraf A.; Fayyad, Nedal A.; Mwafy, Saleh N.; Amra, Huda E. Abu; Alajeen, Ramy A. Abu (2020-11-30). "The Palestinian Terrestrial Vertebrate Fauna Preserved at the Biology Exhibitions of the Universities of the Gaza Strip". Research in Ecology. 2 (4): 9–21. doi:10.30564/re.v2i4.2512. ISSN 2661-3379. Archived from the original on 2023-10-17. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  12. ^ Abd Rabou, Abdel Fattah (2020-10-01). "The Palestinian Marine and Terrestrial Vertebrate Fauna Preserved at the Biology Exhibition, Islamic University of Gaza, Bombarded by the Israeli Army in December, 2008" (PDF). Israa University Journal of Applied Science. 4: 9–51. doi:10.52865/hfrs6095. ISSN 2523-0522. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-11-11.
  13. ^ Handal, Elias, Zuhair Amr, and Mazin Qumsiyeh. "Some records of freshwater snail from the Occupied Palestinian territories." Archived 2023-02-08 at the Wayback Machine (2015).
  14. ^ Handal, Elias; Adawi, Shadi; Gedeon, Johann; Amr, Zuhair S. (2023-03-25). "Notes on the current status of freshwater snails fauna of the Palestinian territories (West Bank)". Folia Malacologica. 31 (2): 92–99. doi:10.12657/folmal.031.010. ISSN 1506-7629. Archived from the original on 2023-11-04. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  15. ^ Qumsiyeh, Mazin B.; Handal, Elias N.; Al-Sheikh, Banan; Najajreh, Mohammad H.; Albaradeiya, Issa Musa (2022-12-03). "Designating the First Vernal Pool Micro-Reserve in a Buffer Zone of Wadi Qana Protected Area, Palestine". Wetlands. 42 (8): 119. Bibcode:2022Wetl...42..119Q. doi:10.1007/s13157-022-01644-5. ISSN 1943-6246. S2CID 254152161.
  16. ^ Handal, Elias N., and Z. Amr. "Localities of flower chafers (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Cetoniinae) in the Palestinian territories (West Bank)." Archived 2023-11-04 at the Wayback Machine Jordan J. Biol. Sci 11 (2018): 389-393.
  17. ^ Abusarhan, Mohammad; Amr, Zuhair S.; Ghattas, Manal; Handal, Elias N.; Qumsiyeh, Mazin B. (2017-04-03). "Grasshoppers and locusts (Orthoptera: Caelifera) from the Palestinian territories at the Palestine Museum of Natural History". Zoology and Ecology. 27 (2): 143–155. Bibcode:2017ZooEc..27..143A. doi:10.1080/21658005.2017.1313807. ISSN 2165-8005. Archived from the original on 2023-11-04. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  18. ^ Handal, Elias N. "A Teratological Record of the Southern Green Stink Bug Nezara viridula (Hemiptera, Heteroptera, Pentatomidae) from the Occupied Palestinian Territories (West Bank)." Archived 2023-11-04 at the Wayback Machine Jordan Journal of Natural History 8 (2021): 45-46.
  19. ^ Handal, Elias Nabil. "The Geranium Bronze Butterfly, Cacyreus marshalli (Butler, 1898)(Lycaenidae: Lepidoptera), A New Invasive Species and Additional Records to the Butterfly Fauna of the Palestinian Territories-West Bank." Jordan Journal of Natural History 9 (2022): 2.
  20. ^ a b Handal, Elias N., and Mazin B. Qumsiyeh. "The First Record of a Bat Found Ensnared by a Plant in the Occupied Palestinian Territories." Archived 2023-11-04 at the Wayback Machine
  21. ^ Al-Harithi, Taleb, Mazin B. Qumsiyeh, and Elias N. Handal. "Macrofaunal Fossil Assemblage from Beit Ummar, Hebron, Palestine." Archived 2023-11-04 at the Wayback Machine Jordan Journal of Natural History: 53.
  22. ^ Pahl, Julius; Qumsiyeh, Mazin B. (2021-03-08). "Orchids of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (West Bank, Palestine)". Mediterranean Botany. 42: e72120. doi:10.5209/mbot.72120. ISSN 2603-9109. Archived from the original on 2023-11-04. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  23. ^ Thaler, Maximus Theresa, Aysha Al-Wahsh, Alea Meuser, Alyssa Rooks, and Mazin Qumsiyeh. "Macrofungi from the Hebron and Jerusalem Hills of Palestine." Archived 2023-11-04 at the Wayback Machine (2020).
  24. ^ Handal, Elias, and Apostolos Christopoulos. "Hindlimb malformation in the skink Heremites vittata Olivier, 1804 from Palestine (West Bank)." Herpetology Notes 15 (2022): 849-852.
  25. ^ Johnson, Penny (2019-02-19). Companions in Conflict: Animals in Occupied Palestine. Melville House. p. 209. ISBN 978-1-61219-744-9. Archived from the original on 2023-11-04. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  26. ^ Hanna, Emily Mourad; Friborg, Katrine Gro; Qumsiyeh, Mazin B. (2022-04-03). "Temporal change in traditional knowledge and use of wild plants in Artas, Palestine". Palestine Exploration Quarterly. 154 (2): 81–94. doi:10.1080/00310328.2021.1975069. ISSN 0031-0328. S2CID 240519396. Archived from the original on 2023-11-04. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
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