A Palestinian rights activist who advocates one democratic state in Israel-Palestine has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by a winner recognised for her campaign in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
Prof Mazin Qumsiyeh is a scientist based in the occupied West Bank, whose work ranges from treating cancer to protecting Palestine's natural heritage. He lived for more than two decades in the US, where he held a professorship in genetics at Yale and Duke universities, and advocated non-violent resistance to Israeli occupation and apartheid.
In the early 2000s and until 2006, he led a bus tour of US colleges, schools, mosques and churches to call for an end of the occupations of Palestine and Iraq. “In my view the way to solve this problem is through a simple one word thing: justice. If you have justice, and you allow refugees to return, you bring peace. It happens everywhere in the world,” he said during a tour.
Upon returning to Bethlehem in 2008, he established a genetics laboratory to treat cancer patients. He was arrested twice by Israeli forces, once for protesting the destruction of farmland by an Israeli bulldozer in Al Walaja, a village outside Bethlehem in 2010, and during Nakba day protests the following year.
He and his wife founded two educational institutions dedicated to nature conservation in Bethlehem: the Palestine Museum of Natural History opened officially in 2017, and the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University, was established in 2014 with a $250,000 donation from the couple.
Prof Qumsiyeh has called for one democratic state where Jews and Palestinians live together with equal rights, and which draws on the South African post-apartheid model. He outlined his vision for this in book Sharing the Canaanite Land (Pluto, 2008), and co-wrote a Declaration for a One-State Solution with academics including Israeli historian Ilan Pappe in 2007.
Mairead Corrigan Maguire, whose peace activism in Northern Ireland won her the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize nominated Prof Qumsiyah this week, praising the “enduring legacy” of the Wheels of Justice tour.
The nomination comes after criticism that last year’s award had not been given to those calling for an end to Israel's military campaign in Gaza.
Toshiyuki Mimaki, a member of the grass roots movement of atom bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki that was awarded the 2023 peace prize last October, said he’d thought “those fighting hard for peace in Gaza would deserve it”. He said “the images of children in Gaza covered with blood held by their parents” reminded him of Japan during WWII and in the aftermath of the bomb.
Heads of state, cabinet ministers, international jurists, university professors and Laureates are among those who can nominate a person for the prize. But the selection process itself is shrouded in secrecy, despite the annual public speculation about who could win.
Ms Maguire became a laureate in 1976 for bringing together thousands of Protestant and Catholic women in Northern Ireland together to march for peace, after three of her sister’s children were killed. “I have great pleasure in nominating Prof. Mazin Qumsiyeh for the 2025 Nobel peace prize. I have met professor Mazin and have followed his inspiring peace work for many decades,” she wrote.
Long record
While in the US in the 1980s and 1990s, he was involved in several civic rights organisations including the leadership committee of the Palestinian American Congress.
He co-founded the Triangle Middle East Dialogue and the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, which advocates for Palestinian return. He organised some of Washington DC’s largest demonstrations for the Palestinian cause, drawing in thousands – numbers only surpassed last year in response to the current Israeli military campaign in Gaza.
He was awarded the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee’s Raymond Jallow award in 1997, and the University of Alabama’s Peace and Justice Studies Award in 2011. He won the Takreem Award for Sustainability and Environmental Leadership in 2020.
He lectures at the universities of Bir Zeit in Ramallah and Bethlehem, and is a regular speaker on environmental issues and biodiversity conservation in Palestine.
Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015
- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany
- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people
- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed
- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest
- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
New UK refugee system
- A new “core protection” for refugees moving from permanent to a more basic, temporary protection
- Shortened leave to remain - refugees will receive 30 months instead of five years
- A longer path to settlement with no indefinite settled status until a refugee has spent 20 years in Britain
- To encourage refugees to integrate the government will encourage them to out of the core protection route wherever possible.
- Under core protection there will be no automatic right to family reunion
- Refugees will have a reduced right to public funds
UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FIXTURES
All kick-off times 10.45pm UAE ( 4 GMT) unless stated
Tuesday
Sevilla v Maribor
Spartak Moscow v Liverpool
Manchester City v Shakhtar Donetsk
Napoli v Feyenoord
Besiktas v RB Leipzig
Monaco v Porto
Apoel Nicosia v Tottenham Hotspur
Borussia Dortmund v Real Madrid
Wednesday
Basel v Benfica
CSKA Moscow Manchester United
Paris Saint-Germain v Bayern Munich
Anderlecht v Celtic
Qarabag v Roma (8pm)
Atletico Madrid v Chelsea
Juventus v Olympiakos
Sporting Lisbon v Barcelona
If you go
The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly direct to Nairobi, with fares starting from Dh1,695. The resort can be reached from Nairobi via a 35-minute flight from Wilson Airport or Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, or by road, which takes at least three hours.
The rooms
Rooms at Fairmont Mount Kenya range from Dh1,870 per night for a deluxe room to Dh11,000 per night for the William Holden Cottage.
Squid Game season two
Director: Hwang Dong-hyuk
Stars: Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon and Lee Byung-hun
Rating: 4.5/5
The specs: 2019 Haval H6
Price, base: Dh69,900
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 197hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 315Nm @ 2,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.0L / 100km
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Results
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 1,200m. Winner: Majd Al Megirat, Sam Hitchcott (jockey), Ahmed Al Shehhi (trainer)
5.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m. Winner: Dassan Da, Patrick Cosgrave, Helal Al Alawi
6pm: Abu Dhabi Fillies Classic Prestige (PA) Dh110,000 (T) 1,400m. Winner: Heba Al Wathba, Richard Mullen, Jean de Roualle
6.30pm: Abu Dhabi Colts Classic Prestige (PA) Dh110,000 (T) 1,400m. Winner: Hameem, Adrie de Vries, Abdallah Al Hammadi
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 2,200m. Winner: Jawal Al Reef, Richard Mullen, Ahmed Al Mehairbi
Handicap (TB) Dh100,000 (T) 2,200m. Winner: Harbour Spirit, Adrie de Vries, Jaber Ramadhan.
FIXTURES
All times UAE ( 4 GMT)
Friday
Saint-Etienne v Montpellier (10.45pm)
Saturday
Monaco v Caen (7pm)
Amiens v Bordeaux (10pm)
Angers v Toulouse (10pm)
Metz v Dijon (10pm)
Nantes v Guingamp (10pm)
Rennes v Lille (10pm)
Sunday
Nice v Strasbourg (5pm)
Troyes v Lyon (7pm)
Marseille v Paris Saint-Germain (11pm)
Silent Hill f
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Rating: 4.5/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Washmen Profile
Date Started: May 2015
Founders: Rami Shaar and Jad Halaoui
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Laundry
Employees: 170
Funding: about $8m
Funders: Addventure, B&Y Partners, Clara Ventures, Cedar Mundi Partners, Henkel Ventures
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Groom and Two Brides
Director: Elie Semaan
Starring: Abdullah Boushehri, Laila Abdallah, Lulwa Almulla
Rating: 3/5
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
UAE%20SQUAD
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David Haye record
Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
