Peace ambassador from Palestine – Sumaya Farhat-Naser in Switzerland

It was a great honour to see the woman with the open face, clear eyes and upright posture again at a lecture in Switzerland in May: Dr Sumaya Farhat-Naser, a scientist and peace educator from Palestine, spoke in her incorruptible, deeply humane manner about the horror and fear that the Palestinian people have to endure every day, and what she sees as the only possible path to the future. Having studied in Hamburg as a young woman, she speaks excellent German and can give her lectures in Switzerland, Germany and Austria without translation. This means there is no language barrier.

Ms Farhat-Naser reports:
Palestine and the Middle East

In war, boundaries of action can be crossed and facts created to an extent that would otherwise be unimaginable. The war in Palestine is the vehicle for establishing the New Middle East.
  These are by no means conspiracy theories, but real existing strategies. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu publicly presented the planned New Middle East – without Palestine! – on a map before the UN General Assembly in early autumn 2023. This war is therefore not just a “regional” war, but also involves constant bombardments and massacres by the Israeli military in neighbouring Lebanon and Syria, as well as land grabs far beyond previous borders. Above all, however, it serves the unspeakably brutal encirclement, destruction and murder of the Palestinian people in the occupied Gaza Strip and, increasingly, in the West Bank. For the Palestinian population should no longer stand in the way of plans to occupy and appropriate the entire country for Israel alone. Netanyahu does not want peace.
  7 October 2023 offered an opportunity to implement these plans. Hamas had hoped that its disastrous attack and the leverage provided by the hostage-taking would lead to rapid negotiations. But they were mistaken. The Israeli government’s plan of annihilation is now being openly implemented – also in the interests of the West and local actors.
  Currently, the north of the area is being emptied, but refugees will not be allowed to stay in the south either – they, the once free inhabitants, owners of the land for centuries, face a life in fenced-off reservations – wherever they may be, guarded and controlled by unspeakable means of AI (eye scanning). Only those who have never expressed criticism of Israel will be granted access to the reservations. The current plan is that an American security company will take over surveillance. The administration of the Gaza Strip is to be taken over by Palestinian administrators under the supervision of an American governor. In these reservations, the Palestinian people can then vegetate for as long as they can endure it, until they finally “voluntarily” seek another “place to stay”.

Land, power and business

It’s about land, power and business: war is also a business, the huge business of military equipment supplied to Israel, with the USA in first place and Germany in second. But the large gas reserves off the coast of the Gaza Strip can then also be exploited and further geostrategic interests pursued unhindered.
  What has been sacrificed for this – for power and business? Officially, more than 80,000 people have died in the Gaza Strip – but hundreds of thousands more, who will never be counted, lie buried beneath the rubble of schools, universities, hospitals, shops, homes, government buildings, museums and archives. How many children are among them? Approximately 30,000 fighters are in the underground tunnels with 59 hostages, 24 of whom are still alive. These people are also to be sacrificed; they must not be allowed to hinder Israel’s land grab. Hamas has repeatedly offered to release these hostages, but Netanyahu needs them as a reason to continue the destruction.
  This killing, which South Africa has charged as genocide, is also spreading to the West Bank. The Palestinian ‘government’ there is completely incompetent, paralysed and forced to carry out the orders of the occupying military authorities. Corruption is widespread, and no elections have been held for 19 years. It offers its population no protection whatsoever, but cooperates with the Israeli military authorities.

West Bank Prison

Life in the fragmented West Bank has become even more difficult since 7 October 2023. Israel has already been collecting tax and customs revenues that it is supposed to pass on to the Palestinian Authority. Pensions and salaries are being withheld, with only about a third being paid out to the Palestinian Authority. As a result, they no longer have sufficient funds to pay wages and pensions. 65 per cent of all state employees and civil servants, including security personnel, depend on this money, including teachers, nurses and doctors. They have not been paid for months. Poverty is spreading. Unemployment in the West Bank has risen sharply because Palestinians no longer have access to their jobs in Israel.
  In everyday life in Palestine, the Israeli currency, the shekel, is in circulation. Therefore, money from abroad in other currencies can hardly be used. According to the agreements, the accumulated amounts of shekels should be converted into hard currency on a monthly basis and handed over to the Palestinian Authority. This is not happening on the grounds that Palestine would use this money for ‘terrorism’. As a result, necessary investments in infrastructure, imports and exports cannot be initiated.
  Other daily hardships include the separate water and road systems in Palestine, which function well for Israelis but much less so for Palestinians. Only Israeli cars are allowed on the well-developed roads, as indicated by their number plates. Palestinian drivers often have to take time-consuming detours and undergo checks on bumpy roads.
  Freedom of movement is severely restricted. Day and night nine hundred iron gates block access to neighbouring towns, to schools for children, to a hospital. These gates open at absurd, irregular times, for example only in the evening, to torment people and prevent them from going to work or school. Social life is severely restricted, children see no future, and they no longer know why they should study.
  The constant, unpunished land grabbing by fanatical settlers in the West Bank continues unabated. It is further facilitated by their armament. Half a million settlers now form a paramilitary group that does not shy away from violence. The settlers do not act independently, but according to a plan and implementation methods specified by the Ministry of Settlements. They are heavily armed, destroy houses, burn fields, uproot and destroy trees, and chase away the population, especially the shepherds and nomads with their animals, who are the main source of milk and meat products. This usually happens under the protection of the military.

What remains to be done?

And yet: the Palestinians grew up here, their culture is interwoven with their land and their lives there, and they want to stay with every fibre of their being, as is their right. For many years, Ms Farhat-Naser’s concern has been to empower people and give them inner strength. After completing her studies in botany, she taught at Birzeit University here in the West Bank together with her husband. As the situation became increasingly dire, she decided to give up this work and focus on her peace efforts. Together with others in Jerusalem, she was able to establish a centre for Palestinian and Israeli women, where people separated by walls and fences could finally meet and learn to understand each other. She has also been running courses on non-violent interaction in schools for many years, so that deep-seated fear does not turn into depression or hatred in the Israeli-occupied territories. In this way, she can alleviate feelings of hopelessness, especially among young people, preserve humanity and sow seeds of hope. In her books¹, she gives impressive accounts of this with many concrete examples.

Resistance also in Israel

The ensuing discussion also focused on the Israeli side. How do people there cope with living in such a state? Ms Farhat-Naser reported growing resistance. Many traumatised soldiers refuse to respond to a new call-up. Their protest was recently reported in our media. But numerous civilians, especially in the healthcare sector, are also lodging opposition despite the threat of sanctions, such as cuts in wages or pensions. Now, the occupation itself is being fundamentally questioned. Resistance within Israel is growing.

Demand freedom of expression

Participants from Germany reported that open discussion among themselves was virtually impossible. Statements made by individual citizens were not published. One participant expressed her deep concern about the report, but did not stop there. She referred to the long ordeal of the Australian whistle blower Julian Assange. Without the thousands of statements and efforts made by people from all over the world, he would have had no way out of prison. It was only through public pressure that he was finally released. “We must not give up hope; I refuse to remain silent,” she said. It should be added here that journalists such as Karin Leukefeld and Michael Lüders are also breaking this oppressive silence in their publications.²

Nobel Peace Prize
for Ms Farhat-Naser

Ms Farhat-Naser’s life in occupied Palestine is exemplary: she has always stood by her convictions, borne witness to the suffering of Palestine and built up her peace work for her fellow human beings. She can look at herself in the mirror. Today, she enjoys the freedom of old age and can travel and speak more freely because women of her age are no longer considered dangerous. Thanks to her excellent language skills, she can talk about her country and its ancient culture in German-speaking countries and call for peace as the only solution to this horrific aberration. The people of Palestine and Israel have both been destined by God to live in this land. War makes coexistence impossible, yet there is no other solution than to finally build a peaceful coexistence. After the horrors of war, this will take a long time.
  The speaker’s genuine compassion and dignity deeply moved her audience. Ms Farhat-Naser should have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize long ago, as a role model and as a signal to the global public. •

¹ Farhat-Naser, Sumaya. Ein Leben für den Frieden. Ein Lesebuch aus Palästina (A Life for Peace. A Reader from Palestine). Basel 2017
² Leukefeld, Karin. Krieg in Nahost. Geopolitik, Verwüstung, Widerstand und Aufbruch einer Region (War in the Middle East. Geopolitics, devastation, resistance and the awakening of a region). Berlin 2024; Lüders, Michael. Krieg ohne Ende? (War without end?), Munich 2024

* Sumaya Farhat Naser was born in Birzeit near Ramallah in the West Bank/Palestine in 1948 and lives there with her family. She studied biology, geography and education at the University of Hamburg and earned a doctorate in applied botany. After her marriage, she worked as a lecturer in botany and ecology at Birzeit University from 1982 onwards. From 1997 to 2001, she headed the Jerusalem Centre for Women. Dr Farhat-Naser is a co-founder and member of numerous organisations, including Woman Waging Peace (Harvard University) and the Global Fund for Women (San Francisco). She has gained international recognition for her many years of peace work, her projects with women and her courses for young people on non-violent conflict resolution. She regularly gives lectures in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The printed text refers to the lecture given on 10 May 2025 in Sirnach TG (Switzerland). She has published several books about her life in occupied Palestine and her peace projects with Lenos Publishing House Basel.