 Hello sir, good evening Prime Minister sir. How are you? Very well, 58 days on the motorcycle, I'm still alive so I must be good. Well, I would like very much to salute you for the spirit of resistance and for what you are doing to say soil of earth. This is not the first time that I see you, I have seen some of your videos and I have realized that I am talking to an exceptional man who is a medical doctor in a way and a sociologist, an environmentalist but on top of all a philosopher. So I congratulate you on what makes you really and I appreciate the wisdom that is enclaving your mind. This is something that is very important to us and also it is not really strange for an Indian man to become a philosopher. That is where philosophy was born anyhow, it was not born in Greece, it was born maybe earlier than the Greek philosophers but anyhow. So I wish you all the best and my full support and I take your initiative seriously and I should tell you one important thing. I was having like five, six years ago, I was talking to an Indian group of activists and one word I kept using is that referring to Palestinians under occupation that we are attached to our land and I keep saying that we are the sons of the soil and these settlers who come from Brooklyn and who come from other places, there is no way you can bring a plant from Siberia and plant it in Palestine, it does not work. We are the sons of the soil and therefore we are the organic product of our soil and of our land. So it is good that you are reminding the whole world of what does it mean to really preserve the soil as source of food for people because you are 100% right. It is not the Ukraine crisis that is going and the chain supply that is going to affect food supply. It is also that the earth is will not be able to produce enough organic products enough food for seven more than seven billion people. So land is shrinking and people are growing. Soil is shrinking and people are growing. In our case it is so sad to tell you that the aggressive settler colonialism has caused incredible damage to our environment. It is sad to tell you that 2.5 million trees have been abrooted by the Israeli settlers since 1967 when Palestine became under occupation. So that this is really something that's worth mentioning to you and maybe I should also I'm 100% in full support with what you called for change the narrative. I think it is very important that we don't only change narrative but it is also important that we change mindsets the way we perceive things. We should not take things for granted. A lot of people take things for granted you know food should be there drinking water is always available. It is not. We will face serious challenges on drinking water, on availability of soil, organic products. Human beings should not live on hormones or fruits or vegetables injected by hormones. You know you put a cucumber in the fridge and it keeps growing because it is full of hormones under a humid conditions and so on. And also my dear friend maybe you know when when I was told that I will talk to you I thought okay this this man as a philosopher also the issue for us is not only about soil and earth and so on. I should also bring to your attention very important issue which is you know the Dead Sea is we we have 38 kilometers of shores of the Dead Sea as Palestine. The rest on the east side is Jordan and other parts is the Israeli occupation side. You know the Dead Sea will have no water at all. It will fully and totally dry up by 2044 according to estimates of experts. So we are really facing serious damages. Dead Sea it means minerals, it means history, it means the lowest water point on earth and so on and so forth. So this is also something that needs extra attention in your exercise and in your effort to really bring attention to what is happening in the world. Also maybe I should last thing I should tell you that we are fully engaged here in Palestine in land reclamation to avoid political desertification. What do I mean by that? Political desertification is the Israeli construction of Jewish settlements on the land on fertile soil on on our mountains on everywhere and that is really damaging our environment and creating serious problem that land in Palestine is shrinking and the settlers are taking our source of livelihood. You know and that's my last point to you. You know Muslims in general they believe in one thing that God created a human being out of salsal and salsal is actually something similar to clay and clay is made of soil so that you know if there is a maybe if there will be no soil or enough soil maybe human creatures will shrink also but this is something that I will leave to your fertile mind to elaborate on that. I salute you and I respect your initiative and my full support of what is needed from the Palestinian side to support you. I'm ready to do that so all the best. Thank you very much sir and it's a pleasure and a privilege to be talking to you when we were passing through Palestine we had about five to six hours we thought we will engage with you or somebody in your government but unfortunately we got stuck in the security for almost six seven hours so it got late and because of that we had to leave. Anyway what I would like to say sir I know the political situations whatever that is geopolitical aspects is not in my power to change that but I would like to tell people of Palestine that whatever the political situation today may not be the same thing tomorrow but the most important thing is we must keep our lands alive for future generations keeping it alive essentially means keeping the soil rich and alive because politics will change national boundaries will change but the soil has to be alive because that is a fundamental responsibility we hold for our children and future generations beyond them. So in this context it is very important the Palestinian soil which has been feeding these people for thousands of years and just a few decades ago nearly 90 percent of your economy itself was agriculture unfortunately it has shrunk now for whatever reasons but the important thing is no matter which nation we belong to no matter what kind of strife or troubles we are going through this is something we have to do as human beings that we keep our soil alive because soil is not our property it's come to us from previous generations we must pass it on as a living soil for future generations. You were talking about water sir I would like to tell you that right now by somewhere between 2032-2035 it is expected 3.5 billion people will be water stressed and this will lead to massive migrations over 1 billion people in the world could migrate because of water stress 3.5 billion people without the needed water is a calamity that you cannot imagine but that is just 10 years away from us so turning the soil around is a fundamental responsibility as you know it's not in my this thing to you know give you any political advice because you are in the thick of that and I know Palestinian people have fought for so long for their rights I hope that gets resolved but whichever way whatever our other conditions are we must keep our soil alive because that is where future life will come from. Well I mean for sure for sure this is something I mean that you took the initiative I'm sure that you will receive support from everybody who do people who do really care about I mean the way you handling it is not an environmental issue the way you're handling it is also a source of living a source of income and survival I mean you're talking about a survival of humanity and therefore this is something that of should be of an international orchestrated effort and I think the attention you are drawing by covering 70,000 kilometers of travel here and there to bring attention of people I think we appreciate that we support that but maybe we need more than you know a foundation like yours and I think you need an orchestrated effort United Nation should adopt this sort of thing and you know people are going to stock home in June early June which is an extension of the climate change so there has to be you know I think you will be able to come to stock home to speak about your initiative. COP15 happened in Ivory Coast I was there for two days and we definitely got the attention of all the 197 nations one thing I would like to you know this is something I'm trying to bring into everybody's awareness and consciousness is see as human beings are based on our nationalities race religion caste creed in so many ways we have tried to separate ourselves but even if we people do not understand what is this all inclusive consciousness or whatever at least we must understand we all come from the same soil we eat of the same soil when we die we go back to the same soil so I feel soil is a common factor for all of us no matter what has happened till now no matter how confrontational somebody is and conflicts have happened because of that but it's important that we don't forget we come from the same soil and we go back to the same soil so using this as a common factor as a common denominator I feel there is some possibility of solving situations in our lives because as generations pass if we continue the same conflicts unfortunately the future generations will suffer so this save soil moment one thing is it's an ecological moment but also it would be wonderful if people use it as a unifying factor among people disputes will always be there disagreements will be there but how we conduct this disputes and disagreements is very important if we see a common threat among ourselves probably we will handle it little differently hopefully we'll handle differently and it is my wish and my blessing that Palestine should see peace and prosperity I there are many people from Palestine who are with us in our centers both in India and United States and it's very unfortunate that they have to be spread out all over the world without being in their own homelands hope this will come to some kind of solution but above all till that happens we must make sure our soil is rich and alive because that could be the most valuable thing in the next few decades very good I think I mean in the video that I have seen you called for you know soil without organics become sand and sand with organics become soil and I think that is really a very important statement on your side because this opens the whole research on earth environment science technology to be directed towards deserts if I can tell you this in the last 27 years we have converted a few hundred thousand farmers into what is called as tree-based agriculture and revived soils in southern India based on this we are working in a particular river basin which is 83,000 square kilometers of land and 5.2 million farmers live and work here this is a massive project that we're doing so looking at the success of that only the five united nation agencies are partnering with us today looking at the success of this the government of India made a detailed project report in total as we are doing the project for 13 river basins and now just this year about month month and a half ago government of India allocated 2.3 billion dollars towards these 13 river basins these 13 river basins put together will account for 67% of India's land so if these 13 river basins are revived in the next eight to 12 years time as we have done in one river basin then in many ways India's soil will be above breast and I will definitely talk to UN CCD who are our close partners to see how these kind of projects can be initiated in Palestine you can also appeal to them Ibrahim Tiaw is a very committed person right now they are in a convention in Ivory Coast I was there for two days and just came here so we can definitely take this ahead and after this is over we're setting up a panel of 25 scientists who will hand hold small nations to fulfill this we have committed to carry combinations in Caribbean region to do this also definitely we can engage Palestine in this area particularly through the UN agencies I feel in Palestine considering the political situations it's best that UN agencies involve rather than a private foundation very good I mean we have really all UN agencies are functioning and working in Palestine UNDP UNFPA United Nations I mean nearly every UN agency is actually here and I take the idea that you propose that Palestine will be part of this I welcome that and we are ready to engage with this initiative whatever needed to engage us I will be more than happy to do that thank you very much sir thank you for your generosity and giving your time for this I hope to visit you in the near future sometime and spend some time in Palestine with all of you thank you very much I wish you all the best and keep the good work going I salute you your energy and your dedication all the best thank you sir namaskar assalamu alaikum bye bye