Greens Engage

The latest Environmental Peacemaking bulletin and cheap politics on the Dead Sea.

“FoEME is calling for the reform/replacement of the Joint Water Committee with a new body where Palestinians and Israelis are true partners in both water supply and management responsibilities.  FoEME is producing a new report on the issue of Israeli / Palestinian official water cooperation that will review the different reports of the Water Authorities and the World Bank.

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FoEME continued to promote cross border peace building efforts, focusing on the tourism sector, by inviting Israeli and Palestinian tour guides and tour operators, as well as active adults from several participating “Good Water Neighbors” communities to visit the project’s Neighbors Paths in Southern Jordan.

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At the annual EU Green Week conference, on June 23-26, an important session on Climate Change took place in Brussels, with FoEME’s Jordanian Director, Munqeth Mehyar speaking under the title “The Mediterranean Region, a Climate Change Hot Spot”.

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Friends of the Earth Middle East organized 2 events on June 4, one in Ramallah and one in Tel Aviv, for the launching of a new report “Rising Temperatures, Rising Tensions” written by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), an independent Canadian environment and development research institute.

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There’s more to read. The bulletin (should be available on the site in the next few days):

And cheap politics:

Dead Sea Subject to Cheap Politics

June 30, 2009
Tel Aviv

Statements made this past weekend by Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Development Mr. Silvan Shalom, that the World Bank has approved a $1.25 Billion pilot plan of the proposed Red-Dead Canal, and the response yesterday of the World Bank citing that no agreement on funding has been reached, highlights that politicians are using the Red Dead Canal project for their own political image and not out of concern for the Dead Sea.

FoEME deplores the cheap politics that the Red-Dead project seems to attract.

Gidon Bromberg, Israeli Director of Friends of the Earth Middle East, says “the actions of these last days emphasize the need for greater integrity to be shown by all sides. Commitments previously made must be kept, such as the commitment of the Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian parties, together with the World Bank, to undertake a study of alternatives to the Red-Dead Canal as a means to saving the Dead Sea.”

Despite this pledge made over a year ago, the parties have failed to launch the Alternative Study, nor have they been able to agree on its Terms of Reference. Additionally, the public was assured that the World Bank would create a high-level panel of experts that would oversee the integrity of all studies being implemented by the World Bank. These obligations have not been met.

FoEME is calling on the World Bank to declare to the parties that either an Independent Alternative Study be launched and a high-level panel created immediately, or that the World Bank withdraws from the project.

For more information, please contact:

Gidon Bromberg – Israeli Director, FoEME; gidon@foeme.org +972-52-4532597
Mira Edelstein – Foreign Media Officer; mira@foeme.org; +972-54-6392937

Israelis and Palestinians have a common enemy.

And like many other shared problems in the region, fighting it requires links, not boycotts supported by a far-away Green Party.

Good Water Neighbours and a Model Water Agreement – see FoEME’s May 09 newsletter.

Congratulations are in order for EcoPeace / Friends of the Earth Middle East. See the Friends of the Earth Middle East site for the full press release:

“EcoPeace / Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) today announced it is the recipient of a three-year, $750,000 award from the Skoll Foundation to expand its cross border community based activities and deepen its organizational capacity to advance water and peace issues in the Middle East.

The award is one of seven new Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship presented by the Skoll Foundation to recognize the most innovative and sustainable approaches to resolving the world’s most urgent social issues. EcoPeace / Friends of the Earth Middle East joins a prestigious global network of Skoll entrepreneurs, now numbering 72 and representing 59 organizations, who are working around the world on issues including tolerance and human rights, health, economic and social equity, peace and security, institutional responsibility, and environmental sustainability.

FoEME’s unique innovation is the development of a shared regional vision to respond to the demise of the region’s transboundary natural ecosystems. These include the Dead Sea, the Jordan River, the Mountain and Coastal Aquifers, and the effects of Climate Change on the water resources in our region. FoEME’s model employs a combined “top-down” (advocacy) strategy and a “bottom-up” (grass roots / community) strategy, where through the “Good Water Neighbors” community project, activities are carried out in all sectors of society – youth, adults and municipalities – to get our message across at a grass roots level.

“In the midst of conflict, we have produced very tangible results. All of the key issues that the organization has led are on the local, national, regional and often international agenda”, said Munqeth Mehyar FoEME’s Jordanian Director. “Not only will the Skoll support enable us to simply do more and do it more effectively, but the recognition given will help open news doors of influence,” he further stated.

“In these tough times, it’s particularly important to recognize those exemplary organizations that tackle the world’s most pressing social and economic challenges and deliver real change,” said Sally Osberg, president and CEO of the Skoll Foundation. “We’re pleased to welcome the three Directors of EcoPeace / Friends of the Earth Middle East; Gidon Bromberg, Munqeth Mehyar and Nader Khateeb to the community of Skoll social entrepreneurs. Friends of the Earth Middle East is supporting systemic change in the areas of environmental sustainability and peace and security. Its innovative approach will bring great new ideas and new points of leverage into the ecosystem of Skoll social entrepreneurs working around the globe to create a world in which we all want to live.”

Gidon Bromberg, Munqeth Mehyar and Nader Khateeb were presented the award by Skoll Foundation Chairman Jeff Skoll, Skoll Foundation President and CEO, Sally Osberg and special guest, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. R. K. Pachauri, at a ceremony on March 26 at the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University. Gidon Bromberg, Munqeth Mehyar and Nader Khateeb participated in the three-day World Forum along with over 700 attendees from the global social entrepreneurship community.

About Friends of the Earth Middle East:
EcoPeace / Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) (www.foeme.org) is a unique organization that brings together Jordanian, Palestinian, and Israeli environmentalists. Our primary objective is the promotion of cooperative efforts to protect our shared environmental heritage. In so doing, we seek to advance both sustainable regional development and the creation of necessary conditions for lasting peace in our region. FoEME has offices in Amman, Bethlehem, and Tel-Aviv. FoEME is a member of Friends of the Earth International, the largest grassroots environmental organization in the world.

About the Skoll Foundation:
The Skoll Foundation was created in 1999 by eBay’s first president, Jeff Skoll, to promote his vision of a more peaceful and prosperous world. Today, the Skoll Foundation advances systemic change to benefit communities around the world by investing in, connecting and celebrating social entrepreneurs – individuals dedicated to innovative, bottom-up solutions that transform unequal and unjust social, environmental and economic systems.

The Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship is the foundation’s flagship program. There are currently 59 organizations represented by 72 remarkable social entrepreneurs in the program, working individually and together across regions, countries and continents to deliver positive, sustainable change. The Skoll Foundation connects social entrepreneurs and other partners in the field via an online community at www.socialedge.org and through the annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. The foundation also celebrates social entrepreneurs by telling their stories through partnerships with the PBS Foundation and the Sundance Institute, with the goal of promoting large-scale public awareness of social entrepreneurship.

For more information, visit www.skollfoundation.org.”

Read Green Prophet.

“As if to add to their current misery, the 1.5 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip are now facing an acute water shortage due to ground water contamination. These findings were made in a research project recently conducted by three Gaza academics: Dr. Ziad Abu Hein, head of Environment and Earth Sciences Department at the Islamic University in Gaza, Dr. Khalil Tbeil, lecturer at the Faculty of Agriculture at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, and Dr Midhat Abu An-Na’im, of the Geology Department at Al-Azhar University.

The three scientists published their findings in a research paper which received an award at a competition sponsored by the Saudi government’s Sultan Bin Abdul-Aziz research competition and submitted to a conference on water conservation being held in Egypt, where the paper won a third place award.

The three scientists were not allowed to attend the conference, however due to the blockade being imposed on Gaza by both Egypt and Israel.”

See the Gisha/PHR report on freedom of movement for Gazans, and read on at Green Prophet for an overview of Gaza’s needs.

Gershon Baskin is the CEO of the Israel-Palestine Centre for Research and Information, and is also running as a candidate on the Israel Green Movement’s list for the Knesset in the upcoming elections.

In the Jerusalem Post, he writes firmly of the need for the Israeli water negotiators to depart from an “occupation mindset” and cooperate with the more enlightened head of the Palestinian Water Authority:

“The water negotiations between the sides are still controlled by Israelis who are stuck in a mind-set of continued occupation. Uri Shani, the head of the Water Authority, is a professional, non-politician who was appointed by Tzipi Livni to head the water negotiations with the Palestinians. In reality, the talks are controlled by Noah Kinarti and Baruch Nagar. Kinarti is an old-time kibbutznik, a friend of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, who holds fast to the old Zionist ideology of control and occupation. He is stuck in the Zionist ethos of making the desert bloom (which everyone now knows is no magic – all you need is to waste huge quantities of water) and for him every drop of water in Israel is Jewish water, Zionist water and if we compromise, we are compromising on our very existence. Nagar is essentially the water commissioner of the West Bank – he is in charge of protecting the interests of the settlers in the West Bank who enjoy about seven times per capita more water than the Palestinian majority who live there. Kinarti and Nagar are the commissars who make sure that the liberal minded Shani does not give in to the logical and reasonable approach taken by the Palestinian water negotiators.

THE HEAD of the Palestinian Water Authority, Dr. Shaddad Attili, presents an approach to water that diverts from the traditional Palestinian approach of demanding that Israel recognizes Palestinian water rights, which usually translates into the entire mountain aquifer – or all of the water underneath the West Bank. Attili speaks about the need to develop joint water management that takes responsibility for supply, demand, conservation, planning and development. He makes the logical claim that in this small piece of land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, all of the water resources are shared. The water flows underground in the aquifers without any regard for political borders. There is no Green Line on the aquifers. How can anyone justify that Israelis and Palestinians should have such extremely different amounts of water available to them.

It is true that in this joint water pool that we share, there is a zero-sum game. Whatever one side gets is at the expense of the other. Today when the water deficit is more than one full year of rainfall, division of the water resources or it reallocation is a reallocation of the deficit. If we fight over water, everyone loses. Instead, if we cooperate, everyone can benefit.

Cooperation means changing the “hard disk” in our minds regarding the Palestinians. The occupation mind-set that guides the talks on water led by Kinarti and Nagar can only lead to bad agreements or to conflicts. It simple terms – “it’s the occupation – stupid!” There can be no agreement with the Palestinians with that attitude, not on water, and not on any other issue on the negotiating table.”

Read it all.

From The Media Line, a substantial piece exploring the regional water shortages, an inadequate response complicated by the occupation, and possible solutions.

From Friends of the Earth Middle East (who would suffer badly from any Green Israel boycott) via Green Prophet:

Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian Mayors meet to discuss the Regional Water Crisis

The meeting will take place in Baka Gharbia, at Al Kasemi College, in the framework of the “Good Water Neighbors” project and the “Pro-Aquifer” project.

November 25-26, 2008

“The Water Crisis – Community Leadership”

Nov. 23, 2008

Against the backdrop of the severe water crisis in our region, Friends of the Earth Middle East is convening its fifth annual conference of Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian mayors. The purpose of this year’s meeting and panel discussion is to deepen understanding of the different implications of the crisis on the three peoples. The mayors will share their different experiences and the efforts undertaken in their local community to address the crisis.

“While in Israel they are reducing agricultural water quotas, in the Palestinian village of Auja , the entire agricultural sector has come to a complete halt, due to the drying of the Auja Stream. As a result, residents are left without any source of income,” states Nader Khateeb, Palestinian Director of Friends of the Earth Middle East.

In light of the failures in water management on the national level, the ability of the mayors and local leaders to find solutions to the water crisis takes on a greater sense of urgency.

Gidon Bromberg, Israeli Director of Friends of the Earth Middle East, says that “while the national leadership seeks supply-side solutions such as desalination of sea water and various canals, the local leadership which experiences the impact directly, is focused on demand-side management; conservation and wise water use.”

The conference is being organized by Friends of the Earth Middle East, with the participation of the Ambassador of the EU delegation to the State of Israel, the Director of the United States Agency for International Development, diplomats, mayors, community leaders and residents from the participating communities of the “Good Water Neighbors” project.

The conference will present creative ideas for community empowerment, including the use of the latest GIS technology and will release a publication on ways to alleviate groundwater pollution to the shared Israeli and Palestinian water resource of the Mountain Aquifer.

Participating Communities:

• Israeli GWN communities: Jordan Valley RC, Beit She’an City & Beit She’an Valley RC, Tamar RC,
• Emek Hefer RC, Eshkol RC, Tsur Hadassah, Baka el Gharbiya – Jat
• Palestinian GWN communities: Auja, Jericho , Wadi Fukin, Tulkarm, Baka el Sharkiya, Abassan
• Jordanian GWN communities: Muaz bin Jabal, Tabket Fahel, Deir Allah, South Ghors

The conference is being supported by USAID, the EU Life Third Countries program, Green Cross France and the Goldman Fund.

For more information: Mira Edelstein, FoEME foreign media officer, 054-6392937

On Project Syndicate, Vaclav Havel et al write:

“The situation may be more promising than it appears, but one cannot deny that hope for real changes on the ground has faded since talks were re-launched two years ago. This loss of faith is, sadly, establishing a dynamic that will itself inhibit the concessions that are needed if a permanent agreement is to be found.

Because an impasse beckons, it is vitally important to work on those areas where intensive negotiations have the potential to produce quick results. Fresh water is one such area.

Across the Middle East, water is a security issue. Indeed, people are now recognizing two important facts. First, nations faced with conflicting claims to water have historically found ways to collaborate rather than to fight. Even during the 60 years of conflict in the Jordan Valley, water has more often been a source of cooperation than of conflict.

Second, water scarcity is seldom absolute, and even less often an explanation of poverty. To quote the United Nations Human Development Report for 2006: “There is more than enough water in the world for domestic purposes, for agriculture and for industry….Scarcity is manufactured through political processes and institutions that disadvantage the poor.”

But almost every nation in the Middle East is using more water than arrives on a renewable basis. There simply is not enough water for everything these nations want to use it for, and the situation will only worsen. Yet, even in Palestine, the key water issue is not thirst, but arrested economic development. In the short term, Palestine needs more water to provide employment and income from farming; in the longer term, educational, cultural, and political changes are needed in order to develop a capacity to adapt.”

Read it all.

Israelis and Palestinians are working on it.

It’s been a while since I posted news of Israeli and Palestinian collaboration on solving a shared environmental problem – here’s news of high level work amongst international water experts on one of the critical outstanding issues for Israelis and Palestinians – a joint redefinition of water needs. (The ‘Peres’ in the ‘Peres Centre for Peace‘ is the Israeli President, Shimon Peres). The consensus is:

• There is a basic human need for water resources of approximately 60 m3 per capita per year for human health, hygiene and running a water efficient economy that permits sufficient social and economic development to allow progress towards providing all people with a high quality of life.
• After this basic human need has been met, priority must be given to providing water for base flows in rivers and streams to prevent ecosystem collapse, and water for livelihoods for vulnerable groups that lack any alternative economic opportunities.
• Water surplus to these basic needs must be allocated between nations on an equitable basis, and subsequently allocated to economic uses relating to such production activities as those nations choose through their own internal processes, while taking into consideration principles of economic efficiency, social equity, environmental sustainability and international water law.

More work is needed on the principles of allocation, and this is related to the still-awaited final status agreement:

Oren Blonder from The Peres Center for Peace summarized:“ The purpose of the Water Needs in Middle East Initiative is to identify and agree upon possible definitions of water needs. Once these definitions will be elucidated, they will be used by Israeli and Palestinian experts, assembled by Green Cross and the Peres Center for Peace, together with the Jerusalem Institute and Palestinian Hydrology Group, to formulate water need scenarios for Israel/Palestine“. Upon completion of the research, a final conference will be held in Paris and the potential outcomes resulting from the project will be examined, as will the potential effects of the project on the revival of the Palestinian and Israeli water sectors. The results of this research will play an instrumental role in the final status negotiations.