For the most up-to-date mention of the Arava Institute in the news, check out the articles below. Please note that the opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Arava Institute and its affiliates.
by Sue Surkes - The Times of Israel, December 16th, 2024: “Set up by the Arava Institute, in partnership with Shamsuna, the Atid educational network, and the ICA in Israel-Jewish Charitable Association, the site includes a greenhouse and comprises five off-grid facilities.”
by David Rullo - Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, December 3rd, 2024: “Tareq Abu Hamed believes the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies represents hope for the Middle East. 'We are a small model of how a sustainable Middle East can look, where people care, where people share the same concerns,' he said.”
by William Hilderbrandt - France24, November 17th, 2024: “Distractions were bigger than deals in the first week of United Nations climate talks, leaving a lot to be done, especially on the main issue of money. With wars in the Middle East and Europe and Donald Trump's re-election, is COP29 being overlooked? FRANCE 24's William Hilderbrandt asked Daved Lehrer, from Arava Institute for Environmental Studies.”
by JPost Editorial - The Jerusalem Post, November 12th, 2024: “This year alone, the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for its work in cross-border cooperation on environment issues. If that sort of initiative was pushed sincerely at the top levels of government, it could really make a difference – not to mention helping build stronger regional ties.”
by Francesca Fassbender & Udi Sommer - INSS, October 2024: “The Arava Institute, an environmental research organization, plays a crucial role in promoting collaboration between Palestinians, Jordanians, and Israelis.”
by Making Peace Visible, October 2024: “Our guest David Lehrer is Director of International Development at the Arava Institute, based at Kibbutz Keturah in Israel. He teaches there, and also heads up Arava's action arm, working with Palestinian partners to bring clean water, sanitation, and eco-friendly temporary housing to displaced people in Gaza -- among other projects.”
by Nir Hasson - Haaretz, October 15th, 2024: “In 2005, Dr. Elaine Solowey of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies at Kibbutz Ketura planted a date seed found during a dig at Masada 2,000 years after the fruit was eaten. The seed grew into a date palm named Methuselah.”
by Josie Glausiusz - Nature, October 7th, 2024: “The Arava Institute has partnered with Damour to provide enough solar panels, batteries, desalination equipment and wastewater treatment to serve all the needs of the displaced people, [Dr. David] Lehrer adds. They are awaiting approval from the Israeli army to bring equipment into Gaza.”
by Katie Hunt - CNN, October 3rd, 2024: “To germinate the specimen, study coauthor Dr. Elaine Solowey, a researcher emerita at the Center for Sustainable Agriculture at The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Israel, used a process perfected during previous research led by Sallon on 2,000-year-old date palm seeds. ”
by Toni Feder - Physics Today, October 1st, 2024: “Tareq Abu Hamed is a Palestinian Israeli from East Jerusalem. He was in high school in the late 1980s, during the first Intifada. Palestinian universities were closed, and tensions between Arabs and Jews in the region were high. He decided to study abroad, in Turkey. Today, he is the executive director of the nongovernmental Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in southern Israel.”
by Judy Siegel-Itzkovitch - Jerusalem Post, September 22nd, 2024: “In 2005, several of these ancient seeds were obtained by Sallon, who gave them to Dr. Elaine Solowey for germination and planting. Solowey, an expert on desert plants and sustainable agriculture at the Arava Institute of Environmental Science (AIES), lives on Kibbutz Ketura in the Arava.”
by Sue Surkes - The Times of Israel, September 18th, 2024: “On both occasions, Dr. Elaine Solowey, director of the Center for Sustainable Agriculture at the Arava Institute at Kibbutz Ketura in southern Israel, germinated the seeds.”
by Gianluca Pacchiani - The Times of Israel, September 6th, 2024: “Attendees were captivated by a presentation on water management solutions from Tareq Abu Hamed, the Palestinian director of the Arava Institute in the Negev, where Israeli, Palestinian, and Jordanian students study environmental sustainability together.”
by Nathalie Rozanes - +972, September 5th, 2024: “'In June, the Center for Applied Environmental Diplomacy at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies published an extensive new report on the environmental impact of Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza. The report covers myriad environmental harms of the war — from the vast amount of toxic dust released by bombing buildings, to the breakdown of waste management, and the destruction of water treatment facilities and proliferation of water-borne illnesses.”
by Esther D. Kustanowitz - eJewish Philanthropy, August 20, 2024: “'Helping innocent Palestinians in Gaza who are victims of this war — as are many Israelis — and who had no part in the atrocities of Oct. 7, is an expression of the Jewish value of tikkun olam,'” Kalikow said. “'At one of the darkest moments in Israel’s history, while our own brothers and sisters are suffering, our humanity is tested by our ability to recognize human suffering in the faces of our neighbors.'”
by Sue Surkes - The Times of Israel, August 9th, 2024: "Damour for Community Development and the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, the latter based in southern Israel, have a long track record of working together on such solutions in Gaza and the West Bank. In June, the two organizations launched Jumpstarting Hope in Gaza to meet some of the enclave’s water, sanitation, hygiene, and energy needs until large-scale rebuilding starts."
by Saqib Rahim - Grist, July 24th, 2024: "At the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, an educational center and think tank in southern Israel where Israelis, Palestinians, and others from abroad live, eat, and study together, students decided early in the war to complete the semester in each other’s company."
by Wilson Center Staff - New Security Beat, July 12th, 2024: "In today’s episode of New Security Broadcast, Wilson Center Global Fellow and environmental journalist Anneliese Palmer speaks with longtime leader in regional environmental diplomacy and Executive Director of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed."
by Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed & Rabbi Michael M. Cohen - Evolve, July 5th, 2024: "Damour for Community Development and the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies are leading a coalition of NGOs and private-sector actors to rebuild and revive hope in Gaza. Damour, a Palestinian organization, and other partners in Gaza who address environmental challenges with accessible water and energy solutions have worked alongside the Arava Institute for years.'"
by Sue Surkes - The Times of Israel, June 6th, 2024: "A new Israeli-Palestinian project to meet the need for water, sanitation, hygiene and energy in the Gaza Strip between the end of hostilities and rebuilding of the enclave is to be launched Friday. Palestinian organization Damour for Community Development in Gaza and the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, which already have an established track record of working together on off-grid, solar energy-driven solutions in Gaza and the West Bank, believe that such infrastructure can be quickly provided and scaled up to immediately improve the humanitarian situation in the coastal enclave.'"
by Laura Lynch - CBCListen, May 26th, 2024: "Water is scarce – especially in Gaza because of war and climate change. We speak to the executive director of the Arava Institute of Environmental Studies about how climate solutions can help build peace in a climate hotspot like the Middle East."
by Jerusalem Post Staff, May 1st, 2024: "The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies (AIES), an Israel-based research center, has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by a group of academics, citing their 'groundbreaking work in the fields of dialogue and diplomacy, climate engagement, education, and research.'"
by Lyla Mehta & Alan Nicol - The New Humanitarian, March 22nd, 2024: "The Arava Institute, located at the border between Israel and Jordan, trains future leaders in the Middle East to facilitate regional cooperation on environmental and water management issues. Despite the ongoing brutal war, its staff and students – including Israeli Jews and Arabs, Palestinians, and Jordanians – have affirmed the intertwined fates of all the peoples in the region and embarked on a mission to eliminate conflict over natural resources such as water – this can serve as a model for constructive peacemaking for wider areas of conflict."
by Science & Diplomacy, March 14th, 2024: "Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed is the Executive Director of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies (AIES) in Israel, and recipient of the 2024 AAAS David and Betty Hamburg Award for Science Diplomacy. He received the honor for his leadership in using science to build relationships across the Middle East, particularly between Israelis and Palestinians, to work together to address mutual environmental concerns."
by Sue Surkes - The Times of Israel, March 7th, 2024: "Already on site is a solar-operated sewage treatment unit developed at the Arava Institute, which will replace a cesspit that, until the project began, was polluting the groundwater and regularly overflowing, posing a serious public health risk. Once the unit is operational, the recycled effluent will be used to irrigate plants and crops."
by Science, February 22nd, 2024: "Tareq Abu Hamed, executive director of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Israel, receives the 2024 AAAS David and Betty Hamburg Award for Science Diplomacy for his leadership in using science to build relationships across the Middle East, particularly between Israelis and Palestinians, to work together to address mutual environmental concerns."
by Larry Hankin - International Jewish News, February 22nd, 2024: "The 176-year-old American Assn. for the Advancement of Science honored the Arava Institute’s executive director, Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, with the David and Betty Hamburg Award for Science Diplomacy at its annual conference last week in Denver."
by Jennifer Moore - WGBH, February 11th, 2024: "They were there with about 200 people to get an update on — and raise money for — the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, an organization that promotes 'environmental diplomacy' between Jewish and Arab students from Israel and other countries in a region beset by political violence."
by Josie Glausiusz - Nature, February 2nd, 2024: "Almost 1.9 million people have been displaced by the war, with many living in tents or on the streets in the southern Gazan city of Rafah. Following torrential rains in January, many are collecting drinking water in dishes and buckets, [geographer Ahmed Ra’fat] Ghodieh says. Others buy water from tanker trucks — low-quality water from the aquifer that has been desalinated by private companies — says David Lehrer, director of the Center for Applied Environmental Diplomacy at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in the Arava Valley, Israel."
by Jack Omer-Jackaman - Fathom, January 2024: "Fathom deputy editor Jack Omer-Jackaman speaks with Tareq Abu Hamed and Eliza Mayo of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, an academic research centre dedicated to providing the Middle East with a new generation of sophisticated professionals to address the region’s environmental challenges with richer and more innovative peace-building solutions."
by The Foreign Affairs News, January 13th, 2024: "A lecture programme was organized at the residence of the Ambassador of Israel to Nepal on Friday, January 12, 2024, where Dr. Clive Lipchin, Director of the Centre for Transboundary Water Management at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, Israel has stressed on the importance of water in every cycle of human life and need of water treatment plant."
by Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi - The Times of Israel Blogs, December 29th, 2023: "The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies (AIES) is a proven model to deliver practical solutions for sustainability and peace. Led by Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, a brilliant Palestinian citizen of Israel and recognized leader in environmental science, diplomacy and education, over the past decades AIES has brought together nearly 1,800 Palestinian, Jordanian, Israeli, and international students to learn and prepare to meet the Middle East’s environmental challenges with innovative peace-building solutions and ensure a sustainable future for the region."
by Zafrir Rinat - Haaretz, December 29th, 2023: "The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies can help find some of these solutions. The institute is the academic home for Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian students, and in recent years it has specialized in harnessing off-grid technologies to help communities with no access to water, sewage or electricity networks."
by Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman - The Jerusalem Post, December 14th, 2023: "Clive Lipchin, director of the Center for Transboundary Water Management at the Arava Institute, told The Jerusalem Post that using seawater to help destroy Hamas’s underground labyrinth is an effective military technique but not one without environmental impact. 'If we flood the tunnels with seawater, the question is to what degree that seawater will infiltrate into the groundwater,' Lipchin explained. 'The concern is that the seawater would mix with the groundwater and increase the salinity of the groundwater.'"
by Michael M. Cohen - The Jerusalem Post, November 25th, 2023: "The mission of the institute is 'to advance cross-border environmental cooperation in the face of political conflict.' There is always a tension of holding cooperation and conflict simultaneously. During wartime, it is magnified."
by Eliyahu Friedman - Jewish Telegraphic Agency, November 24th, 2023: "The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies — which has a mix of international, Jewish-Israeli, Arab-Israeli and Palestinian students — has ramped up a schedule of dialogue sessions between students and has relaxed its attendance policy. Deputy Director Eliza Mayo said students and staff on the school’s campus near Eilat are also 'constantly checking in with each other.'"
by Anjana Sankar - The National News, November 20th, 2023: "Dr Tareq Abu Hamed, executive director of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, said that unique technology that can extract water from air was under threat during the massive aerial bombardment in the strip, and fighting between Hamas and Israeli soldiers."
by David Lehrer - The Times of Israel Blogs, November 14th, 2023: "Over the past 20 years, the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority have been locked in a struggle in which each side found every reason in the world to stop cooperating with the other. At the same time, Israeli NGOs, like the Arava Institute, were able to forge cross-border partnerships with Palestinian NGOs by seeking compromise, accepting that disagreements will arise, and maintaining ongoing communication, even in the most difficult of times, like now."
by Sue Surkes - The Times of Israel, November 14th, 2023: "Several thousand Gazans have access to potable water from three Israeli water-from-air Watergen machines that remain operating in southern Gaza, according to the former head of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in southern Israel, which installed the machines."
by Clive Lipchin & Richard Friend - The Conversation, October 30th, 2023: "We study approaches to managing water and other environmental resources and conduct work at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, a nonprofit teaching and research center in the south of Israel. At the institute, students and academics from Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan come together to learn from each other and work together, developing technologies and programs that meet the region’s water needs."
by Marc Champion (Bloomberg) - Washington Post, October 29th, 2023: "David Lehrer is a teacher and former executive director of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, close to Eilat at Israel’s southern tip. It’s a small satellite campus of Ben Gurion University that teaches 50 to 60 Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians and international students per year, with a view to fostering the cross-border cooperation needed to fight climate change. It isn’t clear talking to Lehrer whether the primary goal is to benefit the environment or Israeli-Palestinian cooperation. Maybe that’s the point."
by Laura Lynch - CBC, October 29th, 2023: "Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, Executive Director of the Arava Institute, in an interview with CBC: 'Climate unites us, especially here in this region, in the Middle East. When we build a project that uses solar energy for water pumping, or for off-grid wastewater treatment systems to recycle the water, we bring people together. They sit around one table, and this environmental work gives us the chance to see the human in the other, not to look to each other as enemies. Once you see the human in the other, that’s a game changer.'"
by Assiya Hamza - France24, October 25th, 2023: "Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, Executive Director of the Arava Institute: 'I have met many people, in both Israel and Palestine: the vast majority want to live in peace. But we don't talk enough, on either side, about the importance of peace. The main achievement of the extremists in both sides is to have separated Israeli and Palestinian societies. They prey on our fear and mistrust of each other, but there are many trustworthy people on both sides. I hope that after this war, both sides will speak out more loudly about the importance of peace.”"
by Daphne Chouliaraki Milner - Atmos, October 24th, 2023: "But currently, our main goal is to make sure that our Palestinian partners in the West Bank and in Gaza are safe, nothing is more important. We aren’t doing any research right now with them. All our projects have stopped. We just want to keep this communication channel open with them, and be in communication with them on a daily basis—if not an hourly basis through emails, WhatsApps, phone calls."
by David Lehrer - The Times of Israel Blogs, October 22nd, 2023: "The Track II Environmental Forum of the Arava Institute, a partnership between a Palestinian NGO and the Arava Institute was launched in 2016 because we believe that the environment cannot wait for peace between Israelis and Palestinians and because we believe that working together to solve environmental issues builds trust and cross-border relationships."
by Australian Broadcasting Cooperation, October 22nd, 2023: "Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, Executive Director of the Arava Institute: 'This is what we try to do: To show the world that this is possible. When you use dialogue to build understanding, and to build trust, you can continue cooperation even face to face, bringing people together.'"
by GNAT-TV Programs, October 18th, 2023: "At the end of the day [the students] understand that their relationship is bigger and more powerful than this conflict, and that’s the power of what we’re able to do [at the Arava Institute].'"
by David Lehrer - The Times of Israel Blogs, October 15th, 2023: "I have dedicated the last 22 years of my life to work for peace in this region, to end the occupation and to build trust between Palestinians and Israelis. As a result of these efforts to build bridges between ourselves, and our neighbors, in parallel to the anguish and heartbreak I feel for my countrymen and women, for my friends and colleagues in Israel, I also feel pain and anguish for my friends and colleagues in Gaza."
by Terry Collins - USA Today, October 14th, 2023: "Attempting to make peace in relative times of quiet is challenging enough, said Eliza Mayo, deputy director of The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, an organization located at Kibbutz Ketura on the Israeli side of the Arava Valley."
by Peter Schwartzstein - New Security Beat, October 13th, 2023: "It is the tightness of those bonds that has allowed EcoPeace Middle East and actors such as the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies to quietly educate the next generation of transboundary environmentalists through at least half a dozen wars."
by Saleem H. Ali - Forbes, October 13th, 2023: "Efforts at environmental peace-building in the Middle East have also been undertaken by the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Israel, where I lectured in 2010."
by Nick Anderson and Cate Brown - The Washington Post, October 10th, 2023: "At the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, on a kibbutz in southern Israel near Eilat, officials say the situation is secure. Will Belluche, 20, a junior at American University who is studying at Arava, said he was in touch with family in Vermont soon after the Hamas attacks. He plans to stay through the end of the semester."
by Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi - The Times of Israel Blogs, August 30th, 2023: "I observed the model of the Arava Institute which enables Arabs and Jewish students, Israelis, Jordanians, and Palestinians who met there for the first time to explore and develop skills through partnerships and collaborate on critical environmental challenges facing the region. That common concern and outcome could be the ultimate example of Tikkun Olam."
by Dr. David Lehrer - The Times of Israel Blogs, August 9th, 2023: "In a recent joint publication by Damour for Community Development and the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, Eng. Rebhy Al-Sheikh, former Deputy Head of the Palestinian Water Authority, presents a quicker solution through renewable energy that could alleviate the immediate energy shortage and address the water crisis in Gaza."
by Miriam Herschlag - Groundwork, July 6th, 2023: "Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed is a Palestinian environmental scientist from East Jerusalem, but he works at a Kibbutz near the southern tip of Israel, at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies. To say this is unusual, is an understatement. Yet, Tareq feels that science gives him a unique way to make connections between Palestinians and Israelis, and even Jordanians, who are all facing the same climate crisis – and also creating a more sustainable world."
by Lily Webber - The Huntington News, July 5th, 2023: "'Deserts are anywhere, but this is the Arava Institute. Ecology and sustainability, the intellectual aspects; they are all at the institute and at the Center of Creative Ecology at Lotan,' Rosengaus said. 'The students are learning from professionals, from researchers with the government. I mean, these are people who are experts in their field.'"
by Matti Friedman - Smithsonian, November, 2022: "Solowey, a veteran researcher at the kibbutz’s Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, spent six weeks checking in on the seeds every morning: nothing. 'I didn’t think anything was going to happen,” she admitted. Over the years she has tried to grow 500 plant species in this desert, and most of them don’t make it. She told me, “I’ve had plants that look at this place and die.'"
by Sipho Siso - Alex News, August 24th, 2022: "Speaking at a panel discussion in Houghton, following the arrival in Johannesburg of an Israeli water expert in the country Clive Lipchin, who is the director of Transboundary Water Management for the Arava Institute of Environmental Studies, and Johannesburg Water’s general manager of operations, Etienne Hugo said they had plans to fix the water and sewer woes in Alexandra."
by Abigail Klein Leichman - ISRAEL21c, August 21st, 2022: "A delegation of Israeli water experts arrived in South Africa earlier this month for consultations with local municipalities on crucial issues affecting water infrastructure and how Israeli technology can help."
by JERUSALEM POST STAFF - Jerusalem Post, August 17th, 2022: "The successful negotiation between the Israeli Civil Administration and the PWA was facilitated by the Arava Institute – a leading academic and research institution in Israel that advances cross-border environmental cooperation amid stark political conflict."
by Michael Appel - BizNews, August 15th, 2022: "When the offer was eagerly accepted, the JNFSA invited Dr Clive Lipchin, director of Israel’s Arava Institute's Center for Transboundary Water Management, to visit SA together with a team of Israeli water experts, all of whom would help the City of Tshwane improve its waste water management."
by Nir Hasson - Haaretz, May 12th, 2022: "Tareq Abu Hamad is the first Jerusalem Palestinian to reach a senior position in an Israeli government ministry. Now, as director of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, he describes what it's like to function as a Palestinian within the Israeli system, and the effort to promote renewable energy infrastructures in Gaza."
by Susan Bence - WUWM 89.7 FM, March 4th, 2022: "The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies is grounded in its mission to save the natural world by bringing people together.
Students from Palestine, Jordan, and Israel were invited to work together on challenges around energy, food and water at the school located in the middle of the desert."
by Rabbi Michael M. Cohen - Manchester Journal, December 24th, 2021: "This week was the official 25th anniversary celebration in Jaffa for the Institute which I attended. I was interviewed for a pre-recorded section of the evening. I said, 'Bobbie Kennedy would quote George Bernard Shaw — There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not? — For 25 years the Arava Institute has been answering that question in the positive.'"
by Capacity4dev - European Union, November 2021: "Led by the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies5, TRACK II departs from traditional peace-building efforts in the region, which have aimed to establish over-arching peace agreements. By promoting initiatives taken on the professional level, it strives for positive change on the ground and in the political arena. The projects under TRACK II focus mainly on water and waste management, energy and food security in Gaza, the West Bank and Jordan."
by Adam Reinherz - Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, November 5th, 2021: "Mayo, a former Squirrel Hill resident, is deputy director at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, a nongovernmental organization located in southern Israel. Along with her colleague, Tareq Abu Hamed — the institute’s executive director — Mayo spent three days networking, listening and learning along with fellow climate activists, change agents and politicians."
by Abigail Klein Leichmann - Israel21c, October 31st, 2021: "Tareq Abu Hamed is the new executive director of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, which offers accredited academic programs, research centers and international cooperation initiatives focusing on environmental challenges."
by Sue Surkes - The Times of Israel, October 24th, 2021: "The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies and the Palestinian organization Damour for Community Development have announced the establishment of a new Center for Applied Environmental Diplomacy."
by Abigail Klein Leichmann - Israel21c, October 19th, 2021: "The Arava Institute strives to build cooperation in the region to solve water-related issues. 'It’s critical to understand that any potential solution has to have collaborative foundations. You need regional cooperation, and that is our best and most valuable role,' [Dr. Clive] Lipchin tells ISRAEL21c."
by Julie Stahl - CBN News, October 8th, 2021: "Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, Director of the Arava Institute at Kibbutz Ketura, sees this as 'If you don’t look back to the history you will not see the future. And here we are actually planting history at the Arava Institute. We hope that one day these trees that came from 2,000 years ago will be the hope of peace in our region,' Abu Hamed said."
by Nathan Steinmeyer - Bible History Daily, August 30th, 2021: "For the first time in two millennia, a long extinct variety of Judean date can be enjoyed once again. Using seeds dating back to the time of the Great Jewish Revolt (66–70 C.E.), researchers from the Arava Institutute for Environmental Studies in Israel planted an experimental date grove at a nearby kibbutz in 2005. The grove began bearing fruit last year, producing a variety of date not tasted for millennia."
by Larry Luxner - The Times of Israel, July 3rd, 2021: "The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies is located at Kibbutz Ketura, a lonely settlement of about 450 people located just off Highway 90, a few kilometers from the Jordanian border in southern Israel. Its projects range from improving the cooling efficiency of solar panels to helping municipalities in the crowded Gaza Strip biologically treat their wastewater."
by Bill McKibben - The New Yorker, May 19th, 2021: "Amid the tragic fighting in the Middle East, the outgoing (Jewish) and incoming (Muslim) executive directors of the Arava Institute, perhaps the region’s leading environmental-studies center, issued a plea for peace and for joint work on larger issues. 'Instead of turning our attention to the common threats we face from a pandemic still out of control in Gaza and the West Bank, the economic fallout from the pandemic, and the looming impact of climate change, we find ourselves embroiled once again in violence and the historic political conflict. We call on the government of Israel to prevent further violent escalation and implore leaders in the region to reject a return to tribalism and find a path towards peace, reconciliation, security, justice and self-determination for all.'"
by Sue Surkes - Times of Israel, May 12th, 2021: "It is in this unlikely kingdom at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in southern Israel that she continues to produce more date palms, other plants mentioned in the Bible such as frankincense, myrrh and Balm of Gilead (associated with the caravan that made its way from Gilead to Egypt and to which the young Joseph was sold by his jealous brothers in Genesis 37:25), and still more species that may hold medicinal potential or the promise of new crops that can be grown sustainably in dry conditions or that are valuable to the ecosystem and in danger of extinction."
by Ruth Schuster - Haaretz, May 6th, 2021: "Methuselah the tree was grown from a 2,000-year-old seed found at Masada. Now more have been grown and genetic analysis finds a twist in the origin story of the ‘Judean date’."
by Maisoon Mubarak & Rachel Harrison - NYU, May 5th, 2021: "Rather than dinosaur DNA, the researchers used date palm seeds that were recovered from archaeological sites in modern-day Israel and radiocarbon-dated from the 4th century BCE to the 2nd century CE. The seeds were germinated to yield viable, new plants. The researchers conducted whole genome sequencing of these germinated ancient samples and used these data to examine the genetics of these previously extinct Judean date palms."
by Rabbi Michael Cohen - The Jerusalem Post, January 24, 2021: "In the Middle East, the dire effects of the climate crisis are more acute because of its large desert areas. To that end, the Arava Institute has been addressing the climate crisis with cross-border efforts."
by Tovah Lazaroff - The Jerusalem Post, December 8th, 2020: "Iran is the only issue in the Middle East that is likely to make it onto US President-elect Joe Biden’s priority list, former US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro said Tuesday at the Arava Institute’s annual conference."
by Viva Sarah Press - NoCamels, September 30th, 2020: "'It took me some time to figure out how I might do it because you only have one chance with each seed,' Dr. Elaine Solowey, who runs the Center for Sustainable Agriculture at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Kibbutz Ketura, says in an Israeli Foreign Ministry video made back in 2016 before it was known whether these trees would even bear fruit."
by Abigail Klein Leichman - Israel21c, September 21st, 2020: "Mazal tov to Hannah and Methuselah on their 111 miracle babies! The proud parents are date palms grown from ancient seeds uncovered in archeological excavations in Israel.
These dates, recently picked at the Arava Institute at Kibbutz Ketura in southern Israel, are a type that hasn’t been tasted since the times of Jesus and the Maccabees."
by Good News Network, September 19th, 2020: "The Arava Institute reminds participants that the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is about land—more precisely, the borders that nations draw on the land. When the land is looked upon solely as a geopolitical instrument, it is viewed as one of the major stumbling blocks to any reconciliation or just settlement of the conflict. However, when the land is approached, as it is at Arava, from an environmental perspective—which knows no political borders, walls and fences—new frameworks open up, including in the political sphere: New dynamics are created."
by Emily Frances - i24, September 14th, 2020: "Dr. Elaine Solowey, Desert Plant Pioneer, successfully grew an extinct Judean Date Palm tree from a 2000 year old seed. This week the Arava Institute celebrated the first Judean Dates ever to be grown into fruit since the time of King Herod."
by Michael M. Cohen - The Jerusalem Post, September 14th, 2020: "There is something else remarkable about the home of these dates. Since 1996, the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies has brought together Israeli, Palestinian, Jordanian and international college students from around the world to learn to cooperatively solve the regional and global challenges of our time. It is a Middle East environmental and academic institution that advances cross-border environmental cooperation and cross-border environmental discourse at a time when it is so needed."
by Clive Lipchin - The Jerusalem Post, September 12th, 2020: "At the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Israel, we are pioneering off the grid wastewater treatment and reuse systems that treat wastewater on-site directly from homes and neighborhoods that are not connected to a sewer grid. The treated wastewater is then recycled for the use in irrigation of small holder farms."
by JNS Wire, September 9th, 2020: "Just 30 miles north of the Red Sea, in the Negev Desert, scientists from the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies travelled back in time two millennia, becoming the first people to pick and sample dates from trees with roots stretching back to the days of Jesus and the Maccabees."
by Yosef I. Abramowitz - The Times of Israel, September 7th, 2020: "Times reporter Isabel Kershner has been to Ketura before and in her article on the budding solar industry in Israel back in 2012 dubbed me “Captain Sunshine.” Actually, she quoted Dr. Elaine Solowey calling me Captain Sunshine. “Anyone who beats the government bureaucracy is a superhero,” said Dr. Solowey, a renowned authority on desert agriculture."
by Isabel Kershner - The New York Times, September 7th, 2020: "The plump, golden-brown dates hanging in a bunch just above the sandy soil were finally ready to pick.
They had been slowly ripening in the desert heat for months. But the young tree on which they grew had a much more ancient history — sprouting from a 2,000-year-old seed retrieved from an archaeological site in the Judean wilderness."
by Celia Jean - Jerusalem Post, August 4th, 2020: ""Water security is the first step toward addressing the environmental and natural resource challenges which lead to destabilization in the region," said David Lehrer, the Executive Director of the Arava Institute."
by Brian Blum - ISRAEL21c, July 28th, 2020: "Water doesn’t understand borders, Lipchin points out, and you can’t address the dire ecological issues facing the Dead Sea only from the Israeli side...Ultimately, Lipchin sees his work as a building block to “promote good relations between people that can provide public support for a peace process. Once people understand that they can see their lives changed through cooperation, they see the other side very differently. It builds advocates for partnerships.”"
by Sue Surkes - Times of Israel, July 26th, 2020: "Issued Sunday by the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, the paper said: “Unilateral approaches like annexation of parts of the West Bank and the Jordan Valley threaten to block any possible cooperative regional approach to solving the water, energy and food security issues which currently plague the region and will be exacerbated by the growing population and climate change.”"
by Yael Teff-Seker - Jerusalem Post, July 20th, 2020: "Joint environmental initiatives are not only of ecological importance. They create an important precedent and a launching pad for cooperation in additional, more political fields. Such initiatives generate hope for a more promising future here should our priorities change."
by Eric Margolis - The New Republic,
June 3rd, 2020: "Despite governments being alternately unwilling and unable to act, scientists from the region and from Europe have collaborated — for example at the Arava Institute, a regional climate change adaptation center — on developing policy proposals for both Israel and the Palestinian Authority. 'It won’t help the Israeli government or Palestinian governments if they adapt on their own,' Hochman said. 'The self-interest of Israel is to collaborate on climate change issues.” Meanwhile, Agha said that the first step the international community should take to counter the effects of climate change in Palestine is to exert pressure on Israel to halt settlement expansion.'"
by Sue Surkes - The Times of Israel,
June 1st, 2020: "The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies on Sunday unveiled a pilot solar-operated sewage treatment unit that could one day help to boost public health, not only in Bedouin communities in Israel that are not connected to sewage networks but in many places throughout the developing world where raw sewage causes disease and death."
by Sue Surkes - The Times of Israel,
May 17th, 2020: "The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies has appealed to incoming Defense Minister Benny Gantz to oppose annexing parts of the West Bank, warning that such a move would threaten Israel’s ability to protect its natural resources and weaken its resilience in the face of climate change."
by Michael M. Cohen - The Jerusalem Post,
April 13th, 2020: "At the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies located on Kibbutz Ketura Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians, Moroccans and international students learn how to build bridges of trust between themselves under the awareness that, 'Nature Knows No Borders.' By extension, the coronavirus draws attention to the biology of the world to which we humans belong, and it also knows no borders. We all share this fragile tiny speck of a planet in the vastness of the universe."
by Akiva Eldar - Al-Monitor
March 10th, 2020: "David Lehrer, executive director of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, believes a partnership between Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians and others from the region is not only possible but essential. In an interview with Al-Monitor, he noted that the coronavirus has not yet been linked to climate change but added, '[It is a] frightening example of what a global threat looks like and highlights the need for cross-border cooperation.'"
by Morgan Reisinger - Morocco World News,
March 8th, 2020: "Interestingly, the goal of daily academic discussion is not to make everybody agree. Instead, it is simply to offer a protected space where everyone’s voice can be heard. The environment of inclusivity and consideration at the Arava Institute and throughout the greater kibbutz finds its basis in the principle of necessary compromise.
Students with opposite backgrounds gather in the same desert classroom to practice value-based learning that expands their understanding of themselves as global citizens before national citizens."
by Naama Barak - Israel21c
February 17th, 2020: "The GEN-M unit was placed in Gaza as a result of cooperation between Watergen, Israel’s Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, the Palestinian NGO Damour for Community Development and the Abasan al-Kabira municipality."
by NoCamels - February 16th, 2020: "The pilot is a result of cooperative efforts between Watergen, Israel’s Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, the Palestinian NGO Damour for Community Development and the Abasan al-Kabira municipality. The project is being funded by the Kennedy Leigh Foundation as part of the Arava Institute’s Track II Environmental Forum."
by Arutz Sheva,
February 13th, 2020: "The GEN-M that was introduced to Abasan al-Kabira on Wednesday will be providing freshwater to the municipal building, and needing no special infrastructure but electricity in order to operate, the machine will be connected to solar panels providing the AWG with a source of power. The pilot is a result of cooperative efforts between Watergen, Israel’s Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, the Palestinian Arab NGO Damour for Community Development and the Abasan al-Kabira municipality."
by Jerusalem Post,
February 13th, 2020: "'The introduction of Watergen into Gaza is not only a proof of concept for a cutting edge technology but a proof of concept that Palestinians and Israelis can do more than launch attacks at each other,' said David Lehrer, Director of the Arava Institute. 'We can, instead, work together to improve lives, solve humanitarian problems, build trust and restore hope.'"
by TPS - Jewish Press,
February 13th, 2020: "The pilot is a result of cooperative efforts between Watergen, Israel’s Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, the Damour NGO for Community Development and the Abasan al-Kabira municipality. The Kennedy Leigh Foundation is funding the pilot as part of the Arava Institute’s Track II Environmental Forum."
by Jordan Moshe - South African Jewish Report,
February 13th, 2020: "Unless we learn how to manage our utilities responsibly, South Africa’s water infrastructure will go the same way as electricity, and it could be too late to do anything about it. This was one of several frightening observations made last week by Dr Clive Lipchin, the director of the Israel Center for Transboundary Water Management and a faculty member of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies."
By Danielle Nierenberg – foodtank.com January 1st, 2019
“Located in the Middle East, The Arava Institute is an academic hub for those looking to research and solve the most pressing environmental concerns of the day. The Arava Institute has five transboundary research centers, including the Center for Sustainable Agriculture and the Center for Hyper-Arid Socio-Ecology. The Centers are dedicated to the investigation and preservation of arid lands and their natural resources across the Middle East.”
By Avi Jorisch – The Times of Israel
September 4th, 2018
“In 2014 Sallon secured a few seeds from Israel’s Antiquities Authority, then contacted Elaine Solowey, one of the country’s foremost experts in sustainable agriculture. When Sallon broached her resurrection idea, Solowey’s initial response was disbelief, but she agreed to try and hatched a plan to draw the seeds out of dormancy. For ‘good luck,’ Solowey planted the seeds on the Jewish festival of trees, Tu b’Shevat, and about six weeks later, to her astonishment, one of the seeds began to sprout. ‘It was like a miracle,’ she recalls.”
By Simon Harold – Nature, Ecology & Evolution
July 30th, 2018
“The answer is not to avoid political discussions but to embrace dialogue, share histories and listen to the other’s narrative without judgement or defensiveness. At the Arava Institute, students are given the tools to learn to have difficult conversations, to explore environmental challenges from multiple and at times contradictory perspectives, and to find commonalities in their mutual concerns for the environment.”
“This institute is one of the few places where Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians work together on concrete projects on water, purification, and waste water treatment. This is a place beyond the talk, of cooperation and action that can have an impact on people’s lives. I try to help in promoting the projects. At the moment, there’s no peace process, and what needs to be done is to restore to all sides the feeling that there are other things that can be done, and the fact that Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians sit together and try to solve specific problems and to achieve cooperation in order to improve the lives of others – that’s something positive.”
By Tonyia Cone – The Jewish Outlook
June 1st, 2018
“I see that people work best together when they have a shared goal. I realize that’s what the Arava Institute is doing; it takes people who’ve never sat next to each other, and have all these assumptions about ‘the other,’ and has them work on something they all really care about.”
By Ken Bob and Brad Rothschild – Jewish Telegraphic Agency
May 30th, 2018
“Another example of American-backed Israeli-Palestinian is the Arava Institute’s Track II Environmental Forum. Working with local communities, regional governments, and international donors to solve small-scale infrastructure problems, the Forum has developed solid proposals to build solar panel fields to power wastewater treatment plants and install solar panels for homes in poor communities in Gaza.”
In U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders’ recent letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, he quoted the Arava Institute on environmental factors in the Gaza crisis.
“The study, conducted by Dr. Clive Lipchin, Director of the Center for Transboundary Water Management at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, […] found that there is a danger to human life in the Bedouin communities, and that damages caused by this environmental hazard are expected to affect Beersheva as well.”
By Sarah Levi – The Jerusalem Post
March 10th, 2018
“Ketura is home to The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, a leading environmental studies and research program in partnership with Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The Institute is noted for hosting Jordanians, Palestinians, Israelis and students from many countries. It was founded by Alon Tal in 1996 and today has its largest group to date: 58 students from all over the world.”
“While discussions at the Institute can get contentious between students who have differing perspectives of the conflict, presenters said that at the end of the day, they all respectfully share one dining hall where they reconcile their differences. Presenters Noa Gluskinos from Israel and Ashraf Akram from a Palestinian community of Jerusalem also discussed how they have been personally affected by the ongoing conflict.”
By Julie Auerbach – Cleveland Jewish News
February 21st, 2018
“Corey Mikami, my 39-year-old cousin, had been a student at the Arava Institute. In November, he lost his battle with an aggressive brain tumor, leaving behind his young wife and small child. I was in Israel at the time, so I approached Arava staff about planting a tree in his memory. Our months of planning together culminated in the planting of ancient native medicinal plants in his memory in a new garden at Ketura. ”
By Rebecca McCarthy – Atlanta Jewish Times
February 15th, 2018
“Most memorable to Szor was the weekly peace-building seminar, a three-hour session during which people could discuss whatever they wanted, including the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. There was listening rather than shouting.
‘We live in a world where we see only our story,’ she said. ‘Because of Arava, the Middle East grew larger for me.’”
By Sebastian Waldvogel – The Badger Herald
February 6th, 2018
“‘I think the first thing I learned in the Institute, was that before trying to say to them exactly what I know and what I learned, was to also listen to them, to try to open my heart and to understand where they come from,’ Szor said.”
“Because of the shortage of electricity, the wells can’t be fully operated and sometimes only work for a few hours a day. The electricity shortage also prevents the Strip’s sewage treatment plants from operating, allowing untreated sewage water to flow directly into the sea. The sewage reaches the adjacent Israeli coastal cities of Ashkelon and Ashdod, but first it pollutes Gaza’s beaches.”
ULTIMATE FRISBEE AND OTHER WAYS TO ‘INVEST IN PEACE’ IN ARAB-ISRAELI PEACE
By Maya Mirsky – The Jewish News of Northern California
December 13th, 2017
Photo by: Sophia Alderman
“For Pesci, it meant learning a whole new story about Israel and the region, as oppose to the simple, one-sided story she’d heard growing up.
‘It wasn’t until I got [to Arava] that I realized that narrative had a lot of holes,’ she said. But she said the bonds she forged helped open her mind.”
Eliza Mayo, Arava Institute Deputy Director, and Joe Epstein, Friends of the Arava Institute Board member and Israel Ride participant, in an interview about the Israel Ride.
CYCLING FOR PEACE, PARTNERSHIP AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Israel21c
October 29th, 2017
“On October 31, cyclists of all ages from the United States, England, Canada, Israel and Australia will set out on The Israel Ride, a five-day trek sponsored by Israel’s Arava Institute for Environmental Studies and Hazon, America’s largest Jewish environmental group.”
ARAVA INSTITUTE ALUMNI DISCUSS ISRAEL-PALESTINE CONFLICT
By Aly Fosbury – The Dickinsonian
October 26th, 2017
“‘The…connections that we create at the institute just because we are living together made me take very seriously my activism and a hope for a better future for my brothers and for my friends and the children of my friends,’ said Tendler. ‘It’s a really life-changing experience I think for Israelis, Palestinians, and also for international students who come from different…conflicts.’”
ISRAELI, PALESTINIAN VISIT MSU TO DISCUSS CONFLICT, ENCOURAGE COOPERATION
By Nadav Pais-Greenapple – State News
October 24th, 2017
“‘All the students have to sit in one room and talk about all the things they don’t want to talk about. It gets really intense, because you have Israelis who just finished their IDF service … and in front of them sits a Palestinian who just had to go through three different checkpoints to get to the Arava Institute.
The goal is really to have these two narratives in the same room,’ Tendler said. ‘These stories — they are there, and they won’t disappear. We have to meet each other and hear these stories.’”
ISRAELIS AND PALESTINIAN FIND COMMON GROUND IN THE ENVIRONMENT
By Nina Kneuer – Pitt News
October 20th, 2017
“Environment isn’t the only thing that has the power to bring people together, she said. It’s easier for people to talk about things that are strong parts of their identities — such as a mutual love of football. It’s more important to make personal connections than to make formal and political connections to mend the conflict, she said.”
“Nongovernmental organizations, which work cross-border between Israel and Palestine on the environment, health, education, research, sports and culture, as well as businesses, have an important role to play in proving to the public that peace is possible. The media have an important role to play in highlighting these cross-border initiatives, and government officials and diplomats must work behind the scenes in order to ensure that such initiatives succeed if we are ever going to renew a peace process that leads to real peace.”
SPEAKERS DISCUSS ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN ENVIRONMENTAL COOPERATION AT LUNCH & LEARN
By Elie Levine – The Tufts Daily
October 13th, 2017
“Environmental issues will always exist as long as there is a conflict in the political situation, and the political situation will never be solved as long as there is environmental injustice,” she said. “What we try to do in the Institute is talk about both of them at the same time, and try to engage both narratives when we talk about the environmental issues of the region. It can bring some hope.”
ISRAELI, PALESTINIAN ENVIRONMENTALISTS AREN’T WAITING ON TRUMP PEACE PLAN
By Akiva Eldar – Al-Monitor
September 28th, 2017
“‘Environmental issues will always exist as long as there is a conflict in the political situation, and the political situation will never be solved as long as there is environmental injustice,’ she said. ‘What we try to do in the Institute is talk about both of them at the same time, and try to engage both narratives when we talk about the environmental issues of the region. It can bring some hope.’”
“Dennis Ross came here to make a statement that although the political process is so frozen right now, and hope seems so distant, there are some areas, and the environment is one of them, where perhaps there can be some sense of faith and trust.”
FROM GERMANY TO KENYA TO ISRAEL – VOLUNTEERING WITH ‘FURROWS IN THE DESERT’
By Rooting for a Green Israel – The Jerusalem Post
September 5th, 2017
“Work in Turkana includes providing agricultural training, equipment and professional accompaniment. Advanced Israeli technology is also utilized to install solar-powered water pumps to irrigate the fields. Agricultural crops being produced by Turkana farmers include dates, melons, watermelons, eggplants and okra. These are not crops that the locals were previously familiar with, so the volunteers had to teach them what to do with these vegetables and how to cook them.”
BENNINGTON COLLEGE CONFLICT RESOLUTION CLASS BEGINS AT BBA
By Cherise Madigan – Bennington Banner
August 30th, 2017
“‘I think it was important to bring the two alumni from the Arava Institute to the class since it puts a real face and presence of what we read about,’ said Cohen. ‘Broadening the horizon, getting the big picture, and the nuances of a conflict also contain lessons that can be used here as well.’”
ARAVA BUILDS COLLABORATION TO SOLVE ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS OF ISRAEL AND ITS NEIGHBORS
By Ellen Weisman Strenger – Voice at the Shore
August 16th, 2017
“Rather than encouraging students to avoid political discussions, the institute addresses political differences among students from the very start. All students begin their studies at Arava with a ‘peace-building leadership seminar,’ which trains them in how to deal with their differences and talk about them, said Hamed. This seminar ‘teaches students how to discuss differences and to understand the narratives of other students.’”
“Shiha, who is also a serious break-dancer, spent two semesters at the Arava Institute at Kibbutz Ketura in southern Israel and he says it changed his world view.”
“Mitigating climate change, the promotion of renewables, addressing food and water scarcity, strengthening women’s rights, working towards less violent conflict worldwide including a just settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict, are challenges we face. They call for leadership, activists, and activism. On face value they may appear separate, but on another level they are interrelated. For 20 years, these issues have been addressed on a kibbutz in the southern Israeli Arava desert valley along the Israeli-Jordanian border at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies.”
“In this little speck of the Arava you can always find Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians and Americans who live and study together, and manage their differences in a civilized and peaceful manner,” says Daniel Shek, who heads the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies’ Public Council.”
“Most water in Gaza is coming from the shared coastal aquifer with Israel, which due to over-pumping on both sides has led to sea water seepage, making most water in Gaza undrinkable. The further reductions in the electricity supply due to downed power lines from Egypt, dysfunctional or destroyed infrastructure within Gaza, and a cutback in Israeli-supplied electricity due to the PLO dispute with Hamas will only make life in the Gaza Strip more unbearable.”
IF PALESTINIANS AND ISRAELIS CAN COOPERATE ON THE ENVIRONMENT…
By David Lehrer, Tareq Abu Hamed, Miriam May – Huffington Post
June 16th, 2017
“How can a small Institute in the middle of nowhere accomplish this? As Margaret Mead famously said, ‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.’ In fact, the Arava Institute, from its inception was committed to educating and working beyond borders. At the Arava Institute students ― Jordanians, Palestinians, Israelis and citizens of the world, largely North Americans ― are actively trained to respect each other by learning about environmental challenges together and by intensive peace-building leadership seminars. These students are increasingly in positions to make a cooperative future possible.”
SINGER NOA LASHES TEL AVIV OFFICIAL FOR BID TO NIX GIG
By Jessica Steinberg – The Times of Israel
June 14th, 2017
“The celebratory evening taking place Wednesday marks 20 years for the Arava Institute, an environmental and academic program located in the desert, and honors the work of Nini, Miriam Sharton, Uri Shanas and Monther Hind, all supporters of the institute.”
“The Center for Transboundary Water Management, directed by Dr. Clive Lipchin, provides a platform for regional water professionals and policy makers to cooperate in water conservation, desalination, wastewater treatment and education. The Center facilitates direct communication among regional water professionals in the three lower riparian states of the Jordan River and Dead Sea Basin (Israel, Palestine and Jordan). The open dialogue that is made possible by the center enables the flow of data and, most importantly, establishes long-lasting relationships built on trust and integrity between those who are responsible for the sustainable management of the region’s fragile water resources.”
CLEAN WATER INITIATIVES PROMOTE COLLABORATION ACROSS MIDDLE EASTERN BORDERS
University of Michigan Seas Alumni
May, 2017
“Lipchin is also piloting technologies that decontaminate sewage and purify greywater used for washing and showering. While sewage is broken down by bacteria in septic tanks, greywater is channeled to a gravel bed populated by bacteria and then reused for irrigation of high-value crops including olive, grapes, and citrus fruits.”
THIS AMAZING DATE TREE WAS GROWN FROM A SEED PRESERVED SINCE THE TIME OF JESUS
By Stephanie Buck – Timeline
May 23rd, 2017
“Solowey still oversees Methuselah’s upbringing. Her job consists of finding new, useful crops for the dry Middle Eastern climate. She hadn’t planned to work with plants this old. ‘You want me to do what?’ she recalls asking her future partner, Dr. Sarah Sallon, a natural medicine researcher in Jerusalem. Working together, they could test both the plant’s physical endurance and any medicinal potential that may have been lost to time.”
“‘At the end of the day, it’s not a community that only wants to connect Jordanian hip hop dancers with students from Puerto Rico, it’s a place to face the reality of the Middle East, of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I’ve been in a lot of Israeli-Palestinian programs, and it’s always very specific to one issue and time. At the Arava Institute, it’s a continuous experience, you live with those people, make Shakshouka with them, and that opens up the opportunity for a much deeper relationship.’”
WHITE NATIONALIST GROUP POSTS FLIERS WITH IMAGE OF HITLER ON PRINCETON CAMPUS
Jewish and Muslim students band together, promote Palestinian-Israeli initiative
By Debra Rubin – New Jersey Jewish News
May 9th, 2017
“BIP uses Israeli, Palestinian, and international engineers, but its primary engineering partners are Dr. Clive Lipchin of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies on Kibbutz Ketura, and Monther Hind of the Palestinian Wastewater Engineers Group in Ramallah. Sharir said Lipchin took the group to the farm on which the solar panels are located and then into the village where, through a translator, they learned how the facility helps people and what still needs to be done.”
“‘The Arava Institute gives students a much broader perspective on the world, which is particularly important considering issues like climate change and peace building, which are so vital to our future,’ said Cohen. ‘Arava becomes a place where you can not only study and live within these values, but also bring those lessons home.’”
WE SHOULD BE HAVING CONVERSATIONS ABOUT PALESTINE, NOT BOYCOTTING
By Ari Massefski – The GW Hatchet
April 12th, 2017
“Refusing to engage, as some students at GW are proposing, only serves to embolden hard-liners on both sides of the spectrum and makes solving the serious issues facing the Middle East even more difficult. Rather, change should be brought about through cross-cultural opportunities for people from opposing viewpoints to listen, learn and understand – opportunities that are often thought impossible, but that organizations like the Arava Institute and others prove really can exist.”
“We have had over 20 years to build strong relations with our neighbors but instead have allowed fear and security concerns to overwhelm public diplomacy.
If we continue to treat with suspicion those Jordanians who are open to engagement with Israel, is it any wonder that Jordanians remain suspicious of Israel?”
A MULTI-PRONGED APPROACH TO WATER ECONOMY INNOVATION
By Anat Levy – Jerusalem Post
March 17th, 2017
“Ahead of the upcoming United Nations World Water Day on March 22, JNF has both near and long-term visions for Israel’s wastewater treatment, river rehabilitation, water reservoir, irrigation, and water education activities.
One such project for 2017 is a water reclamation and recycling program at the Beduin community of Um Batin in the Negev desert. JNF plans to connect Beduin households to on-site wastewater treatment and reuse systems to minimize environmental and public health risks, while providing high-quality wastewater for the community’s irrigation needs.”
“It was great to study and get involved in projects that are valuable for everyday life and the optimization of natural resources in Jordan, Israel and Palestine. I traveled together with Jordanians to understand environmental problems around the Dead Sea, and I studied greywater systems in Auja, near Jericho, with Palestinians and Germans.”
“Their work, like Gigi’s, is grounded in pragmatism. We need to grow food in the desert – how can we do that best? We have limited access to fossil fuels – let’s develop alternatives! There are environmental problems to be solved, and if we can focus on the task at hand, in this view, we will achieve small, concrete victories which are themselves worthwhile, but which can also add up to broader successes.”
THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE: MUHANAD ALKHARAZ, DEVELOPER OF SUSTAINABLE ENERGY AND WATER RESOURCES WHERE THEY ARE MOST NEEDED
By John Roberts
February 19th, 2017
Alumnus Muhanad Alkharaz in the Boston based radio broadcast “This Week in Palestine”, about his experience at the Arava Institute: “It takes a lot of time, actually, to really understand that that’s what’s happening on the other side. And all that matters is that you listen and understand. You don’t have to justify anything, you don’t have to agree with anything, you just need to understand. Because the other side also has to understand you. […] I can tell you one thing, that Israelis and Palestinians usually form the strongest relationships at the Institute.”
ISRAEL IS FIRST IN WASTEWATER REUSE, BUT PALESTINIANS ARE LAST
By Clive Lipchin – Jerusalem Post
February 19th, 2017
“The Arava Institute has recently embarked on a Track II negotiation process to tackle the need for a comprehensive bilateral agreement on wastewater management between the parties. The Track II process is a civil society response that includes experts and organizations from Israel and the PA to jointly promote an agreement that will serve the needs and interest of both sides so that an equitable process of both treatment and reuse can take place. The Track II process also seeks to assist the governments of both sides to formalize such an agreement even in the face of a moribund political process.”
FORMER STUDENTS OF ISRAEL’S ENVIRONMENTAL ARAVA INSTITUTE VISIT CU BOULDER, PROMOTE PEACE
By Kristin Oh – cuindependent.com
February 1st, 2017 “The students develop mutual relationships with foreign countries by interacting with classmates. Their hope is that Arava alumni will help govern their countries and, as a result of a mutual respect for one another, resolve issues better and with little conflict.
For instance, Alkharaz is originally from Nablus, Palestine, whereas alumna Zuhar Weiss is from Karmiel, Israel. Despite political turmoil in their native countries, Arava has provided a platform for them to work together toward a common goal.”
ENVIRONMENTAL LAW PROGRAM LEADS INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAM TO ISRAEL TO STUDY WATER REUSE
law.umaryland.edu
January, 2017 “As the New Year dawned, law students, business and economics graduate students and post doctorate scientists departed for a week-long trip through Israel to study water reuse. Funded in part by a grant from the University of Maryland Baltimore’s Center for Global Education Initiatives, the students and scientists toured Israel to study water reuse and, ultimately, draft a report for Clive Lipchin and the Arava Institute focused on the Institute’s efforts to incorporate sustainable water reuse technologies in the Palestinian territory.”
IN THE BARREN SOUTH, ISRAELIS AND ARABS WORK TO GREEN THE MIDDLE EAST
By Luke Tress – The Times of Israel
January 23rd, 2017 “The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies’ “Off Grid Hub” tests and models technology for communities that are disconnected from public utilities like water, electricity and sewage. It is part of the institute’s goal of improving environmental and human interests in the region through environmental cooperation. The tanks producing cooking gas are designed for use by Negev Bedouin, while the crops and water purification systems were developed with Kenya’s Turkana region, which has a climate similar to the Arava Valley, in mind.”
LETTER FROM AMERICA: A SPEECH KERRY COULD HAVE DELIVERED IN PARIS
By Michael Cohen – Jerusalem Post
January 21st, 2017
“Reduced to one of its essential components, this conflict is about land – more precisely, the borders that nations draw on the land. When we look upon the land solely as a geopolitical instrument, it is viewed as one of the major stumbling blocks to any reconciliation. However, when we view the land from an environmental perspective – which does not know from political borders, walls, or fences – a new framework opens up. For example, Dr. Clive Lipchin of the Arava Institute has pointed out the need to look at watersheds rather than political borders.”
IF ISRAEL CAN FIND COMMON GROUND AROUND THE ENVIRONMENT, WHY CAN’T TEXAS?
By Kate Zerrenner – Environmental Defense Fund
January 10th, 2017
“Although ethnic, religious, and national tensions were still present, the Institute provides a safe space for people to start breaking down those barriers by establishing commonalities and trust. Finding a shared language – nature and the environment – enables students to talk about areas where they may not necessarily agree.”
OFF-GRID VILLAGE WITH GAME-CHANGING GREEN SOLUTIONS BLOOMS IN THE MIDDLE EAST
By Lucy Wang – inhabitat.com
January 3rd, 2017
“The Off-Grid Demonstration Village serves as a crucial step of validation between the research and development phase and implementation in developing countries. This testing ground encourages startups and larger companies to experiment with new ideas and gives them a space to demonstrate their products to potential investors, educators, and other innovators. Open to visitors, this inspiring village hidden away in an unlikely place in the desert is part of a greater aim to tackle world poverty by improving the quality of life for the millions who live off grid, one clean tech solution at a time.”
MASHAV INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSE “ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT OF NATURE PARKS AND RESERVES”
Ukrainian Botanical Journal
December, 2016 “The participants got acquainted with different approaches to nature conservation in Israel, the peculiarities of structure and functioning of various protected areas. They were provided with the most important principles of agriculture in arid and semiarid lands. They also obtained basic practical knowledge about the structure and function of arid land ecosystems and various adaptations of living organisms to the harsh conditions in a desert.”
To read the full article in the Ukrainian Botanical Journal (page 621-623) click here.
FRANKINCENSE AND MYRRH ARE MAKING A COMEBACK IN THE HOLY LAND
By Ruth Eglash – Washington Post
December 24th, 2016 “Some called him crazy, Erlich said, as he searched for the plant over the next few years. Then he learned of a botanist who had smuggled it out of Saudi Arabia. Somehow, one sapling had ended up in Jerusalem’s botanical gardens, but the tree had failed to flourish in the city’s cool air. It was sent to the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Israel’s southern desert, where Elaine Solowey, head of the center for sustainable agriculture and a biblical plant expert, began to study it and try to revive it.”
WPI OPENS PROJECT CENTER IN ISRAEL, FURTHER EXPANDING GLOBAL REACH OF ITS RENOWNED PROJECT-BASED CURRICULUM
By Alison Daffy – Worcester Polytechnic Institute
December 12th, 2016
“A hallmark of the Arava Institute is its cross-border focus that fosters better Israeli-Palestinian relations. The Institute trains students from Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and other countries, and instills a proactive program to manage conflict. There, Bar-On says, environmental issues are understood to be more important than political divides. In addition to working on environmental topics, WPI students will gain conflict-management skills.”
“The Palestinian village of Auja is located close to the main road crossing the Jordan Valley, near Jericho. Despite its central location and the fact that it is passed each day by many Israelis and Palestinians, its residents remain largely cut off from basic water and energy infrastructures, a characteristic situation of additional Palestinian villages. In recent years, Arava Institute staff and a group of Palestinian water engineers have been helping with the establishment of basic infrastructures in the village. These efforts were also joined by the American organization Build Israel Palestine, which has Jewish, Christian and Muslim members with the aim of supporting joint projects between the two peoples.”
TAKE NOTE: CLIVE LIPCHIN USES WATER TO PROMOTE PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
By Emily Reddy – WPSU Penn State
November 11th, 2016
“The Arava Institute in Israel works to help Israel, Palestine and Jordan extend and share the scarce water resources in the area. The group’s ultimate agenda is to use the environment to promote peace. WPSU’s Emily Reddy talked with Clive Lipchin, the director of the Center for Transboundary Water Management at the Arava Institute, about managing water resources among nations in political conflict.”
“On Election Day I will be taking off from Jerusalem along with 195 bicyclists on a 5-day adventure known as the Israel Ride. We have been asking friends and family to support our ride by contributing to the well-known Israeli environmental program – Arava Institute – that brings Arabs, Jews and Christians together in a model of cooperation to learn environmental stewardship of the holy land they all share.”
AN ISSUE WITHOUT BORDERS DRAWS ISRAELIS, PALESTINIANS TOGETHER
By Michelle Schein – The Jewish Voice
October 13th, 2016
“Both speakers spoke of their deep desire for real coexistence, which can develop from respect for humanity and religion and from communication and cooperation, on an issue that has no borders, such as protecting the environment.”
SHIMON PERES, SARAH SILVERMAN AND ISRAEL’S QUEST FOR SOLAR ENERGY
By Yosef I. Abramowitz – Jerusalem Post
September 29th, 2016 “It is classic Peres, at his very best. Deep voice, poetic words, inspiration as bright as the sun that day. Jucha, in setting up the visit, knew the idealism of the people of the Arava is what would give Peres energy, and Peres, on his tour of the experimental solar park at the Arava Institute, returned the favor to all around him. He implores us to fight the bureaucracy until we win the solar battle.”
ISRAELI SOLAR TECH COULD MAKE CLEAN WATER A GLOBAL REALITY
By Sharon Udasin – Jerusalem Post
September 22nd, 2016 “Remote villages around the world world that lack access to both electricity and potable water may soon be able to quench their thirst, with the development of an Israeli solar powered water distillation system.”
THE ISRAELI DESERT THROUGH THE EYES OF STUDENTS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD
By Ziv Reinstein – Walla.co.il
July 28th, 2016 “As part of the [photo] competition, students were asked to take a picture that to them represents the unique experience of studying in an isolated place like the Arava desert. Among the most remarkable images in the exhibition are photos taken by students from the Arab city Umm al-Fahm (Israel), Mendoza (Argentina), New York and Colorado (US), as well as a photo of an Israeli student from Ashkelon.”
ARAVA BUILDING NETWORK OF SCIENTISTS, POLICYMAKERS
By Sue Fishkoff – Jweekly.com
July 21st, 2016
“The institute opened at Ketura in 1996 aiming to facilitate cross-border cooperation in the face of conflict. By focusing on finding real-world solutions to environmental problems affecting the region, the institute has forged ahead through wars, terror scares and regime changes, bringing together a diverse group of students each year: one-third Israeli Jews, one-third Arabs and one-third international.”
TREES NEED LOVE TOO: SINGLE ISRAELI PALM SEEKS GIRL SEED FOR HOT DATES
JNF Impact
July 18th, 2016 “In what was thought to be a botanically impossible feat, Dr. Elaine Solowey of JNF partner the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies (AIES) managed to sprout a date palm from a 2,000-year-old seed excavated at Masada. Now she’s looking for a female seed to procreate with that miracle male tree, thereby continuing the species. We’re so proud of the AIES’ work, we thought we’d give this tree with ancient roots a little modern help finding its basheret.”
NAKED MOB PHOTOGRAPHER SPENCER TUNICK RETURNS TO THE DEAD SEA
Green Prophet
July 8th, 2016
“In 2011, artist Spencer Tunick incited hundreds of people to shed their inhibitions (and their clothes) to raise awareness to the environmental threats facing the Dead Sea. This September, five years after that mass naked photo shoot, at the request of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, he will return to check on the worsening sea situation.”
“For my eco lab, we traveled, with a group of high school students who lived in the surroundingkibbutzim, to a nearby Jordanian village, called Rahme. This village is located directly across from Kibbutz Ketura, home to the Arava Institute; we are only separated by an international border in the short bit of desert between us. This environmental outreach was a way to build a relationship between desert neighbors.”
YALA NEW MEDIA & CITIZEN JOURNALISM LEADERS TO RECEIVE 2016 IIE VICTOR J. GOLDBERG PRIZE FOR PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Institute for International Education
June 2nd, 2016 “Sarah Perle Benazera is a peace-believer, peace-activist, storyteller and educator, with years of hands-on experience in international and inter-cultural dialogue working at the people-to-people level for a better Middle East. In addition to working as a project manager at YaLa Young Leaders, she has been involved in various Peace and Cooperation projects, organizing conferences, participating in panels and programs about peace education and cooperation, and working and volunteering with Kid4Peace Jerusalem. She has studied Environmental Studies and cross-border cooperation at Sde Boker and the Arava Institute.“
JOINING HANDS TO BUILD A GREEN FUTURE IN THE MIDEAST
By Abigail Klein Leichman – Israel21c.org
May 19, 2016 “On Kibbutz Ketura in Israel’s Arava desert, more than 800 students from Israel and other countries have torn down barriers over the past two decades to find cooperative solutions for regional environmental challenges.
This year, the non-profit Arava Institute for Environmental Studies is sponsoring concerts, conferences and public forums in celebration of its 20th anniversary of innovative environmental and peace-building work.”
SOLAR PROJECT PAIRS MUSLIMS AND JEWS TO AID WEST BANK FARMERS
By James Glanz And Rami Nazzal – New York Times
May 15, 2016
“Solar panels dot some of the poorest Arab villages in the West Bank and Israel, often donated by European governments. But experts in the field say the $100,000 project here in Auja is the first substantial one to be financed by a group involving both Jews and Muslims in the United States, and to have both Israeli Jews and Palestinian Muslims on its technical team. In addition to its environmental benefits, the solar project gives an economic push to farmers who struggle with unreliable and expensive electricity.”
By Malia Guyer-Stevens – The Bennington Free Press
May 10, 2016
“Each of the new relationships that Bennington now enjoys with these centers and institutions offer unique opportunities for Bennington students to apply what they learn in the classroom to work on the ground – and this extends beyond subjects taught in CAPA.”
“Methuselah, the Judean Date Palm – links the past to the present through agriculture and archeology. One of the world’s most ancient species, it is being revived after 2,000 years at the Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Israel.”
THE ISRAELI WHO IS MAKING THE WILDERNESS BLOOM IN THE MOST ISOLATED PLACE IN THE WORLD
walla.co.il
May 2, 2016
“After a six-hour flight to Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, a two-hour flight to Nairobi, capital of Kenya, another two-hour flight to the desert town of Lodwar in the Turkana district in Northern Kenya, and finally a seven-hour drive on winding sand roads, I arrived at the most isolated place in the world – Lobur.”
ARAVA INSTITUTE TACKLES CROSS-BORDER ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
April 25, 2016
Nature knows no borders. At the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, this is more than just a slogan. It’s the mission that brings Israeli, Palestinian, Jordanian and international students together to tackle the environmental issues of the Middle East.
The Arava Institute, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, was founded to build bridges between peoples in the Middle East based on their common concerns for the environment. Environmental issues such as water, nature conservation, air pollution and waste water treatment are all cross-border environmental issues that, in the end, can only be addressed through cross-border cooperation.
THE ARAVA INSTITUTE NOMINATED FOR A BILLION ACTS HERO AWARD
April 14, 2016
The Arava Institute has been nominated as a Semifinalist in the Best University Act category of the Billions Acts of Peace Awards!
One Billion Acts of Peace is a United Nations supported initiative lead by 13 Nobel Peace Prize winners, including the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Shirin Ebadi, with the goal of creating one billion acts of peace worldwide by 2019. The team at Billion Acts has chosen work from millions of Acts that were logged worldwide.
The Billion Acts Hero Awards recognize exceptional projects and initiatives for peace. Ten semifinalists were chosen by the jury based on the reach and impact of each project, and five winners are then determined through public online voting. These five initiatives will be honored at the Hero Awards ceremony in Monte Carlo in June 2016, receiving a Hero Award from a Nobel Peace Laureate.
To read more, click here. To give us your vote, click here!
WHERE HAWKS AND DOVES FLY TOGETHER
By Martin J. Raffel and Dan Diker – The Jerusalem Post
April 12, 2016
“The Arava Institute brings together leaders from Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan and around the world to address regional and global environmental challenges.
Tens of thousands are currently engaged in people-to-people programs organized by such NGOs, many of which operate on shoestring budgets and have long waiting lists. These programs have a ripple effect, touching not only the direct participants but their families and communities as well. They often have a stabilizing influence, reducing violence and the hatred that gives rise to it. A substantial international fund would enable these NGOs to scale up and extend the impact.”
“Meet: The place where Palestinians, Jordanians and Israelis study together in harmony – student from Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and additional countries around the world, are learning together at the Arava Institute in Ketura. Between their research they get to know the Other, acquire tools for environmental leadership, live in enviable coexistence and dream of dialogue and peace in the Middle East.“
“Shmuel Brenner, the director of the Center for Sustainable Development at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, knows about Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. He was the lead Israeli professional on an environmental committee created under the Oslo Accords in 1995, and he has maintained contacts for environmental and water discussions through the years, including those developed at the Arava Institute.”
ISRAEL ARAVA INSTITUTE ADDRESSES WATER SHORTAGES WITH UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND STUDENTS
By Samuel Antezana – University of Maryland’s The Diamondback
March 28, 2016
“The Arava Institute can play an extensive role in creating solutions to water shortages in the Middle East and slowly in other parts of the world,” Brenner said. “It brings together Israelis, Arabs, Americans, Europeans and other people from around the world.”
Israel has the highest rate of water recycling in the world, and the techniques used in water treatment and conservation that are taught at the Arava Institute — an environmental studies and research program — helped this along, he said.”
ISRAEL SOLAR OUTFIT SEEKS TO BE ‘SUPERPOWER OF GOODNESS’
By Dan Pine – JWeekly.com
March 17, 2016
“This is the home of the Arava Institute,” he [Yosef Abramowitz] said, referring to the prestigious environmental studies school that draws Jewish and Arab students from across the region. “I said it was crazy that there was no solar power, and I was told, ‘No one is crazy enough to take on the Israeli government.’ With his NGO mindset, he first pondered a nonprofit approach to solar power, but the $20 billion price tag to reach 20 percent of the Israeli electrical grid persuaded him he’d have to take the for-profit route. After five years and 100 regulatory battles with the state, Energiya lit up.”
“JCC board member Barbara Spack outlined 10 unique places to visit in Israel, including Kibbutz Keturah in the Negev, founded in 1973 by veterans of Young Judaea, the youth movement of Hadassah. It has developed thriving agriculture, a solar venture, and algae farms. It is also home to the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies and Together in the Arava, a home for adults with special needs.”
YOSEF ABRAMOWITZ: ENERGIZED TO CHANGE THE WORLD THROUGH SOLAR
By Todd Feinburg – Jewish Journal
March 2, 2016
“Abramowitz asked and was shocked by the answer – there wasn’t a solar field on Kibbutz Ketura, nor on other kibbutzim in the area. In fact, while solar hot water heaters have long been common in Israel, the resistance of a society weighted down with bureaucracy and a single, government controlled power company made such innovation difficult. “No one is crazy enough to fight the politics and the bureaucracy in Israel,” to get the permits necessary to construct such infrastructure, Abramowitz was told.”
ISRAEL, JORDAN AND PALESTINIANS DISCUSS WATER CO-OPERATION
Jewish News Online UK
February 23, 2016
“Water specialists from Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories met last week in the gorgeously gilded surroundings of London’s Lancaster House to discuss the possibilities of regional water co-operation. The all-day seminar, held by the Anglo-Israel Association in co-operation with Israel’s Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, also attracted industrial and academic specialists from Britain, each eager to learn from each other and trade knowledge and information.”
“Bubbles not Bullets: A Jewish student wearing a Kippah and an Arab student wrapped in a Keffiyeh stand on either side of a fence and, along with their friends, blow bubbles at each other. Students from around the world initiated and act in this video which was created to promote coexistence and calm in order to inspire hope for non-violent and patient dialogue.“
Robkin called Noa the world’s greatest singer and said he has traveled around the United States and Israel to hear her. But the concert did not sell out Morgan Hall at KSU’s Bailey Performance Center even though it was all about support for the Arava Institute, a Jewish National Fund partner, and for the Israel Ride, a five-day, 300-mile bicycle ride benefiting the institute, JNF and environmental organization Hazon.”
MODERN-DAY METHUSELAH: ISRAELI DATE PALM SPROUTS FROM 2,000-YEAR-OLD SEED
BreakingIsraelNews.com
January 29, 2016
“Methuselah is considered to have been the oldest living man in the Hebrew bible, reaching the esteemed age of 969. It is only appropriate, then, that a date palm that sprouted from a 2,000-year-old seed at southern Israel’s Arava Institute for Environmental Studies (AIES) carries the same name.”
ISRAEL’S LARGEST SOLAR FIELD BEGINS FLOWING TO THE NATIONAL GRID
BreakingIsraelNews.com
January 29, 2016
“Officials in the Arava on Wednesday inaugurated Israel’s largest photovoltaic field, completing a journey six years in the making. The system already began providing the country with electricity several days ago. “In six days, a million-and-a-half kilowatt hours have been uploaded to the national grid,” Arava Power Company CEO Jon Cohen told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.”
“Of the original strain known as the Judean date palm, there is hope for its reintroduction to Israeli soil. In 2005, one of three 2,000-year-old date seeds discovered in the 1963 excavations at Masada, and kept in storage, was successfully germinated by scientist Elaine Solowey, director of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies at Kibbutz Ketura in the southern Negev. For luck, she planted the pits on Tu B’Shvat, after first soaking them in warm water with plant hormones and enzymatic fertilizer made from seaweed. By 2007, this single seedling, which she named Methuselah, was three and a half feet tall”
THIS IS HOW TO USE YOUR FOOD SCRAPS TO MAKE ENERGY
By Kira Brekke – Huffington Post
January 18, 2016
“You might want to give a second thought to tossing out your food waste. A company called HomeBioGas makes a device that converts food and animal waste into energy that can be used to power food prep. In the video above, watch Ami Amir, who does marking and business development for the company, discuss how the product is helping both off-grid rural communities and more affluent ones cut yearly waste while providing access to renewable energy.”
THE ISRAEL RIDE: OFF THE BEATEN PATH FROM JERUSALEM
By Vivian Henoch – myJewishDetroit
January 2016
“The Israel Ride started as a peace initiative of the Arava Institute, a leading think tank in Israel working with Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian students in search of common ground on which to broaden their understanding of the region and its challenges working towards environmental sustainability on issues of water, solar power, land use, forestation and energy.”
AVID BICYCLE RIDER EXPERIENCES ISRAEL WHILE HELPING COUNTRY
By Jayne Jacova Feld – Jewish Community Voice in New Jersey December 9, 2015
“As a means of exercise, stress release and an opportunity to enjoy the great outdoors, it just doesn’t get better than bike riding for Alan Finkelstein. So when Finkelstein learned of the existence of destination bike rides organized in support of charities, it was a complete revelation. And while all have unique charms, nothing comes close to the thrill of the Arava Institute/Hazon Israel Ride. Every year, bikers from North America and beyond gather in Jerusalem for the 350-mile weeklong journey to Eilat through the Negev while raising money for Jewish environmental groups. More than just a ride, it is a spiritual homecoming, said Finkelstein, who first participated in 2010 and, most recently, in November.”
“With slight variations, this scene has repeated itself at the Arava Institute on and off almost every year since the Second Intifada in 2002 until today, due to the eruption of a war, military operation or security situation involving Israel and the Palestinians and the fact that since 1996 the Arava Institute has hosted Israeli, Palestinian, Jordanian and international students in a two-semester academic program teaching environmental students.
Students live together in a small campus on Kibbutz Ketura in the southern Arava desert; Jews and Arabs in the same rooms, sharing tea, coffee, computers and space.”
OFF THE ELECTRICITY GRID? SOLUTIONS ARE BEING PROPOSED IN THE ARAVA
By Zafrir Rinat – Haaretz November 1, 2015
“Thousands of families in the center of Israel turned angrily to electricity network operators this week because they disappointed them in a time of need. But there are many places in the world where there is no one to be angry with because there is no connection to the electricity grid at all. To benefit these areas, a demonstration center for technologies that can aid residents in off grid communities, was recently established in the Arava. The Off Grid Technology Demonstration Center is based in Kibbutz Ketura, where the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies operates.“
By Shiri Hadar and Amit Kuttler – ynet.co.il October 27, 2015
“200 Americans from Canada and the United States came to Israel this week on an initiative by the Arava Institute, to ride a bicycle on a long and hard journey from Jerusalem to Eilat. All in order to raise funds for projects between Jews, Arabs, Palestinians and Jordanians. Two of the riders came to the Ynet studio to talk about why they decided to do that.“
To read more in Hebrew and watch a video interview with the riders in English, click here.
LONE SAVIORS
By Igal Sarna – Yedioth Ahronoth October 23, 2015
“Around us lay algae farms, solar fields, alternative energy research facilities, and the world seemed full of possibilities and dreams of peace that have been forgotten and are waiting for their time.“
By Laura Cole – Geographical.co.uk October 8, 2015
“Located on Kibbutz Ketura, on the Israeli border with Jordan, the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies has, for 20 years, brought together undergraduate and graduate university students from both sides of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict to teach and talk about environmental issues.
Recognised as one of the top environmental think tanks in the world, it is now a key player in issues such as water scarcity, sustainable agriculture and cross-border nature conservation – problems that defy disputed borders. Even during some of the worst periods of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the Arava Institute has managed to maintain a diverse student body.”
By Michael Margaretten Cohen – International Policy Digest July 14, 2015
“There are scores and scores of Palestinian and Israeli People to People (P2P) organizations within the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP) such as the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, the Parents Circle, PeacePlayers, the Search for Common Ground, the Jerusalem YMCA, Kids4Peace and countless other organizations who day in, day out build long-term bonds and dependence between Palestinians and Israelis as well as mitigating the foundation stone of perception.”
CNN HERO AND ARAVA INSTITUTE RECEIVE AWARDS AT GALA
Drew University April 27, 2015
“Drew CRCC will also present a Peacebuilder Award to the Arava Institute of Environmental Studies, a premier environmental studies and research institute that brings together students from around the Middle East to solve contemporary environmental challenges while promoting cooperation in the region. David Lehrer, executive director of the institute, will accept the award.”
IN THE MIDDLE EAST, MUSLIMS AND JEWS WORK IN UNISON TO CARE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
By Antonia Blumberg – Huffington Post Religion April 21, 2015
“Before arriving at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Israel in 2010, Yosra Albakkar, 28, had never met an Israeli or a Jewish person. That would soon change, as the Jordanian Muslim woman got to know her fellow students — who hailed from Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian territories and North America — and formed friendships that would last for years to come.”
Editorial – The Jerusalem Post April 1, 2015 “Israeli NGOs, research institutes, and local communities are also paving the way. Kibbutz Lotan runs a fellowship for those interested in sustainable development. The Arava Institute runs programs for sustainable development that also encourage innovative small-scale initiatives that can reduce poverty or empower local communities.”
METHUSELAH PALM GROWN FROM 2,000-YEAR-OLD SEED IS A FATHER
By John Roach – National Geographic March 24, 2015 “He is a big boy now,” says Elaine Solowey, who works with Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Kibbutz Ketura in Israel.
“He is over three meters [ten feet] tall, he’s got a few offshoots, he has flowers, and his pollen is good,” she says. “We pollinated a female with his pollen, a wild [modern] female, and yeah, he can make dates.”
WATER AS A CHALLENGE, AND ANSWER, IN MIDEAST PEACE TALKS
By Rabbi Michael M. Cohen – The Jewish Week: New York March 18, 2014
“Dr. Clive Lipchin is director of Center for Transboundary Water Management at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies. In an address at Bennington College’s Center for the Advancement of Public Action Water Dialogues, he shared a plan to use desalinization as a game-changer for regional water management and cooperation in the Middle East, particularly the Jordan River. As he stated, the growing populations of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Jordan outpacing, in Malthusian dimensions, the availability of fresh water adds yearly to the regional stresses.”
By Allie Freedman – The Jerusalem Post December 31, 2013
“With tons of philanthropies and charity work, here are some of the top Israeli charities to look out for in 2014: Arava Institute for Environmental Studies – It is all about water. The Arava Institute of Environmental Studies is an accredited academic program that trains future leaders on environmental issues in Kibbutz Ketura. By using the environment as a source, they bring together Jews and Arabs toward the same goal.”
By Rabbi Michael M. Cohen – Huffington Post July 18, 2011
“On a lonely gate facing a desolate sun-drenched open plain of the Arava Valley one can see a mezuzah, the small rectangular box containing writing from the Bible. It was put there following the Biblical injunction to place it on “your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:9). The Arava valley where this gate and mezuzah are found is the same valley used more than 100,000 years ago by our earliest human ancestors as an entrance route into Asia as humanity began to spread out of Africa.”
119 ORGANIZATIONS SHAKING UP THE FOOD SYSTEM IN 2019
“Dennis Ross came here to make a statement that although the political process is so frozen right now, and hope seems so distant, there are some areas, and the environment is one of them, where perhaps there can be some sense of faith and trust.”
“Work in Turkana includes providing agricultural training, equipment and professional accompaniment. Advanced Israeli technology is also utilized to install solar-powered water pumps to irrigate the fields. Agricultural crops being produced by Turkana farmers include dates, melons, watermelons, eggplants and okra. These are not crops that the locals were previously familiar with, so the volunteers had to teach them what to do with these vegetables and how to cook them.”
“‘I think it was important to bring the two alumni from the Arava Institute to the class since it puts a real face and presence of what we read about,’ said Cohen. ‘Broadening the horizon, getting the big picture, and the nuances of a conflict also contain lessons that can be used here as well.’”
“The Center for Transboundary Water Management, directed by Dr. Clive Lipchin, provides a platform for regional water professionals and policy makers to cooperate in water conservation, desalination, wastewater treatment and education. The Center facilitates direct communication among regional water professionals in the three lower riparian states of the Jordan River and Dead Sea Basin (Israel, Palestine and Jordan). The open dialogue that is made possible by the center enables the flow of data and, most importantly, establishes long-lasting relationships built on trust and integrity between those who are responsible for the sustainable management of the region’s fragile water resources.”
“Lipchin is also piloting technologies that decontaminate sewage and purify greywater used for washing and showering. While sewage is broken down by bacteria in septic tanks, greywater is channeled to a gravel bed populated by bacteria and then reused for irrigation of high-value crops including olive, grapes, and citrus fruits.”
“Solowey still oversees Methuselah’s upbringing. Her job consists of finding new, useful crops for the dry Middle Eastern climate. She hadn’t planned to work with plants this old. ‘You want me to do what?’ she recalls asking her future partner, Dr. Sarah Sallon, a natural medicine researcher in Jerusalem. Working together, they could test both the plant’s physical endurance and any medicinal potential that may have been lost to time.”
“‘At the end of the day, it’s not a community that only wants to connect Jordanian hip hop dancers with students from Puerto Rico, it’s a place to face the reality of the Middle East, of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I’ve been in a lot of Israeli-Palestinian programs, and it’s always very specific to one issue and time. At the Arava Institute, it’s a continuous experience, you live with those people, make Shakshouka with them, and that opens up the opportunity for a much deeper relationship.’”
“‘The Arava Institute gives students a much broader perspective on the world, which is particularly important considering issues like climate change and peace building, which are so vital to our future,’ said Cohen. ‘Arava becomes a place where you can not only study and live within these values, but also bring those lessons home.’”
“Refusing to engage, as some students at GW are proposing, only serves to embolden hard-liners on both sides of the spectrum and makes solving the serious issues facing the Middle East even more difficult. Rather, change should be brought about through cross-cultural opportunities for people from opposing viewpoints to listen, learn and understand – opportunities that are often thought impossible, but that organizations like the Arava Institute and others prove really can exist.”
“It was great to study and get involved in projects that are valuable for everyday life and the optimization of natural resources in Jordan, Israel and Palestine. I traveled together with Jordanians to understand environmental problems around the Dead Sea, and I studied greywater systems in Auja, near Jericho, with Palestinians and Germans.”
“Their work, like Gigi’s, is grounded in pragmatism. We need to grow food in the desert – how can we do that best? We have limited access to fossil fuels – let’s develop alternatives! There are environmental problems to be solved, and if we can focus on the task at hand, in this view, we will achieve small, concrete victories which are themselves worthwhile, but which can also add up to broader successes.”
Alumnus Muhanad Alkharaz in the Boston based radio broadcast “This Week in Palestine”, about his experience at the Arava Institute: “It takes a lot of time, actually, to really understand that that’s what’s happening on the other side. And all that matters is that you listen and understand. You don’t have to justify anything, you don’t have to agree with anything, you just need to understand. Because the other side also has to understand you. […] I can tell you one thing, that Israelis and Palestinians usually form the strongest relationships at the Institute.”
“The students develop mutual relationships with foreign countries by interacting with classmates. Their hope is that Arava alumni will help govern their countries and, as a result of a mutual respect for one another, resolve issues better and with little conflict.
“As the New Year dawned, law students, business and economics graduate students and post doctorate scientists departed for a week-long trip through Israel to study water reuse. Funded in part by a grant from the University of Maryland Baltimore’s Center for Global Education Initiatives, the students and scientists toured Israel to study water reuse and, ultimately, draft a report for Clive Lipchin and the Arava Institute focused on the Institute’s efforts to incorporate sustainable water reuse technologies in the Palestinian territory.”
“The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies’ “Off Grid Hub” tests and models technology for communities that are disconnected from public utilities like water, electricity and sewage. It is part of the institute’s goal of improving environmental and human interests in the region through environmental cooperation. The tanks producing cooking gas are designed for use by Negev Bedouin, while the crops and water purification systems were developed with Kenya’s Turkana region, which has a climate similar to the Arava Valley, in mind.”
“The Off-Grid Demonstration Village serves as a crucial step of validation between the research and development phase and implementation in developing countries. This testing ground encourages startups and larger companies to experiment with new ideas and gives them a space to demonstrate their products to potential investors, educators, and other innovators. Open to visitors, this inspiring village hidden away in an unlikely place in the desert is part of a greater aim to tackle world poverty by improving the quality of life for the millions who live off grid, one clean tech solution at a time.”
“On Election Day I will be taking off from Jerusalem along with 195 bicyclists on a 5-day adventure known as the Israel Ride. We have been asking friends and family to support our ride by contributing to the well-known Israeli environmental program – Arava Institute – that brings Arabs, Jews and Christians together in a model of cooperation to learn environmental stewardship of the holy land they all share.”
“Both speakers spoke of their deep desire for real coexistence, which can develop from respect for humanity and religion and from communication and cooperation, on an issue that has no borders, such as protecting the environment.”
“As part of the [photo] competition, students were asked to take a picture that to them represents the unique experience of studying in an isolated place like the Arava desert. Among the most remarkable images in the exhibition are photos taken by students from the Arab city Umm al-Fahm (Israel), Mendoza (Argentina), New York and Colorado (US), as well as a photo of an Israeli student from Ashkelon.”
“The institute opened at Ketura in 1996 aiming to facilitate cross-border cooperation in the face of conflict. By focusing on finding real-world solutions to environmental problems affecting the region, the institute has forged ahead through wars, terror scares and regime changes, bringing together a diverse group of students each year: one-third Israeli Jews, one-third Arabs and one-third international.”
“In what was thought to be a botanically impossible feat, Dr. Elaine Solowey of JNF partner the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies (AIES) managed to sprout a date palm from a 2,000-year-old seed excavated at Masada. Now she’s looking for a female seed to procreate with that miracle male tree, thereby continuing the species. We’re so proud of the AIES’ work, we thought we’d give this tree with ancient roots a little modern help finding its basheret.”
“For my eco lab, we traveled, with a group of high school students who lived in the surroundingkibbutzim, to a nearby Jordanian village, called Rahme. This village is located directly across from Kibbutz Ketura, home to the Arava Institute; we are only separated by an international border in the short bit of desert between us. This environmental outreach was a way to build a relationship between desert neighbors.”
“Sarah Perle Benazera is a peace-believer, peace-activist, storyteller and educator, with years of hands-on experience in international and inter-cultural dialogue working at the people-to-people level for a better Middle East. In addition to working as a project manager at YaLa Young Leaders, she has been involved in various Peace and Cooperation projects, organizing conferences, participating in panels and programs about peace education and cooperation, and working and volunteering with Kid4Peace Jerusalem. She has studied Environmental Studies and cross-border cooperation at Sde Boker and the Arava Institute.“
“On Kibbutz Ketura in Israel’s Arava desert, more than 800 students from Israel and other countries have torn down barriers over the past two decades to find cooperative solutions for regional environmental challenges.
“Water specialists from Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories met last week in the gorgeously gilded surroundings of London’s Lancaster House to discuss the possibilities of regional water co-operation. The all-day seminar, held by the Anglo-Israel Association in co-operation with Israel’s Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, also attracted industrial and academic specialists from Britain, each eager to learn from each other and trade knowledge and information.”
“Bubbles not Bullets: A Jewish student wearing a Kippah and an Arab student wrapped in a Keffiyeh stand on either side of a fence and, along with their friends, blow bubbles at each other. Students from around the world initiated and act in this video which was created to promote coexistence and calm in order to inspire hope for non-violent and patient dialogue.“
“As a means of exercise, stress release and an opportunity to enjoy the great outdoors, it just doesn’t get better than bike riding for Alan Finkelstein. So when Finkelstein learned of the existence of destination bike rides organized in support of charities, it was a complete revelation. And while all have unique charms, nothing comes close to the thrill of the Arava Institute/Hazon Israel Ride. Every year, bikers from North America and beyond gather in Jerusalem for the 350-mile weeklong journey to Eilat through the Negev while raising money for Jewish environmental groups. More than just a ride, it is a spiritual homecoming, said Finkelstein, who first participated in 2010 and, most recently, in November.”
“Thousands of families in the center of Israel turned angrily to electricity network operators this week because they disappointed them in a time of need. But there are many places in the world where there is no one to be angry with because there is no connection to the electricity grid at all. To benefit these areas, a demonstration center for technologies that can aid residents in off grid communities, was recently established in the Arava. The Off Grid Technology Demonstration Center is based in Kibbutz Ketura, where the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies operates.“
“200 Americans from Canada and the United States came to Israel this week on an initiative by the Arava Institute, to ride a bicycle on a long and hard journey from Jerusalem to Eilat. All in order to raise funds for projects between Jews, Arabs, Palestinians and Jordanians. Two of the riders came to the Ynet studio to talk about why they decided to do that.“
“Around us lay algae farms, solar fields, alternative energy research facilities, and the world seemed full of possibilities and dreams of peace that have been forgotten and are waiting for their time.“
“Located on Kibbutz Ketura, on the Israeli border with Jordan, the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies has, for 20 years, brought together undergraduate and graduate university students from both sides of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict to teach and talk about environmental issues.
“Before arriving at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Israel in 2010, Yosra Albakkar, 28, had never met an Israeli or a Jewish person. That would soon change, as the Jordanian Muslim woman got to know her fellow students — who hailed from Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian territories and North America — and formed friendships that would last for years to come.”
“He is a big boy now,” says Elaine Solowey, who works with Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Kibbutz Ketura in Israel.
“Dr. Clive Lipchin is director of Center for