As we’ve mentioned often here at Green Prophet, nature knows no boundaries. The environment, therefore, can provide a powerful incentive for collaboration amidst conflict.
Last week, in yet another example of cross-border environmental cooperation, the Council for a Beautiful Israel brought 25 Palestinian teachers and educators to their educational center in Tel Aviv for special training in environmental education.
The training was modeled after previous cooperation between the Council for a Beautiful Israel and the Towns Association for Environmental Quality, Agan Beit Natufa, a leading environmental organization among Israel’s minority Palestinian (Arab-Israeli) sector.
The delegation, all members of the Palestinian Authority’s educational system, learned new ways to integrate environmental awareness into their classroom education and to involve municipal authorities in environmental matters.
Eshel Segel, head of the Council for a Beautiful Israel, said
We welcome this productive cooperation, which began a year ago, and we’re happy to do our part to raise environmental awareness among young people in the Palestinian Authority. We hope that this cooperation, in both pedagogy and environmental science, will bear fruit soon and we can all enjoy a better environment.
Hopefully this training session is only the beginning, and this cooperative spirit will continue to allow Israelis and Palestinians to work together to protect their shared environmental future!
:: Epoch Times (Hebrew)
:: Jerusalem Post
Image: C’est Moi!
More on Palestinian environmental education and awareness:
“The Good Water Project” Recruits Kids From Jordan, Israel and the PA To Learn How It’s All Water Under The Bridge
Bustan Qaraaqa: Permaculture and Empowerment For Palestinians in the West Bank
Palestinian Eco-Activism is on the Rise
Author: Rachel Bergstein
When her vegan summer camp counselor explained to a fifteen-year-old Rachel how the dairy industry pollutes the groundwater in poor rural communities and causes global warming, there was no turning back. Her green fire lit, Rachel became increasingly passionate about the relationship between human societies and the natural environment, particularly about the systemic injustices associated with environmental degradation. After snagging a B.A. in Peace and Justice Studies at the University of Maryland, where she wrote an undergraduate thesis on water injustice in Israel/Palestine and South Africa, Rachel was awarded the New Israel Fund/Shatil’s Rabbi Richard J. Israel Social Justice Fellowship to come and spread the green gospel in Israel for the 2009-2010 academic year. She currently interns for Friends of the Earth Middle East in their Tel Aviv office. When Rachel is not having anxiety about her ecological footprint, carbon and otherwise, she can be found in hot pursuit of the best vegetarian food Tel Aviv has to offer. She also blogs about her experience as an NIF fellow and environmentalist in Israel at organichummus.wordpress.com. Rachel can be reached at rachelbergstein (at) gmail (dot) com.
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