The Siraj Centre is offering walk and bike tours across the West Bank as well as an environmental-focused trip in 2012
The ‘Environment and Occupation Trip 2012’ tour will explore issues such as freedom of access to water and sanitation in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley. It will also be looking at deforestation issues and the tense relationship between Israeli settlers in the West Bank and Palestinians with regards to waste and pollution. The programme highlights includes visiting the city of Jericho, learning about the falling water levels of the Dead Sea and exploring permaculture projects in the region.
The tour which runs from 24 February – 5 March 2012, will arrange meetings with grassroots-level campaigners, politicians and experts on water and the environment. It will cost $2,400 with the price including meals, double room accommodation, reading materials and payment for all activities and transportation. To register your interest you need to get fill out an application and deposit $400. For more details get in touch with [email protected].
Organisers at Global Exchange are hoping to make the group taking part in the trip as diverse as possible in terms of race, age and life experiences. As such, they are strongly urging people of colour to apply. In some cases, a limited number of partial scholarships are available for low-income applicants.
Palestine is slowly building a reputation as a great location for eco-tourism. Fellow Green Prophet writer Sarah Irving has complied a list of Palestinian guesthouses where visitors can eat great food, meet new people and support organisations campaigning on everything from Bedouins, women’s right, environmental conservation, community arts and culture.
The Friends of the Earth Middle East (FOEME) Eco-Centre at Al-Auja, a Palestinian village in the Jordan Valley, was also recently expanded to include a guesthouse. As well as getting a taste of Palestinian hospitality, the centre helps educate visitors about the environmental problems facing the region.
All images via Guillaume Paumier/flickr
For more on eco-tourism in Palestine see:
A Whirlwind Tour of Palestinian Guesthouses
Eco-Tourism On The West Bank’s Elusive Sufi Trail
Jordan Valley Eco-centre Opens Community Guesthouse
Dear JTR,
While your suggestions make sense as general environment steps, they do not apply to Palestinians more than most people. Given these people struggle on so many levels (access to water being just one of many), dedicating some of their efforts to such a positive movement, is worth admiring and positively supporting.
Also point 1 implies that women are forced to have children. I do not know whether there are laws protecting the rights you mention, I am also not aware that women are forced to having children and I know at least dozens of palestinian families.
Their environmental efforts will fail unless they: 1. Peacefully reduce their population by giving each and every woman the legally protected right to decide if and when to conceive and birth her children; 2. Safely recycle 100% of all their human-generated waste materials; 3. Produce all their own food to live in balance with their environment.