Sour green plums the size of large marbles are in the shuk now, a seasonal favorite of the Iraqi community. Eat them out of hand as a snack, sprinkling each bite with a little salt. The classic Iraqi way to cook them is to pair them with meat in a flavorful stew. And if you […]
We should all keep an eye on the Levant this summer as it manages a severe energy crisis, because what is currently unfolding on a regional scale is likely to eventually take place internationally as well. Israel, Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Territories are all taxed by dwindling energy supplies and rising demand, and each country’s […]
I just spit out my coffee. About to move house for the fifth time in as many years, I take a day to escape the cardboard box Himalayas towering in the living room. Plus there’s heavy construction going on next door, and it sounds like all of Amman’s stray cats are in heat. I grab a laptop and […]
A list of women’s names written in cuneiform is the only remnant of this unidentified language, which was spoken 2,500 years ago. Found in the remains of an enormous palace that was destroyed by a fire around 700 BCE, the clay tablet pictured above holds the only remnants of a language previously unknown to modern […]
An Islamic bank in Jordan, Sanabel, has bought up over a quarter of a Congo forest for ‘sustainable projects’ When I first read about the acquisition of 500,000 hectares of high value forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo by an Islamic investment bank in Jordan, I thought one thing: land grab. Over the last […]
Meged oil field, in Israel. Last week two environmental representatives were added to Israel’s Petroleum Council, according to the Jerusalem Post. The council has been restructured to include a total of 13 members, including seven members of the public. As Israel’s ongoing court dispute between government officials and national gas distributors proves, the industry has […]
Forest in central Israel, as seen from Ein Karem Some architects and economists are proposing Israel solve its affordable housing crisis by turning central Israel into a “megacity,” similar to Hong Kong, and moving the nation’s lush nature reserves and agricultural lands to the Negev and the Galilee. Supporters of this solution insist it would […]
Black plumes go airborne from burning Byblos Carpet Factory fire in Lebanon. Lebanon has had more than its share of various air and surface pollution issues in recent years. Some of these issues have included dumping loads of garbage straight into the Mediterranean; as well as a giant garbage mound in Sidon that is so […]
Conservationists in Jordan have criticized a news website for reporting positively on a video which shows two men posing with a dead owl they claim to have killed Images have emerged of more animal rights abuse in the Middle East – this time in Jordan. A video was posted on a Jordanian news site showing […]
Visit Autopooling.com to car pool in Lebanon. It is often true that through hardship people naturally become more resourceful. Carpooling first became prominent in the United States as a rationing tactic during World War II. It returned in the mid 1970s due to the 1973 oil crisis and the 1979 energy crisis and it has […]
Two Israeli women founded TIPA – the first company in Israel to offer 100% biodegradable and recyclable beverage packaging, as an alternative to plastics. This is a particularly difficult feat to achieve. Daphna Nissenbaum and Tal Neuman founded the company in 2010 in order to address the dire need for packaging that is genuinely ecologically-sensitive. […]
Saudi Arabia has finally noticed it has twenty centuries of solar reserves and has made plans to tap them. For its own use.The Kingdom has just announced a $109 billion plan to create a solar industry that generates a third of the nation’s electricity by 2032, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. Maher al- Odan, a consultant at the King […]
Raising the profile of Morocco's talented artisans and putting money in their pocket, this fantastic project also has unsung environmental benefits as hundreds of pounds of rubber has been diverted from the city's already overburdened landfills.
Tomatoes are staple to the Israeli diet; Israel looks to Jordan to augment its tomato supply. Last year a spike in cottage cheese prices helped spark the tent protests in Tel Aviv and inspired the worldwide Occupy movement. Cottage is a staple of the Israeli diet, so much so that it became a national symbol […]
Palmaculture is a new name for an old concept – one which helped green the Middle East with traditional palm gardens called bustans For centuries now date palm groves have been present in the hot deserts of MENA stretching from Morocco in the west to Yemen in the south. Indeed these man-made ecosystems have been […]