Christ’s thorn jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi) also known as the sidr tree is a real, identifiable tree native to the Middle East, and it appears—directly or indirectly—in Islam, Judaism, and later Christian tradition. The connections between the three faiths are not theological agreements but overlapping uses, names, and symbolic associations rooted in the same landscape.
In Islamic tradition, there is a point where creation ends — a boundary that marks the limit of what any created being can reach. That boundary is called Sidrat al-Muntahā, often translated as “the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary.”
Air Tea is a new technology. Instead of drinking tea, you inhale herbal vapor through warm air extraction. There is no water and no combustion. The warm air releases essential oils that are often lost in hot water and digestion.
Health emerges from a continuous energy and material flow from water through food to human physiology. Technical energy systems support this cycle through water treatment, agriculture, and infrastructure.
Christ’s thorn jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi) also known as the sidr tree is a real, identifiable tree native to the Middle East, and it appears—directly or indirectly—in Islam, Judaism, and later Christian tradition. The connections between the three faiths are not theological agreements but overlapping uses, names, and symbolic associations rooted in the same landscape.
In Islamic tradition, there is a point where creation ends — a boundary that marks the limit of what any created being can reach. That boundary is called Sidrat al-Muntahā, often translated as “the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary.”
Air Tea is a new technology. Instead of drinking tea, you inhale herbal vapor through warm air extraction. There is no water and no combustion. The warm air releases essential oils that are often lost in hot water and digestion.
Health emerges from a continuous energy and material flow from water through food to human physiology. Technical energy systems support this cycle through water treatment, agriculture, and infrastructure.
Christ’s thorn jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi) also known as the sidr tree is a real, identifiable tree native to the Middle East, and it appears—directly or indirectly—in Islam, Judaism, and later Christian tradition. The connections between the three faiths are not theological agreements but overlapping uses, names, and symbolic associations rooted in the same landscape.
In Islamic tradition, there is a point where creation ends — a boundary that marks the limit of what any created being can reach. That boundary is called Sidrat al-Muntahā, often translated as “the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary.”
Air Tea is a new technology. Instead of drinking tea, you inhale herbal vapor through warm air extraction. There is no water and no combustion. The warm air releases essential oils that are often lost in hot water and digestion.
Health emerges from a continuous energy and material flow from water through food to human physiology. Technical energy systems support this cycle through water treatment, agriculture, and infrastructure.
Christ’s thorn jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi) also known as the sidr tree is a real, identifiable tree native to the Middle East, and it appears—directly or indirectly—in Islam, Judaism, and later Christian tradition. The connections between the three faiths are not theological agreements but overlapping uses, names, and symbolic associations rooted in the same landscape.
In Islamic tradition, there is a point where creation ends — a boundary that marks the limit of what any created being can reach. That boundary is called Sidrat al-Muntahā, often translated as “the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary.”
Air Tea is a new technology. Instead of drinking tea, you inhale herbal vapor through warm air extraction. There is no water and no combustion. The warm air releases essential oils that are often lost in hot water and digestion.
Health emerges from a continuous energy and material flow from water through food to human physiology. Technical energy systems support this cycle through water treatment, agriculture, and infrastructure.
Christ’s thorn jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi) also known as the sidr tree is a real, identifiable tree native to the Middle East, and it appears—directly or indirectly—in Islam, Judaism, and later Christian tradition. The connections between the three faiths are not theological agreements but overlapping uses, names, and symbolic associations rooted in the same landscape.
In Islamic tradition, there is a point where creation ends — a boundary that marks the limit of what any created being can reach. That boundary is called Sidrat al-Muntahā, often translated as “the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary.”
Air Tea is a new technology. Instead of drinking tea, you inhale herbal vapor through warm air extraction. There is no water and no combustion. The warm air releases essential oils that are often lost in hot water and digestion.
Health emerges from a continuous energy and material flow from water through food to human physiology. Technical energy systems support this cycle through water treatment, agriculture, and infrastructure.
Christ’s thorn jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi) also known as the sidr tree is a real, identifiable tree native to the Middle East, and it appears—directly or indirectly—in Islam, Judaism, and later Christian tradition. The connections between the three faiths are not theological agreements but overlapping uses, names, and symbolic associations rooted in the same landscape.
In Islamic tradition, there is a point where creation ends — a boundary that marks the limit of what any created being can reach. That boundary is called Sidrat al-Muntahā, often translated as “the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary.”
Air Tea is a new technology. Instead of drinking tea, you inhale herbal vapor through warm air extraction. There is no water and no combustion. The warm air releases essential oils that are often lost in hot water and digestion.
Health emerges from a continuous energy and material flow from water through food to human physiology. Technical energy systems support this cycle through water treatment, agriculture, and infrastructure.
Christ’s thorn jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi) also known as the sidr tree is a real, identifiable tree native to the Middle East, and it appears—directly or indirectly—in Islam, Judaism, and later Christian tradition. The connections between the three faiths are not theological agreements but overlapping uses, names, and symbolic associations rooted in the same landscape.
In Islamic tradition, there is a point where creation ends — a boundary that marks the limit of what any created being can reach. That boundary is called Sidrat al-Muntahā, often translated as “the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary.”
Air Tea is a new technology. Instead of drinking tea, you inhale herbal vapor through warm air extraction. There is no water and no combustion. The warm air releases essential oils that are often lost in hot water and digestion.
Health emerges from a continuous energy and material flow from water through food to human physiology. Technical energy systems support this cycle through water treatment, agriculture, and infrastructure.
Christ’s thorn jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi) also known as the sidr tree is a real, identifiable tree native to the Middle East, and it appears—directly or indirectly—in Islam, Judaism, and later Christian tradition. The connections between the three faiths are not theological agreements but overlapping uses, names, and symbolic associations rooted in the same landscape.
In Islamic tradition, there is a point where creation ends — a boundary that marks the limit of what any created being can reach. That boundary is called Sidrat al-Muntahā, often translated as “the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary.”
Air Tea is a new technology. Instead of drinking tea, you inhale herbal vapor through warm air extraction. There is no water and no combustion. The warm air releases essential oils that are often lost in hot water and digestion.
Health emerges from a continuous energy and material flow from water through food to human physiology. Technical energy systems support this cycle through water treatment, agriculture, and infrastructure.
Anyone who has ever experienced Bedouin hospitality will know that the kettle is always on in a Bedouin home: brewing either the strong bitter coffee, or a special infusion of sweet tea, brewed with desert herbs.
If you delve a bit further, you will hear that although the Bedouin know all about life and survival in a hot arid desert, they know where to find water, and know how to treasure the small amount available in desert terrain. With this in mind, based on my researches amongst the Bedouin tribes of the Negev over the past few years (see an example in this green prophet video here), I joined Rabbis For Human Rights (RHR) on a solidarity convoy to the unrecognised Bedouin village of Tel Arad last week.
Clever design, whether environmentally friendly or not, is something that everyone can appreciate. Who doesn’t love a passport case made out of map shower curtains, or a pencil sharpener that looks like an alligator? But we think that environmentally friendly design is almost always clever by default, because it reuses existing materials in creative and inventive ways.
It’s even more creative when the materials used reflect the function of the product.
Israeli designer Erez Mulay, a graduate of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design who develops recycled products, designs furniture, and creates ceramic and environmental sculpture, has created the cleverest wastepaper basket that we’ve ever seen. Made out of wasted paper, of course.
The basket is constructed out of thin rolls of magazine paper (which is sometimes hard to recycle due to all of the inks used) that are connected with cold adhesives that enable the ultimate recycling of the product when you’re done with it. These beautiful wastepaper baskets are made almost entirely by hand in an extremely low-tech process, meaning their production doesn’t have much of a carbon footprint.
But it gets even better. Mulay hires people with emotional disabilities to create the baskets at the Paper Work factory – a protected factory for creating unique design products out of recycled paper with locations in Ramleh and Rishon Lezion. Approximately 80 people between the ages of 20-60 work at the factory, and for many of them their work is their only chance to have a normal lifestyle.
Paper Work is part of the “Shekulo Tov” initiative (which designer Zohar Yarom and her fabric sample handbags are also a part of), which means that this simple yet clever wastepaper basket rehabilitates our natural resources while rehabilitating people’s lives as well. It is good and aesthetic all around.
To read more about environmentally conscious Israeli designers:
Fall is the season when Israelis take to the trails. Hiking is more than a pastime here—it’s practically a national sport. With the kids out of school, the long days stretching into golden evenings, and the lure of mountains, wadis, and streams, families, soldiers, and groups of friends lace up their boots and head outdoors.
Israel’s diverse landscapes make this easy to understand. Within just a few hours’ drive, you can cross desert canyons, Mediterranean coastline, lush Galilee forests, or the volcanic heights of the Golan. Each region tells its own story: ancient fortresses, Nabatean trade routes, Crusader castles, and desert springs where ibex wander down to drink.
For many, hiking is about rediscovering heritage. Paths often overlap with history: Masada at sunrise, the Jesus Trail in the Galilee, or the Israel National Trail which zigzags more than 1,000 kilometers from Eilat to the Lebanese border. To hike in Israel is to walk with memory beneath your feet.
But as beloved as hiking has become, it comes with a responsibility. Too often, breathtaking trails are scarred by carelessness. A candy wrapper fluttering in the wind, a crushed plastic bottle beside a stream, or worse—half-eaten lunches left behind—ruins the experience for everyone else and, more critically, for the fragile ecosystems that make Israel unique.
Be Nice to Our Land
The simplest act of respect for nature is also the most important: carry out what you carry in. If you pack sandwiches, snacks, or cold drinks for your hike, bring a bag to collect all the waste afterward. Tie it onto your backpack until you find a bin at the trailhead or on the drive home.
It might sound obvious, but small oversights accumulate. A single potato chip bag can linger for months. Plastic bottles left behind in the desert break down slowly under the scorching sun, leaching chemicals into the soil. Food scraps attract wild animals, altering their natural diet and making them dependent on humans.
When you hike, you are a guest. The land is not yours to dirty or alter. It belongs to everyone—humans and wildlife alike—and deserves the same respect you would give to someone’s home.
Hiking Smart and Light
Respecting the land also means preparing thoughtfully. Here are a few ways to make your summer hike lighter on the environment:
Reusable bottles: Carry water in a reusable flask or hydration pack. Israel’s heat is unforgiving—hydrate often—but avoid disposable plastics.
Eco-friendly snacks: Choose unpackaged fruit, sandwiches in reusable wraps, or snacks in small reusable containers instead of plastic bags.
Stay on the trail: Cutting across paths may seem harmless, but it damages fragile desert crusts or wildflower patches. Stick to marked routes.
Respect wildlife: Observe from a distance. Don’t feed ibex, hyraxes, or birds; human food harms them.
Leave no trace: If you see trash others left behind, set an example by picking it up. Kids especially learn more from what you do than what you say.
A Culture of Care
Israelis are passionate hikers, but the land is small and the population dense. This means that careless behavior has a magnified impact. Each summer, parks authorities and eco-groups run campaigns urging hikers to keep trails clean, and volunteers often organize “green hikes” to collect litter while walking. Joining one of these is not only a chance to protect the land but also a way to meet fellow nature lovers.
Ultimately, the way we hike reflects the way we see ourselves in relation to the land. Do we treat it as a disposable playground? Or do we see it as sacred—worthy of respect, stewardship, and gratitude?
Don’t Let Israel Become a Garbage Country
Hiking is supposed to refresh the body and spirit, not remind us of bad habits. Each of us has the power to decide whether Israel’s trails will sparkle under the summer sun or be tarnished by trash.
So this summer, when you pack your gear, take one extra bag. Use it to carry your waste, and maybe a bit of someone else’s. Be kind to the land that sustains us, to the history beneath your feet, and to the next hiker who comes along.
Because a hike in Israel should end with tired legs, full hearts, and unforgettable views—not with a trail of garbage in your wake.
Two brothers wanted to thank God for what he had given them, but God only accepted the sacrifice of one of them. Abel sent the best of his livestock in thanks to God for all the blessing that he had given him and God found favor in his actions and accepted his gift. His brother, Cain, did not send of his best and God told him that he should try harder. This led to the first case of sibling rivalry. This week’s portion presents the different sacrifices one is supposed to give for each of the holidays. Perhaps by defining what is acceptable God was trying to avoid future family feuds.
Last month we wrote about City Tree, a green oasis in a historical building in central Tel Aviv. This urban environmental group focuses on restoring their 1920s apartment with ecological renovation methods (such as recycled paper construction and milk based paints), teaching urbanites how to compost, and cooperating with the Good Energy Initiative in order to promote energy efficient lighting.
Another important aspect of what they do is organizing Eco Salons – workshops, lectures, and discussions – that bring together the city’s environmentally conscious communities. And this summer their Eco Salon schedule is packed.
Fresh peas are delightful. They are bursts of green, garden-tasting goodness, immensely better the moment they are picked than even a day or two later. Peas can be snacked on raw out of the pod, simmered in cream, tossed with lemon zest and pasta, puréed with olive oil and ricotta and spooned on crostini. These are all excellent treats, and highly recommended.
But here’s the thing about fresh peas: once you’ve shelled them, your pile of pods will inevitably be an order of magnitude larger than your pile of peas. The process of shelling, on good days, is meditative and relaxing. On days that are even the slightest bit busy, it is finicky, tiresome, and given how small the pile of peas you end up with, likely to strike you as not worth the trouble.
Unless, that is, you get to turn the pods into something yummy as well.
Pea pods are very fibrous and tough, and can’t just be cooked and eaten. They can, however, get diverted from your compost heap, and turned into soup. Not a cream soup – nothing so heavy seems seasonal – but a smooth, thin, refreshing soup, perfect for summertime. It’s a subtle, mossy green way to make the the most of your hard pea-shelling work.
Pea Pod Soup Recipe
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large mixing-bowl’s worth of pea pods (about 2 quarts)
1 L light veggie or chicken stock (I diluted some regular stock with water)
1 handful of fresh thyme
1 lemon, zest thereof
salt and pepper to taste
Getting ready for pea pod soup
Method for making pea pod soup
1. Place a large soup pot over medium heat. Pour in a glug of oil, and leave to warm through. Add in onion; sauté until softened and beginning to turn translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic and sauté another couple of minutes.
2. Add pea pods to the pot and pour in the stock, which should just barely cover the pods. (Add a bit of water if the stock seems scanty.) Throw in the thyme, stems and all, cover and bring to a gentle simmer.
3. Uncover pot and allow soup to simmer until pea pods are very tender, about 45 minutes. Remove soup from heat and let cool for a few minutes. Pick out the thyme stems.
4. Transfer the soup to a blender and process for a few seconds (you’ll need to do this in batches). You’re not trying to purée the soup – the pods won’t ever break down that far – but rather to chop the pods up and release all their juices and soft flesh.
5. Strain the soup through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing on all the solids with the back of a spoon to extract as much liquid as possible. Return soup to the pot, and discard the solids.
6. Stir lemon zest into the soup, and taste. Add as much salt and pepper as you like. Ladle into bowls, or (our preference) refrigerate and have the soup chilled.
Simple pea pod soup, ready to garnish
7. Serve soup with thick slices of toast and a salad for a light, easy-going hot weather lunch or supper.
The Gaza Strip seems like the last place in the world where we would hear good news on the environmental – or any – front. Since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip last summer, Israel has imposed a nearly total blockade, resulting in shortages of everything from fuel to water to food and medical supplies.
In the context of this crisis, two innovators from Gaza, Waseem Khazendar and Fayaz Anan, decided to respond to the dire conditions of their community, and in doing so made this corner of the globe a little greener.
Khazendar and Anan created the first Palestinian electric car!
Due to not having a yard and feeling an overwhelming sense of guilt every time I throw away my food scraps in a conventional garbage, I spent my first few months in Tel Aviv trying to figure out some plausible composting options in the city.This was harder than expected because so many Israelis have never even heard the word compost, which is the same in Hebrew as it is in English.
Still, the search for a compost in Tel Aviv was an incredibly insightful experience that has brought me closer to the environmental scene here.
Back in December I found myself on the Heschel Center roof (center for all things environmental) with a bucket of compost, deciding whether it was the right place for me and my scraps.It wasn’t.It didn’t feel quite right, and maybe that had to do with the plastic green compost bin instead of a pile or a heap. On the roof, though, I met fellow gardeners and environmentalists who I’ve later seen at other environmental gatherings where they dubbed me “the compost guy.”
Instead of relying on the paper and styrofoam cups that are provided at work, bring your own mug. Some coffee shops will make your beverage straight in a mug brought from home. The less disposable you use, the less that ends up in the landfill. Check out other landfill solutions.
My partner and I watched this movie with increasing incredulity and frustration. She is a former science journalist, and she won’t mind me telling you, gave up on ‘Sizzle’ after 15 minutes.
I sat through it all, and felt deflated after 85 minutes of this eco-baloney – filmmaker Randy Olson sets out to pick up on Al Gore and his ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ movie with its one-sided view; thats fair enough – present both sides of the argument, but why fill this so-called ‘mockumentary’ with half-assed scenarios about pseudo producers and skeptic techies who have sudden breakthroughs and become converts to the global warming (& human responsibility for such) cause as well?
I love cooking with wine… and sometimes I add some to my cooking too. Cooking with alcohol, especially wine, can release elements in food that would otherwise not come out, specifically tomatoes and meats.
If you have a little bit of wine left over in a bottle but cannot finish it, instead of letting it spoil on your counter, you can pour it into an ice cube tray and freeze it.
This way you are not wasting that last drop and you are keeping the wine fresh for future cooking. Or have a hand at making some ancient wine? Try making mead.
Every Israeli knows what the Sea of Galilee’s (a main source of Israel’s drinking water) red line means. It’s bad. It means Israel is running out of water and we’re all in trouble. So when the Israel Water Authority came out with a campaign about two weeks ago saying that Israel’s water levels were deteriorating from the red line to the black line, that was even scarier.
To make matters worse, last week the Director of the Water Authority announced that Israel is currently facing the worst water supply crisis in 80 years, ever since they started keeping records. And that unless our water consumption patterns (which have increased in disproportionate levels to our population increase) and water purification methods change… it’s bad news all around.
In the Middle East, water is neverfar from our minds. As Israel’s water shortage takes effect, the quality of our water is in brisk decline. Hot on the heels of this crisis, a team of researchers in Bar-Ilan University has developed an effective method for locating and measuring water contamination.
The new method, developed by Professor Zvy Dubinsky and Dr. Yulia Pinchasov, is based on the concept that contamination disrupts plant growth–therefore analyzing plant growth can serve to detect whether or not there is contamination.
The researchers analyze the rate of photosynthesis (the process of converting sunlight into energy) of plants growing in the water, to examine whether the plant is realizing its full photosynthesis potential. If it isn’t, this could indicate that there is a disruption in the water, i.e., a contaminant.
How does it work? Well, it starts with a green laser beam. Also, did you know that plants can sing?
Last month Green Prophet wrote about the controversy over the so-called “Peace Canal” or “Peace Valley” lauded by French President Nicolas Sarkozy in his recent trip to Israel. A huge man-made canal carrying water north from the Red Sea was envisaged as the centrepiece of the joint Israeli-Jordanian initiative, backed by claims of breathing life into the ailing Dead Sea, developing tourism projects on both sides of the Israel-Jordan border, as well as plenty of well-worn rhetoric about “making the desert bloom”.
Environmental groups who vigorously opposed the plans, such as Friends of the Earth Middle East, may be breathing a sign of relief this week following reports that the canal has been put on hold – albeit for the wrong reasons.
As a thirsty greenie living in Israel, I try to avoid buying bottled water, and instead have recently purchased a very cool stainless steel water bottle – made in the US by Klean Kanteen. But sometimes it’s difficult to avoid buying some water in plastic bottles – although after reading this story, I will think twice.
This report was spotted in this weekend’s Haaretz newspaper (11th July 08):
“‘Mineral Water with a Taste of Gas’: Gasoline fumes penetrate the plastic mineral water bottles sold at gas stations, according to Technion professor Joseph Miltz of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering.”
Last month we wrote about 
Every Israeli knows what the Sea of Galilee’s (a main source of Israel’s drinking water) red line means. It’s bad. It means Israel is running out of water and we’re all in trouble. So when the 
