The Environmental Peacebuilding Association gave its recent award –– the 2025 Al-Moumin Award and Distinguished Lecture on Environmental Peacebuilding –– to EcoPeace leaders Nada Majdalani, Yana Abu Taleb, Gidon Bromberg, and Tareq Abu Hamed. The award honors their work in addressing complex environmental challenges through trust-building, dialogue, cooperation, and joint action among communities in Palestine, Jordan, and Israel.

Read our latest article on EcoPeace here.

The Al-Moumin Award and Lecture are named after Dr. Mishkat Al-Moumin, Iraq’s first Minister of Environment, a human rights and environmental lawyer, and an advocate for women’s rights. The award recognizes leading thinkers who are shaping the field of environmental peacebuilding.

For decades, the honorees have made remarkable contributions to environmental peacebuilding through their visionary leadership and groundbreaking initiatives. They have demonstrated exceptional commitment to fostering regional cooperation on issues critical to the region in the face of environmental and political challenges, including water security, renewable energy production, biodiversity conservation, and climate resilience.

At EcoPeace, Nada, Yana, and Gidon’s efforts have advanced environmental diplomacy; built bridges between communities in Palestine, Israel, and Jordan; and achieved sustainable cross-border solutions that ensure a better future for the inhabitants of all three countries.

This work, including the Good Water Neighbors program, the Green Blue Deal, Project Prosperity, and their advocacy for improved water and energy security across the region, are complemented by on-the-ground projects that bring these principles into practical local action. All are often rightly cited as prototypical examples of environmental peacebuilding.

EcoPeace’s continued operation during the Hamas-Israel war as the only Palestinian-Israeli-Jordanian organization in any field was thanks to the tireless efforts of the directors

who ensured that EcoPeace’s staff, participants, and constituents stayed focused on the overriding need to maintain cross-border environmental cooperation and a vision for a shared future. Throughout the war, EcoPeace has secured funding and mobilized resources to address urgent water and sanitation needs, with the three directors demonstrating their commitment to environmental resilience, cross-border cooperation, and humanitarian aid, ensuring that human life, health, and environmental wellbeing are seen as interlocked priorities in this region.

Similarly, Tareq has spent a lifetime working to build trust and foster cooperation between neighbors, using science to build relationships across the Middle East, particularly between Israelis, Palestinians, and Jordanians to ensure that they can work together to address mutual environmental concerns. He established Arava Institute’s Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation upon joining the Institute in 2008. He is a member of President Isaac Herzog’s Forum on Climate Change, and as part of this role, Tareq co-chairs the Regional Cooperation and Security Task Force, which promotes regional and international collaboration on climate change. He has also led the Transboundary Renewable Energy Working Group, bringing together experts from Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, and Jordan to work on socially impactful renewable technology projects.

While Tareq has been a leader in the Arava Institute’s growth over the past 17 years, he left briefly to join Israel’s Ministry of Science, becoming the deputy chief scientist, becoming the highest-ranking Palestinian working in the Israeli government, before being named acting Chief Scientist of Israel’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Space in 2015 and 2016.

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What is the taste of honey from bees collecting pollen durin a war? Do snakes feel stress? A new study shows that war impacts the least expected creatures

Animals too feel the effects from the stress of war, finds a new study conducted at Tel Aviv University’s School of Zoology. Researchers reveal that the Israel-Hamas war has had a severe impact on animals.

The study, which focused on geckos, found that the sound of explosions from fired rockets induces stress and anxiety in these creatures, leading to a sharp increase in their metabolic rates — an energy cost that, if chronic, may be life-threatening. The researchers hypothesize that these stress responses characterize many other animals, especially those who live in the conflict zones in northern and southern Israel.

Related: Field notes from a Sharjah summer trek

Shahar Dubiner, one of the researchers said: “Our research was conducted in a laboratory at Tel Aviv University and pertained to the reverberations of explosions from interceptions in the Tel Aviv area. However, given the unequivocal results showing symptoms of stress, we can infer that animals that are in the immediate conflict zones in the south and north of the country, where the intensity and frequency of fire are much higher, suffer from significantly more severe stress and anxiety symptoms that may endanger their lives.”

The study was led by Shahar Dubiner, Prof. Shai Meiri and Prof. Eran Levin — in collaboration with Reut Vardi of the University of Oxford. The study was published in the journal Ecology.

The sounds of war are a sort of sound pollution which probably also affect marine life like whales, coral, dolphins and baby oysters.

“The most tragic aspect of war is the loss of human life, among both soldiers and civilians. However, animals are also severely affected, both directly and indirectly, in ways that may threaten their survival. A few weeks before October 7, we began working on a long-term study to measure the rate of energy consumption of small ground geckos of the species Stenodactylus sthenodactylus.

“We obviously did not foresee the outbreak of the war, but unintentionally, we recorded the energy consumption of five geckos during the rocket barrages launched into Tel Aviv in the first month of the war,” says Prof. Shai Meiri. Recently, Meiri published a study on rain and biodiversity.

The study’s findings showed that at the sound of the bombings, the geckos’ metabolic rate jumped to double what it was when they were at rest. Their breathing became faster, and they clearly exhibited signs of stress.

The experiment lasted up to four hours after the barrages, yet even within this timeframe the geckos did not calm down and return to their resting levels. Moreover, even after a month of continuous fighting, the geckos did not acclimate to the sound of the explosions — their stress response remained unchanged.

Prof. Levin notes that “A state of stress is detrimental to both humans and animals. To compensate for the increase in oxygen consumption and depletion of energy reserves, animals need to eat more. Even if they manage to find food, in the process they expose themselves to predators and lose opportunities to reproduce.

“In a situation of ongoing conflict, such as the current reality in Gaza, the Gaza Envelope, and along the Israeli-Lebanese border, the metabolic cost can be significant and have a real impact on the energy reserves and activity periods of reptiles and other animals. This can exacerbate their conservation status, especially for species that are already endangered.”

The researchers note that the findings of this study are consistent with another experiment conducted during Operation Guardian of the Walls, in which they also observed a stress response in a small snake of the species Xerotyphlops syriacus.

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A gay Palestinian man, Ahmad Abu Marhia, only 25, was found beheaded in the West Bank, Palestinian Authority on October 5. He had been living in Israel on asylum, fearful he would be killed if his Palestinian community found him close to home.

The Palestinian Authority police said they have a suspect and it is unclear how Ahmad Abu Marhia found himself in Hebron, West Bank –– this is the same city that calls for the mass-slaughtering of dogs, $20 a truck-full that we reported on a year ago.

Being gay is illegal in the Middle East, except for in Israel. But even in Israel being associated with “gayness” in conservative Arab towns and cities may be unwelcome. Remember the gay tahina in Nazareth that was boycotted? About 10 years ago Kuwait played around with the idea of creating a GayDar test for visitors to the country. You will lose your job or your life for being gay in Iran or Cairo. An acquaintance of mine was put in prison in Cairo during the Arab Spring for being gay and Bahai. He was beat up almost to the point of death, he told me.

A video of the murder of Abu Marhia was circulating on social media and the motive for the murder is not known. But what is gleaned from the LGBTIQA+ community in Israel is that Abu Marhia had spent two years in Israel waiting on an asylum claim. He had death threats against him and was waiting to get the go-ahead to move to Canada. He was supposed to be moving there next month.

In the Israeli media it is reported that he was kidnapped from Israel to the West Bank where he wasn’t protected. His family, disagreed, said he came to Hebron to work. 

The Associated Press reported his decapitated head and body were left near his family’s home late at night October 5. The video and photos of the incident went viral on social media late October 6: “I was shocked because of the way they killed him, and the way they decided to post and share it online,” says Tomer Aldubi, 29, a gay Israeli Jewish activist and artist who has worked with LGBTQ Palestinians for many years and knew Marakhia who spoke with the Bay Area Reporter in the US.

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We want to high five you whenever we hear news like this, news that trumps violence and despair: Two new large solar energy photovoltaic (PV)projects are being built in the West Bank with energy output totalling 17MW. The project is part of the Noor Palestine Program which is designed and implemented by the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF).

Msader for Energy Systems Co and ET Solutions International will build and oversee the solar energy installations.

With a total capacity of 17 Megawatts, the two projects will operate Jericho and Tubas by the end of 2018. These two PV plants will be connected to grid and to the Jerusalem Distribution Electricity Company and the Tubas Distribution Electricity Company. The two PV plants will cover the electricity needs of public facilities, factories, households and schools. Solar panels will be placed on top of the facilities.

Solar energy projects in Palestine have a strategic economic, social and political dimension, as they contribute to the creation of jobs for graduates and engineers working in the sector and also develop their skills. Also, electricity bills can be reduced by about 50% over the next 25 years.

Investing in such projects can also reduce the need to import electricity from the Israeli Government, which constitutes more than 80% of the electricity imported to Palestine. If the Palestinian Authority can produce its own power it can certainly be more proactive and stable in governing its future. And of course the issue of climate change and greenhouse gases is a meaningful one in the Middle East where temperatures are almost unlivable in some summer months.

Like Israel does, over half of all households in Palestine utilise solar energy heaters to heat their hot water. In Israel the tanks on the roofs are white, the West Bank they are black. The Jericho plant was commissioned in 2014, but it’s a tiny drop in the bucket to what is needed. Although a very high percentage of Palestinian houses are connected to the central grid, powering remote villages with smaller-scale photovoltaic systems (PV) would be much more feasible than extending the grid.

One of the local NGOs I know and have visited is Comet-ME, who along with the Dutch Government erected  solar/diesel hybrid systems in the Palestinian village of Jubbet ad-Dib. They are constantly in conflict over building permits but continue to educate and install solutions for solar and water to those that need them most.

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“I used to import this kind of mushroom from Israel, selling three boxes every day,” vendor Hani Ismail told Xinhua, adding, “Now I sell 10 boxes because my customers prefer the locally grown variety.”

The idea to grow white mushrooms in Jericho grew from a casual chat between Samir Khreisheh and three of his friends while dining in the town.  One asked the chef where his mushrooms came from, pressing why the fleshy fungus couldn’t be locally grown. The four foodies got passionate, studying mushrooms and the best conditions for farming them. They visited mushroom farms in other countries and researched best techniques to grow them.

“White mushrooms are very sensitive and shy. They need a special environment, humidity, oxygen, carbon dioxide, special heat and certain kinds of gases. It was difficult in the beginning to make ensure the right environment, this is why we had to deeply study every detail,” said Khreisheh.

They constructed three purpose-built rooms to offer the necessary growing environment and imported fungal spores from Holland; they named their start-up Amoro. The farm currently produces three tons of organic white mushrooms every month, with plans to increase production to six tons per month by summer, selling mainly to restaurants and shops in the West Bank and Gaza. A 12 kilogram box of the organic beauties sells for about $13 USD.

“Inside each room, we use the horizontal planting on shelves provided with special irrigation system and a fully-electronically controlled atmospheric system,” said Khreisheh, adding that “we have 10 workers who check the soil into the rooms and mix the fungal spores.”

There are another 15 female workers who work only on picking up the mature mushrooms. He said “with respect to men, we chose women to pick up the mushrooms because their hands are softer than men’s.” Employee Samah Abu Zeitoon is also a part time university student, she said, “I would certainly need money for education and for living, but also like the idea because it is my first time working in such an interesting farm.”

West Bank restaurants and grocery stores typically import their mushrooms from Israeli markets, specifying specific sizes for special types of recipes; however, Khreisheh aims to corner the market, “We just began production a few weeks ago, and we are sure that soon our products of mushrooms will compete [with imports].”

Samir Samara, director general in the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture, told Xinhua that his ministry encourages Amoro farm to achieve self-sufficiency, adding, “Once this farm is able to provide the local marker with the needed amounts of mushrooms, then I believe that our priority will be, to facilitate the export of such interesting kind of business that will certainly bring more benefits to the Palestinian economy.”

Image of fresh mushrooms from Shutterstock

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Another terror attack today in Jerusalem. Vengeful and permanent acts of aggression that leave no room for negotiation. I want to remind you that despite the horrible killings by axe and guns there are builders of peace from this Holy Land.

Thomas Friedman from the New York Times said it last month, and it’s been something I have been saying for years since I started writing about positive environment news from the Middle East in 2007: the only way peace will come in the Middle East is through shared environmental action.

While religions can argue over access to temples, who should see the graves of the holy, or who can pray where, there is no-one who can argue about the importance of breathing clean air, drinking clean water and keeping our seas green. That’s why building bridges through mutual environmental action and goals in research, industry and government is critical throughout the Middle East.

Before we give up home for Jerusalem this is a perfect time to highlight some cooperative environmental action from the region. Recently, in September, a workshop to protect marine biodiversity was held in Malta. For ten days senior researchers and their students from from Palestine, Israel, Cyprus, Ireland, Spain, Malta, Tunisia and more came together to develop a blueprint to solve marine ecological destruction in the Mediterranean. Green Prophet got to speak with two “enemies”, a Palestinian Cypriot and Israeli about working with the other.

The workshop was run by one of my favorite marine organizations EcoOcean, from Israel and Sweden, and the University of Malta, the EU’s BioDivmeX and the French National Center for Scientific Research.

Working out of Malta, the group of about 30 spent their time aboard EcoOceans’s marine research vessel, the Mediterranean Explorer, as well as at labs at the Malta University.

The course of action was to start studying the biodiversity of the Maltese coast: the open sea, the nearby nature reserve Comino Island and the underwater caves of Malta. Early research on the caves revealed new species never before found in the Mediterranean region.

But just as important news is the relationships made between people, like PhD students Rana Abu Alhaija from Cyprus who is half Palestinian and Niv David from Israel.

David tells Green Prophet that the Mediterranean Sea is highly sensitive and is threatened by dense human population centers: “there is an ever growing need to document marine biodiversity in a context of global change and potential conservation support,” he says. And that “overcoming political and cultural disputes, is required to address these challenges.

David’s personal interest is a passion for maritime research while studying climate change at sea at University of Haifa in Israel: “This experience, collaboration with amazing people, was not only the key for efficient learning and knowledge exchange, but also for creating global mutualism among researches and students from different countries and cultures, sharing the same goal of better understanding marine systems for improved protection and conservation,” David tells Green Prophet.

Abu Alhaija says: “Although all participants had to overcome language, cultural and personal barriers I had to deal with one more. I was a minority. I alone had to represent two countries that not only do they have a wide coast stretch but are also inconstant political turmoil.

“One might think that having Israeli colleagues in the same workshop might have impaired my ability to learn or work. In my perspective it had the exact opposite effect. There they were; the people who share with me the love for the same piece of land and care and study the same sea.

She continues: “The best part was that they were more than willing, not only to teach me the things that I do not know, but also to work beside me in achieving our common goal: to study and safeguard our sea.

“I did find many difficulties during my ten days at the BioDivMex workshop and I did disagree with other participants, one of which was a Jew who wanted to drop what he was doing to help me, but the bottom line is that through a touch of understanding we were able to successfully complete the workshop and create bonds that will generate future research projects.”

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Israel’s Leviathan Partners natural gas production consortium has signed its first gas export agreement with a Palestinian power company.

The agreement, signed last Sunday in Jerusalem at the American Colony Hotel, involves the Palestine Power Generation Company (PPGC) which will purchase around 4.75 billion cubic meter of natural gas during a 20 year period.

The gas will  fuel a to be constructed power plant in the West Bank city Jenin that will have a 200-megawatt capacity.

Total estimated cost of the deal is said to be $1.2 billion USD, according to the Jerusalem Post.

The agreement was signed between Palestinian Energy Minister Dr. Omar Kittaneh and  executives from the gas field’s partners: the Delek Group, Noble Energy and Ratio Oil Exploration.

The agreement  is hailed as an “historic moment” for both Israel and the Palestinians, and is expected to have significant affect on the economies of both. The Leviathan gas field, located about 130 kilometers (about 100 miles) west of Haifa, is said to contain about 537 b.cu.m. of natural gas.

This gas should begin flowing in 2017.

Israel’s natural gas fields, which includes the nearby Tamar gas field, have been the subject of high interest ever since Israeli tycoon Yitzhak Tshuva and his Delek Energy Company partnered with the American Noble Energy Company back in 2009.

Another significant factor was the continuous sabotage of the Egyptian gas pipeline, from which both Israel and Jordan had been receiving significant amounts of natural gas.

Other countries which have been rumored to receive Israel supplied natural gas include Turkey, and the EU, via pipelines that would run under the Mediterranean Sea.

“We believe that the potential for oil and gas exploration in the economic waters of Israel has not yet been fully realized. Therefore, we intend to continue, together with our partners and with the entire natural gas industry in Israel, with the energy exploration activity,” said Gidon Tadmor, chairman of Delek Drilling and CEO of Avner Oil Exploration, which is also involved in these projects.

It remains to be seen what the long-term outcome will be in this agreement, as the power company in Jenin, as well as the  required gas delivery and storage infrastructure in Palestine has yet to be built. The construction time for the Jenin power plant will be around 30 months, at a cost cost of around $300 million USD.

As for Tshuva, who has the controlling interest in Delek Energy, one of the Leviathan gas field projects major players: “I believe that a strong and stable economy between Israel and the Palestinians will lead to peace and stability in the entire region, with everyone benefiting from the resulting economic prosperity and growth.”

Not all the greens believe so. A tent protest is still up in north Tel Aviv near the Arlozorov train station to protest why the natural assets of the country are being controlled by so few people.

Read more on natural gas:

Will Israel’s Natural Gas Tap Flow to Turkey?
Israel’s Offshore Natural Gas good to Burn for 150 Years – If Handled Wisely
Israel and Cyprus Align on Natural Gas and Renewables

Photo of Natural Gas Facility by Moshe Shai/Flash 90

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Biking enthusiasts in Palestine have welcomed the construction of the first cycle lane in the Palestinian territories on the main road leading from Jericho to Jerusalem.

The 1,200-metre two-way cycle lane on the west side of Jerusalem Street in Jericho was completed in July at a cost of 179,000 euros and will be formally opened after the end of Ramadan.

“The most pressing issue that bikers face here is they feel unsafe because they have to bike on the road with cars,” said Michael Awad of Bethlehem-based Bike Palestine, a group that organizes cycle tours of the area. “We think this is excellent.”

“Jericho is known as a favorite place for bikes. We’ll be using this lane on Jerusalem Street because on our tour we leave Jericho that way and bike to Nebi Musa, so it’s on our route,” Awad said.

“We have been pressing for cycle lanes, especially in areas where tourists can also use them,” he said. “We would like to create a bike tour in Bethlehem, so people can hire a bike after they come through the checkpoint and tour Bethlehem and the area. That would also be good in Jericho.”

The new lane runs from the Aqbat Jaber refugee camp opposite the Intercontinental Hotel, home to some 7,000 people, to the Hisham bin Abdul Malek Secondary School close to Jericho city center.

The schools in the refugee camp only serve younger children, so secondary school students have to make the trip into town every day. The long, straight, road encourages bad driving habits and there have been several fatal accidents along the route.

“This road that leads from downtown to Aqbat Jaber camp was very dangerous. Many accidents happened there and many people were killed, so the municipality has been looking for donors to improve the road for some time,” said Emad Barahmeh, a city councillor in charge of trade investment, health and the environment.

The unique topography of Jericho, at the bottom of the Jordan Valley-Dead Sea trench, makes it not only the lowest and oldest continually inhabited city on earth but also one of the flattest. With a built up area of just 25 square kilometers, the city is eminently suited to biking.

“People here have been used to being on bicycles for a long time,” said Barahmeh.

The new cycle lane was planned by an engineering consultancy in Nablus and overseen by Samar Zaina, an engineer trained at Birzeit University who is in charge of planning for the Jericho municipality.

Zaina said the idea of a cycle lane had been discussed by the municipality for 15 years. In the interim, she had visited many foreign cities and studied how the lanes there operated. A grant from the Municipal Development and Lending Fund financed by foreign donor countries made it possible to build this first module.

“There are a lot of different designs in the different countries. Each one depends on the road itself,” said Zaina.

“Lots of young people use bicycles in this area because there are schools there,” she said. “It’s dangerous to have people using bicycles there without having a cycle lane for the people to ride on.”

She said she had recommended that the municipality and the police provide training for drivers and cyclists after the official opening so local people will know how to use the new facility.

“This is a first experiment for us. We don’t even have regulations for it yet. We need to develop awareness about safety and how to use it,” she said.

But some foreign donors say this first cycle lane may also be Palestine’s last.

“We are very disappointed with these small projects that have been implemented by the Municipal Development and Lending Fund,” said Jacky Amprou, a project officer at the Agence Francaise de Developpement in East Jerusalem. “We are hoping that in future the fund will finance more integrated projects that will have a bigger impact in terms of urban development.”

Matthew Kalman is a foreign correspondent based in Jerusalem. He blogs at http://matthewkalman.blogspot.co.il/. His most recent books are PSYCHOBIBI and THE MURDER OF YASSER ARAFAT.

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Raising the question “how temporary is temporary?”, they break from existing platforms that warehouse refugee communities without addressing environmental concerns that powerfully affect daily life.

Refutrees cooks up environmentally responsive projects in displaced communities that also create sustainable employment. Similar to artist Jean Bradbury’s approach with the Safi artisans, there’s a catalytic assist at the start, but project control and management ultimately pass to the locals.

Refutrees creates projects that are sustainable, entrepreneurial, and responsive to the direct needs of local communities. Select projects also address persistent issues of land and water degradation.

Founder and CEO Lamya Hussain had engaged with refugee communities early in her academic career. Her extensive field research exposed a dearth of projects in camp settings that served more than one purpose. Why not dream up multifaceted schemes? Ventures that intersect health, environment, art and energy? And, while you’re at it, create jobs.

Many indigenous communities hold a relationship with their land that is as spiritual as it is socioeconomic, a reality at odds with ad hoc camp infrastructure which typically lacks”town planning” or access to personal greenspace. There’s a scarcity of communal open space, gardens, parks or playgrounds. Speaking with United Nations Relief and Works Agency affiliates, Hussain discovered there is frequently no clear strategy to tackle these issues that have critical impact on camp residents.

So Refutrees is kicking off a pilot to build rooftop gardens to allow communities to grow their own organic produce – which creates new greenspace – and improves environmental aesthetics. This project will efficiently utilize limited space within the camps.  It creates an opportunity for urban agriculture that encourages entrepreneurship while promoting healthy diets.

Sound like an initiative you could support? They’re currently raising funds for the rooftop gardens – check out their website for details. They’re seeking experts who can advise on scheme improvements such as identifying a wider variety of vegetables to grow, and how best to tackle issues of local water restrictions.

Refutrees is also working on an eco-art project to address the lack of safe spaces for camp children. The Aida refugee camp (outside Bethlehem in the West Bank) is fundraising to build a children’s recreational space, and Refutrees seeks artists to design a scheme for up-cycling local waste into a functional and green playground.

You can read more about Refutrees here. Match their multipurpose mandate by supporting them, and you ‘ll scratch two itches (social responsibility and increased environmentalism) with one action.

Image from Refutrees Facebook page

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Israel is a world leader in wastewater reuse for agriculture, and in developing water- and energy-saving technologies locally and abroad. But Israel has new challenges to confront: a growing build-up of pharmaceuticals in its waterways, plus poorly processed wastewater from the Palestinian Authority-administered territories mixed into its water table.

These issues are being addressed in a new cooperative project between Israeli and Palestinian researchers. The French drug company Sanofi is sponsoring the research and will supply the source material, while the Peres Center for Peace will manage the logistics.

Scientists and graduate students from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology are being matched with Arab peers at Al Quds University in East Jerusalem to study the effect of pharmaceutical residues in water and how compounds from Sanofi might help. Their insights could be applied to local and global water problems.

The heart of the problem is that all the drugs we take end up down the toilet some way or another. And residues from birth control pills, estrogen and water pills, anti-depression medications, even ibuprofen, can remain after the water is treated. When all that water goes back to the farmland to grow tomatoes, or seeps into the water table, it can compound and concentrate — causing considerable biological damage to humans and ecosystems.

Beyond the meat they eat

Hormone-treated beef is recognized as a source of certain health problems in the United States. But though Israelis are not large consumers of red meat, health authorities are seeing a surprising increase in testicular cancer among Israeli men and a decreased age of first menstruation in girls.

Could the problem be in the water?

Researchers worldwide agree that pharmaceutical residues in the water can have striking effects on fish, causing some species to change their gender. Their effects on humans are not as well known.

The new Israel-Palestinian project aims to study samples of local water and find the best ways to filter out or deactivate classes of drugs like these so they do not go back to nature, or us. Some of the pharmaceuticals under study are diazepam, aldactone (a diuretic), ibuprofen, ketoprofen and iopromide.

Israelis do have a leg up on potential new technologies for treating drugs in water, such as advanced filtration membranes. In their approach, Al Quds University scientists are going to apply activated carbon, or a novel clay-based micelle technology, to see how effective these can be in removing pre-defined chemical compounds from water. The project is to begin this summer.

If the researchers are successful, Sanofi may develop the technologies into a commercial project, says Hannah Bardin, a soil and water expert working for the Peres Center for Peace. She is managing this two-year project from the Jaffa-based center named after Israel’s President Shimon Peres, an avid environmentalist.

The center has experience and an interest in development type projects and how engineering can be used to address social change and underprivileged communities,” she tells ISRAEL21c.

In a past joint research project between the two communities, senior scientists looked at salinity in water, while this one will feature the younger generation of master’s level students, Bardin says, likening the study to a peace project.

“We are trying to create a community of water researchers working together and visiting each other’s facilities. In this framework, we will have on-campus visits and annual meetings where they will present results,” Bardin says.

She anticipates that the labs at the Technion and Al Quds will use different techniques. “The idea is that there is very little monitoring. We want to find out how to treat and remove all these materials that end up in the drinking water.”

Meanwhile, in an unrelated project, Ben-Gurion University’s Prof. Alon Tal will be working with Israelis and Palestinians to determine what kind of compounds are found in the region’s water and waterways from a bottom-up approach, funded with a half a million dollars from USAID’s Middle East Regional Cooperation (MERC) Program.

This report is republished from ISRAEL21c – www.israel21c.org

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