Gaza’s New Boardwalk Threatens Roman Ruins

Like Tel Aviv and Beirut, Gaza’s getting a boardwalk, but development threatens ancient Roman ruins. For years, it was a dusty, often garbage-strewn asphalt ribbon winding along Gaza City’s otherwise beautiful Mediterranean coast. Today, it’s a construction site, with heavy equipment plowing sand into position, digging tunnels and laying pipes. But if the plans proceed […]

Dead Sea Almost Died Eons Ago

New drilling results from the Dead Sea provides clues that the Dead Sea almost dried up because of climate change — 125,000 years ago! The rapidly dropping water level of the Dead Sea, a cause of much concern today, occurred as well in the distant past, resulting in the severe drying up of the lake, […]

Jordan-Valley.jpg

Green Tours Across Palestine (PHOTOS)

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 […]

mohamed-abusal-gaza-metro-3.jpg

Gaza’s Smuggling Tunnels Into an Underground Metro?

Palestinian artist Mohamed Abusal envisions converting Gaza’s smuggling tunnels into an underground metro system. A small handful of Bedouin families living in the Gaza Strip ran thousands of smuggling tunnels beneath the Egypt-Gaza Strip separation barrier. In part to transport weapons between Rafah in Egypt and the Rafah Palestinian refugee camp and in part to import […]

Gaza-Fishermen.jpg

Seaside, Gaza Fishermen Grow Own Fish

Gaza fishermen preparing  nets. Fishing by Gazans now a “hazardous occupation”. Restrictions placed on Gaza fishermen by Israeli naval vessels has made living from the sea an almost impossible occupation these days. This fact goes along with decreasing fish catches in the Mediterranean due to over fishing, increasing sea pollution from sewage, plastic material and […]

meat-hebrew.jpg

Palestinian Coal Kilns Blow Dust on Israeli Meat Eaters

We pay for barbecued meat with our health Every year the air pollution rises steeply during Israel’s Independence Day, where even people with vegetarian (or vegaware) leanings have a sudden urge to fry ground beef “kebabs” on the mini BBQ grill sold at minimarkets and basically tossed out after use. But the effects of man’s […]

light-bulb-egypt.jpg

Arab World Revolutions Make Space for Green and Social Activism

Middle East NGOs must cross social, political and religious barriers to achieve long-term solutions to solve their regional complex environmental problems. While changes in political landscape across the Middle East and North Africa continue to pose immediate security and economic challenges for the region, can the environmental movement find a voice through wider political participation […]