According to Lebanon’s Daily Star, the war-ravaged southern town of Bint Jbeil is remaking itself as a suburban summer getaway for expatriates who left over the last three decades of strife. Suburban living has made deep imprints across the Middle East, particularly in the shopping malls that have sprouted up in the West Bank and […]
A report published Sunday by the Israeli human rights group B’tselem, titled, “Foul Play: Neglect of Wastweater Treatment in the West Bank” found untreated wastewater to be a major source of pollution in the West Bank. 91 million cubic meters (mcm) of wastewater is produced each year in Israeli settlements, parts of Jerusalem, and Palestinian […]
A new scheme has just got underway for Palestinians to treat their sewage waste and purifying it for agricultural use by using wetlands. Forsaking electricity, the system instead relies on a system of man-made pools which utilise plants to assist in the organic breakdown of the sewage. The West Bank village of Um a-Rihan, not […]
(A view of flood water in an olive grove in Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, last October. The filthy water killed about 30 olive trees. Photo from Ma’an News). The regional water crisis has hit the West Bank and Gaza hard, and the Palestinian Water Authority is rushing to repair crumbling infrastructure to maximize the little […]
One of America’s most enduring gifts to the Middle East is the suburban indoor shopping mall. Israel’s first was the Ayalon Center outside of Tel Aviv (1986). Istanbul saw the Atakoy Mall go up in 1987. Jordan’s pioneer was Amman’s Abdoun Mall in 2001 (Picture from virtualtourist.com), and Beirut‘s ABC Mall opened its doors in […]
With the financial crisis effecting more and more people every day and spending becoming significantly more conscious, many consumers are choosing to trim the fat. Unfortunately, this often means becoming more dollar conscious and less eco conscious. Greener choices – such as organic, shade-grown, or local – often cost a little bit more, and so […]
Earlier in the year, GreenProphet visited the organic farms of Wadi Fuqin, a Palestinian village located south of Jerusalem on the border of the West Bank. If you haven’t had a chance to go to the farm, you can see the vegetables in a farmer’s market this Friday in Jerusalem. Most of the small plots […]
Israeli nature advocates are proud of their efforts at both nature conservation and cultivating a love of hiking among the people. However, an article this week in the Boston Globe points out that creating nature preserves often means expelling the indigenous people who once lived in them. Author Mark Dowie writes that the practice began […]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnCqX5Xn0UE[/youtube] Israelis need it to stay secure from terror attacks, but the Palestinians see it as a barrier to making peace, and getting their fair share of water and other resources. Alexandra Cousteau (who I spoke to while on her Expedition: Blue Planet in Israel) interviews an Arava Institute alum from the Palestinian Authority to […]
(Abu Ibrahim, 53, in a field of fava beans. Photo: Daniella Cheslow) One of the most compelling parts of the West Bank is its Biblical landscape, shaped by the small villages and terraced farm plots that dot the rolling hillsides. Yesterday, I saw that landscape up close on a visit to Wadi Fuqin (Valley […]
Events over the past week indicate that Palestinian surface and ground water resources are in great danger. Last Friday, around three hundred Palestinians protested the reopening of an Israeli dump site near the West Bank village of Deir Sharaf, outside Nablus. The dump, which was closed several years ago, may pose a grave threat to […]
Today’s guest post is by Nissim Dahan, who is working to sell his “Vision of Hope.” Dagan envisions a network of individuals and organizations to help create economic prosperity in the Middle East. Through funding and implementing new environmental solutions, like clean technologies, Dahan believes the world can fight extremism. He uses the analogy of the […]
Israel’s water crisis has been in the news a lot lately. We have all heard how low the Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) is, and seen suggestions on how to save water this summer. Although it receives much less media coverage, water scarcity has also become a major issue in the Palestinian Territories. This past […]
Should Israel’s premiere environment preservation group support settlement activities? Regarded as one of, if not the, most respected environmental NGOs in Israel, the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) has a lot to be proud of. Perhaps best known for its tours and field schools, it also works on grassroots community initiatives […]
Green Prophet recently highlighted the dilemma of buying organic eggs from a Jewish farm in the West Bank. A little investigation by yours-truly revealed that the picturesque Givaot Olam organic farm is a settlement outpost established with no authorisation from the Israeli government, meaning that the farm is (theoretically) slated for evacuation. (Could even be […]