We visited Friends Of The Earth Middle East where we met with Dr. Nader, Palestinian director of Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) and Gideon Brombeg, Israeli Director of FoEME. We learned about the Red-Dead Project and talked about Jordan River and Lower Jordan River Rehabilitation Project.
EcoPeace Middle East is a unique organization that brings together Jordanian, Palestinian, and Israeli environmentalists. The primary objective is the promotion of cooperative efforts to protect the shared environmental heritage, and to advance both sustainable regional development and the creation of necessary conditions for lasting peace in the region. EcoPeace has offices in Amman, Bethlehem, and Tel-Aviv.
EcoPeace supports the Palestinian call for UN recognition of a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, in peaceful coexistence with the State of Israel.
This is in keeping with EcoPeace's longstanding position supporting a two-state solution in the spirit of the Arab Peace Initiative, including mutual recognition of Israeli and Palestinian rights to two separate states based on the 1967 borders.
As far as Water Justice is concerned EcoPeace has developed its own Water Accord and is leading a campaign under the message that "Water Justice Cannot Wait"
Currently each entity in the region acts only to procure water and other resources for its own population without regard to th impact on the environment or on others in the region. Israel's national water carrier pumps water from sea of Galilea, while Jordan and Syris have built dams. As a result, J95% of water diverted that once flowed into the Jordan River and on to the Dead Sea. Syria, Jordan, and Israel all pump raw sewage into river. The Dead Sea has shrunk from 80 km to 50 km in length in last 50 years. Also industry pulls out minerals further shrinking sea. The land around Dead Sea is collapsing, and more than 3000 sinkholes have developed since the1990s.
FoEME wants to get to root cause of the water issues and work to get rid of pipes and dams and use the Jorden River as natural carrier. They believe that we cannot wait to solve all the problems in the region, but that working on water policies may lead to other initiatives to bring peace and justice.
Because of FoEME efforts all nations in the region are building sewage treatment plants and the amount of raw sewage has been somewhat reduced. USAID funded at least one. Much work remains to be done.
Our Take home message: contact out senators and representatives. Al Frankin bill to further River rehab. Try to get more support. Also Congressman Blumenhower from Oregan is supporting their efforts.
FoEME is also working with groups in the U.S. and Canada to launch the Water Projects program.
Middle East and USA Sister City Partnerships with Sister Cities International and Citizen Diplomacy Initiatives at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Wash. DC.
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