Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) is pleased to introduce our monthly Environmental Peacebuilding newsletter's new look to all of our friends and supporters! Here you will find information concerning all of our regional activities and achievements.
FoEME is a regional environmental organization of Jordanians, Israelis and Palestinians working together to promote sustainable development and peacebuilding through environmental awareness.
FoEME is pleased to send a representative to participate in the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference - Bali, 3 - 14 December 2007. The Conference will bring together representatives of over 180 countries together with observers from governments as well as from nongovernmental organizations, and the media. Detailed information on the conference can be found here. During the conference FoEME will launch its report Climate Change: A New Threat to Middle East Security, available here.
FoEME's work on this report was sponsored by the National Environment Trust. FoEME's participation in the Bali Conference is supported by the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
On November 28-29, 2007 FoEME's Good Water Neighbors Project hosted its Regional Conference in Jerusalem bringing together mayors, municipal representatives and community members from each of the GWN communities, as well as government and donor agency officials. The event began with a tour of the Neighbor's Path between the partnered communities of Tzur Hadassah and Wadi Fukin. Throughout the second day, conference participants were introduced to the Neighbor's Paths from each of the project's seventeen communities. The paths aim to promote rural and eco-tourism as a means to diversify incomes for these communities, as well as raise public awareness about their shared environment and water concerns. Over the next two years the project will undertake thirty tours in each community for both local residents and tourists. To join one of the upcoming tours please write to [email protected].
Visit our website to read the Neighbor's Path brochures for each of our GWN communities. To read recent press coverage about the Good Water Neighbors Project from the Jerusalem Post, NRG.com and others please click here. To learn more about the project please click here. The GWN Project is jointly funded by the European Union’s Partnership for Peace Programme, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund and the USAID Conflict Management and Mitigation Program.
The FoEME endorsed Promoting dialogue and cultural Understanding of our Shared Heritage (PUSH) project, which partners the Jordanian Society for Sustainable Development, Bezalel Academy for Art and Design and Al Quds University in a tri-lateral effort to identify, develop and promote greater understanding of the region's shared cultural and natural heritage held its Regional Tour and Symposium November 21-23, 2007 in Jerusalem. The event kicked off with a full day tour of four sites of shared heritage with participants from each of the partner countries as well as numerous international guests. The subsequent two days brought together academics, professionals and community members to review and discuss the PUSH project's thematic analysis of the region's common heritage, Our Shared Heritage, released concurrently with the symposium.
For more information about the PUSH project please visit their website. The PUSH project is jointly funded by the European Union Partnership for Peace Programme and the Norwegian Foreign Ministry.
On November 20, 2007 the U.S. Senate unanimously approved Resolution 387 concerned with the Jordan River and Dead Sea which urges "Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority to continue to work in a spirit of cooperation as it addresses the degradation of the Jordan River and Dead Sea" while calling attention to the crucial state of these two important cultural and natural resources. The resolution also supports tri-lateral efforts “to assess the environmental, social, health and economic impacts, costs and feasibility of the Red Sea-Dead Sea Water Conveyance Concept in comparison to alternative proposals, such as those that focus on the restoration of the Jordan River.”
This month FoEME published a new report entitled Nature, Agriculture and the Price of Water in Israel. The report highlights the direct connection between the amount of water used by agriculture in Israel and the price farmers pay for the water and calls for a rethinking of the social priorities in Israel while advancing the public debate on the rehabilitation of ecological systems. The report is available here.
FoEME's work in this area is sponsored by the Heinrich Boell Foundation
Momentum continues to build towards establishing a Peace Park stretching from the Bakoora – Peace Island to the Three Bridges site at Old Gesher. The area features three bridges which serve as a visual example of the Jordan River Valley's important historical crossing points, as well an island formed at the intersection of the Yarmouk and Jordan rivers on the Jordan-Israel border. FoEME is currently in the process of launching a feasibility study to investigate transforming the area, on both sides of the Jordan River, into a "Transboundary Protected Area," more commonly known as a "Peace Park".
For media coverage concerned with the Peace Park please visit here. To learn more about FoEME's work to develop the Peace Park please visit our website. FoEME's work in this area is sponsored by GreenCross.
FoEME representatives participated in the three-day NATO sponsored Advanced Research Workshop from November 19-21 at Kibbutz Ein Gedi. Conference participants engaged in an academic discussion focused on the implementation of sustainable development and management options for transboundary waters and other resources occurring in areas of conflict and arid and/or extreme environmental conditions using the Dead Sea as a case study. For more information on the conference please visit their website.
FoEME's work to raise awareness about the critical state of the Dead Sea continued this month with a FoEME representative participating in a tour of the Dead Sea region on November 18th with the Knesset's (Israeli Parliament) newly formed Dead Sea Caucus. FoEME also participated in the 'Salt of the Earth' Conference at Kibbutz Ein Gedi on November 27th. For more information on the Conference please visit their website (Hebrew).
To learn more about FoEME's work on the Dead Sea please visit our website. To read recent press coverage from Ha'aretz and many more please click here.
This new website was made possible by a grant generously donated to FoEME from the Apte Family Fund. Website | Donation | Comments
Environmental Peacebuilding newsletter's new look to all of our friends and supporters! Here you will find information concerning all of our regional activities and achievements. 
United Nations Climate Change Conference - Bali, 3 - 14 December 2007. The Conference will bring together representatives of over 180 countries together with observers from governments as well as from nongovernmental organizations, and the media. Detailed information on the conference can be found 
its Regional Conference in Jerusalem bringing together mayors, municipal representatives and community members from each of the GWN communities, as well as government and donor agency officials. The event began with a tour of the Neighbor's Path between the partnered communities of Tzur Hadassah and Wadi Fukin. Throughout the second day, conference participants were introduced to the Neighbor's Paths from each of the project's seventeen communities. The paths aim to promote rural and eco-tourism as a means to diversify incomes for these communities, as well as raise public awareness about their shared environment and water concerns. Over the next two years the project will undertake thirty tours in each community for both local residents and tourists. To join one of the upcoming tours please write to 
Shared Heritage (PUSH) project, which partners the Jordanian Society for Sustainable Development, Bezalel Academy for Art and Design and Al Quds University in a tri-lateral effort to identify, develop and promote greater understanding of the region's shared cultural and natural heritage held its Regional Tour and Symposium November 21-23, 2007 in Jerusalem. The event kicked off with a full day tour of four sites of shared heritage with participants from each of the partner countries as well as numerous international guests. The subsequent two days brought together academics, professionals and community members to review and discuss the PUSH project's thematic analysis of the region's common heritage, 
387 concerned with the Jordan River and Dead Sea which urges "Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority to continue to work in a spirit of cooperation as it addresses the degradation of the Jordan River and Dead Sea" while calling attention to the crucial state of these two important cultural and natural resources. The resolution also supports tri-lateral efforts “to assess the environmental, social, health and economic impacts, costs and feasibility of the Red Sea-Dead Sea Water Conveyance Concept in comparison to alternative proposals, such as those that focus on the restoration of the Jordan River.” 
This month FoEME published a new report entitled Nature, Agriculture and the Price of Water in Israel. The report highlights the direct connection between the amount of water used by agriculture in Israel and the price farmers pay for the water and calls for a rethinking of the social priorities in Israel while advancing the public debate on the rehabilitation of ecological systems. The report is available 
from the Bakoora – Peace Island to the Three Bridges site at Old Gesher. The area features three bridges which serve as a visual example of the Jordan River Valley's important historical crossing points, as well an island formed at the intersection of the Yarmouk and Jordan rivers on the Jordan-Israel border. FoEME is currently in the process of launching a feasibility study to investigate transforming the area, on both sides of the Jordan River, into a "Transboundary Protected Area," more commonly known as a "Peace Park".
Advanced Research Workshop from November 19-21 at Kibbutz Ein Gedi. Conference participants engaged in an academic discussion focused on the implementation of sustainable development and management options for transboundary waters and other resources occurring in areas of conflict and arid and/or extreme environmental conditions using the Dead Sea as a case study. For more information on the conference please visit 
continued this month with a FoEME representative participating in a tour of the Dead Sea region on November 18th with the Knesset's (Israeli Parliament) newly formed Dead Sea Caucus. FoEME also participated in the 'Salt of the Earth' Conference at Kibbutz Ein Gedi on November 27th. For more information on the Conference please visit 
