Weekly Report February 28th to March 5th, 2010

• This was the first full week of studies. This semester students have the opportunity to take such courses as Alternative Energy with Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, Environmental Mediation with Dr. Yaron Ben David and Doctoral Student Timea Spitka or Environmental Economics with Dr. Nir Becker and yours truly. For a full list of courses go to Spring 2010 Course List.
• The Green Course, the local branch of the national environmetal student organization, held its first meeting of the new semester and heard about some of the environmental issues facing the area. The next evening Sarah Cohen, the General Secretary of Kibbutz Ketura welcomed the students at the Student Life meeting.
• Monday evening, the newly formed Local Committee to Save the Samar Sand Dunes created under the auspices of Sababa (The Center for the Environment in the Arava) met to plan a strategy to create public awareness about the threat to the future of the Arava's last large block of sand dunes on the Israeli side of the border. The Israeli Lands Authority has given permission to a contractor to mine part of the dunes. For more information go to Samar Dunes.
• Amy Rosnblatt-Lui, Director of the Beverely Foundation which participated in the Jewish Funders Network matching grant program visited the institute, meeting with staff and students. Amy seemed very excited about what she saw and will try to strengthen our relationship with the Beverly Foundation as well as help us reach out to other foundations.
• On Wednesday, I joined other environmental activists at the Knesset for a meeting of the Green Lobby headed by Member of Knesset Dov Hanin. I had the opportinity to speak about the hotel that is planned to be built in Timna Park. The Lobby discussed many threats to open spaces all over the country and the proposed planning reform law which will make it easierier for developers to build and more difficult for those who are concerned about open spaces and the environment to protect them.
• Thursday morning, Miriam Sharton, Associate Director of the Institute flew off to Barcelona to participate in the Anna Lindh Forum 2010 in Barcelona. The 4 day conference will include over 500 representatives from member organizations of the Anna Lindh Foundation. The purpose of the conference is promote cooperation among civil society organizations committed to intercultural dialogue in the region and to increase its impact on the establishment of the Union for the Mediterranean while enriching the activities of the national networks and the work of the foundation.
• This week, the region is holding the Hevel Eilot Football Tounament (Soccer for you Americans) at Kibbutz Ketura in memory of Pini Lutman, a member of Ketura. While the Institute students and staff suffered defeat last night at the hands of the Uvda Airforce Base soccer team, the score was only 1 - 0 and we put up a good fight. Meanwhile in less than an hour the female staff and students have the opportunity to return honor to the institue bydestroying the Kibbutz Ketura female squad. I'll let you know what happens.
• Well sports fans, I am back from a thrilling game in which the Arava Institute Women's Team whipped the Kibbutz Ketura Women's Team 2-0 enabling the Arava Institute to bring home a regional championship for the first time.

Victory Dance

David Lehrer