Weekly Report April 11th - 23rd

A letter I send last Thursday to all of our students:

Dear Students,

The period during the semester after the Jewish Holiday of Pesach is filled with national holidays and remembrance days. It is always a very difficult time at the Arava Institute where students from different backgrounds try to balance their national loyalties with a sensitivity to the feelings and narratives of their fellow students and friends. This is not an easy task and I truly admire the ability of the students and the academic staff "to hold it together" during this sometimes tense and uncomfortable period.

Israel's Independence celebrations start with a full day of remembering the fallen soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the sake of their country. Memorial Day is a very emotional day and one of the more difficult days for students at the institute. It is a day which we Israelis spend looking inward at our own pain and suffering. During this year's kibbutz ceremonies, I was strongly struck by the fact that little was mentioned of the other side, neither as the enemy or as the victim. It was as if the other side did not exist and all of those soldiers died in a vacuum disconnected from our struggle with the Arab people. Finally at the end of the Memorial Day ceremonies on Ketura, a quote was read from the speech of then IDF Chief of Staff, Yitzchak Rabin, on the occasion of receiving an honorary doctorate from Hebrew University in 1967 after the Six Day War:
"Moreover, the elation of victory has seized the whole nation. Yet among the soldiers themselves a curious phenomenon is to be observed increasingly. They cannot rejoice wholeheartedly. Their triumph is marred by grief and shock, and there are some who cannot rejoice at all. Those battling in the front lines saw with their own eyes not only the glory of victory, but also its cost -- their comrades fallen beside them soaked in blood. I know that the terrible price the enemy paid has also profoundly affected many of our men. Perhaps the education and the experience of the Jewish people has never brought it to feel the joy of the conqueror and the victor, and therefore the matter is accepted with mixed feelings."
Yitzchak Rabin, Hebrew University, 1967
So it took the Israeli Army's Chief of Staff to remind us of the terrible price that not only Israelis paid but the price the Arab people paid in this struggle. Recognizing the other sides pain and suffering is not a simple matter. We somehow feel that if we recognize the other sides' s pain and grief, we are justifying their actions. At the Arava Institute we continue to struggle to look for an appropriate way to recognize the pain of both sides. As such, we will soon commemorate Naqba Day and we will once again be reminded of the terrible toll this struggle has taken on the Palestinian people.
If it is difficult to share in each other's grief and suffering, how much more difficult is it to share in each other's joy? Yesterday was a day of celebration for the Israeli/Jewish people. The day we celebrate our freedom and independence. In Hebrew there is something we say to people who congratulate us on a joyous occasion. We say to them – "Bakarov etzlecha" – literally meaning "soon by you" but really meaning "may you too have a similar reason to celebrate".
So to our Israeli and Jewish students I say "Hag Sameach" – Happy Holiday and to our Palestinian students I say "Bakarov etzlecha!". To all our students I wish a blessing of peace.
David

• During this intense and tense period of time, students and staff grappled with the issues around the Holocaust Remembarance Day, the Israeli Memorial Day and Israeli Independence Day. The height of intensity was on the evening of Israeli Memorial Day when a group of Palestinian, Israeli and American students organized a memorial service which honored and remembered Israeli soldiers and Israeli and Palestinian victims of violence. Not a simple feat and not without disagreements and tender emotions. Yet as I said in my letter, the students and staff manage to hold it together which is a feat in itself.


• On Wednesday, April 13th, the new Arava Center for Sustainable Development in Arid Lands invited Sivan Borowich-Ya'ari, founder and President of Jewish Hearts for Africa, a non-profit organization that is trying to bring appropriate and sustainable Israeli technology to help rural villages in Africa www.jhasol.org. After presenting the work of the Arava Institue and Jewish Hearts for Africa we discussed how the two organizations could work togehter. It seems like there are many possibilities including working together on supplying sustainable technology, organizing teaching and volunteering as well as the possibility of working toegether on an ecovillage in Africa. We will continue to be in touch with Sivan in order to see how partnering can create synergy.


• Pua Bar-Kutiel, the new Academic Coodinator appointed by Ben-Gurion University spent a few days at the institue, teaching Ecology class, meeting with students about continued studies at BGU and meeting with staff in order discuss how to move forward on the Minor in Environmental Studies and a new Masters in Environmental Policy. Pua had an excellent visit and seems very enthusiastic about working with the institute.


• On Thursday, Lucien and Yehudit Bronicki, the founders and heads of Ormat Technologies, an Israeli company that is a world leader in geothermal energy brought 200 employees from their Israeli headquarters in Yavne down to visit the Arava Institue and other renewable energy projects in the region. After a lunch served by Keren Kolot, the kibbutz guest house, Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed from the Arava Institute's Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation and Noam Ilan and William Weistinger from the Eilat Eilot Renewable Energy Initiative gave the Ormat Technology employees a tour of the new Technology Validation Center.

Lucien and Yehudit Bronicki with Tareq Abu Hamed

• On the following Sunday, the members of the Arava Renewable Energy Technology Center Consortium that is competing for the Israeli Ministry of Infrastructure's tender on the establishment of a renewable energy technology center (incubator) in Israel visited the institue and held its first Board Meeting at the offices of the Hevel Eilot Regional Council. Members of the consortium include Ormat Technologies, Elbit, Rafael, the Eilat Eilot Renewable Energy Initiative, a number of investment and finace companies, Ben-Gurion University and the Arava Institue for Enviornmental Studies (0.78% equity). If the consortium wins the Ministry of infrastructure's tender, a renewable energy technology center will be set up in the Arava. The purpose of the center is to enable start-up's in renewable energy by providing funding, space and know-how. Most of these start-ups will end up nowhere but a small percentage will succeed and the consortium will then own part of these successful new business.


• Elli Groner, the Director of the Academic Programs, celebrated with his wife Zoe and their two children, Andy and Alona, the birth of a new baby girl, Yasmin. On wednesday, we raised a toast to Zoe, the new baby and the population explosion at the Groner house.


• Last week we recieved sad news when we heard that one past members of Garin Hashachar and a good friend of the Arava Institute, Howie Katz, passed away suddenly. We would like to express our condolences to Howie's wife, Jackie, to his family and his friends.

David Lehrer