Weekly Report June 6th - 11th, 2010

This was a relatively quite week at the Arava Institute.

•  On Sunday, Associate Director Miriam Sharton, Academic Director Dr. Elli Groner and I met with Dr. Arieh Nesher, Director of the Porter School for Environmental Studies at Tel Aviv University and his staff. We have had contact with the Porter School in the past. The Porter School has become an important and influential institute within Tel Aviv University and is now offering graduate degrees. The meeting was initiated by Arieh, who wanted to update us on their plans and to discuss possible cooperation and a joint program. Though we are in some ways in rivals, it is clear that both institutes are more interested in cooperating that competing. We concluded that Elli would write up a proposal about how the two institutions could implement a joint program.
• That afternoon, Elad Topel outgoing Director of Eco-Paths, Tali Adini, the new Director of Eco-Paths and I met with Howie Rodenstein, the Israel Ride Chair and FAI Board member. The meeting was Tali's first opportunity to meet with Howie. Tali is transitioning with Elad this week learning the ropes of organizing the Ride. 
• The week was filled with lots of organizational meetings from Research Programs to the Academic Department. 
• We said good bye to intern, Cameron Davidson who was here working on her Masters Thesis from Brisbane University. We welcomed Lisa Blake from Cornell University who will be working on planning and policy issues with Elli Groner. 
• Wednesday afternoon, I was urgently called by Dorit Bannet, head of the Eilat Eilot Renewable Energy Initiative for an last minute meeting with Yossi Inbar, the Director-General of the Ministry for Environmental Protection who was visiting planned solar panel fields in the area. Yossi decided at the last minute to visit the Samar Sand Dunes as well. Dorit called me to quickly come to the dunes to meet Yossi and explain Sababa's position on saving the dunes from intended sand mining. We had sent the Ministry a letter asking that the planned mining be halted and that tests should be done in the areas already mined to see if it is possible to use land disturbed by previous mining rather than destroy 600 dunam of a pristine sand dune ecosystem. Yossi agreed to pay for part of the testing along with the Regional Council and the Ministry of Infrastructure.
• For the final PELS session this week, Michelle Shachar invited Rabbi David Rosen and his wife Sharon Rosen to visit the institute and speak to the students.  David and Sharon are one of our current students, Amirit Rosen's parents.  Both David and Sharon are very active in coexistence efforts in Israel and each spoke to the students about their work.  Rabbi Rosen is the head of the AJC's Department for Inter-religious Affairs and Sharon Rosen is the co-director of Search for Common Grounds in Israel http://www.sfcg.org/.
• Taal Goldman, Sababa Coordinator and I met with Sarit Cohen, the Sectretary of Beer Ora community near Eilat. Taal and I are meeting with the General Secretaries and eventually with members of all of the communities in the region in ordert to introduce Sababa to residents of the region and to present our postions on the different environmental issues we face. We discussed the Samar Sand Dunes, Timna Valley, the planned hotel in Timna Valley and the planned golf course at Beer Ora itself. 
• That afternoon, I spoke at the regional research meeting, a bi-monthly meeting of researchers in the area. I presented the Arava Institute's Research Department's activities. 
• Friday morning, I hosted Loyd and Alyson Fogler from Toronto Canada at the institute. The Foglers are active in philanthropy in the Jewish Community in Toronto and were very interested in hearing about the work of the institute and the regional renewable energy initiative.The productive visit was arranged by the Toronto Jewish Federation Partnership 2000 committee and the Hevel Eilot Regional Council.

 David