Weekly Report August 29th - September 10th, 2010

The pace of the last two weeks due to the end of the summer and the holidays (Id Al Fiter and Rosh Hashonah) has been slow.  Not a lot to report.

• On Wednesday, August 31st, Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, head of the Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation, Hannah Flamm, a research intern from Tufts University and went to Sderot to meet with members of "Other Voice", an organizaiton that promotes dialogue and cooperation between residents of Gaza and Sderot.  We met with Eric Yellin, Julie Chaitin and Nomika Zion the heads of Other Voice and members of an urban kibbutz in Sderot.  Tareq, Hannah and I met with the leaders of Other Voice in order to propose cooperation on a project that the institute is working on together with Tufts University to bring Palestinians from Gaza and Israelis from Sderot and the surrounding area to study together renewable energy. The project is called Solar for Gaza and Sderot (S4GS).  The long term vision is to create cooperative projects between Gaza and Sderot using reenwable energy as the basis for cooperation.  Eric, Julie and Nomika were enthusiastic about the project which will likely start in November or December with a workshop at the institute.
• On September 1st, I attended the Board of Directors meeting in Tel Aviv of Arava EC&T.  The for profit company founded by Elad Topel, an alum of the institute and two other entrepreneur friends of Elad's Avigal Shorek and Avi Rosenblatt is half-owned by the Arava Institute.  The company is now poviding consulting services to a variety of companies and instititutions in Israel including the Aroma Coffee chain, the Shikmim farm owned by the Sharon family, the Hevel Eilot Regional Council and an off shore natural gas project.  The Board heard reports on the projects and the projections for the rest of the year, which look very promissing.
• On September 6th, I was back in Tel Aviuv for a meeting of a group of orgaizations interested in promoting the idea of a Green New Deal for the Israeli economy. This is an idea that is gaining acceptance around the world. The basic idea is that due to the world economic collapse, there is an urgent need to reinvest into national economies in order to jump start economic growth. The question is, what type of investment is planned. Are governments around the world going to invest into the same old polluting fossil fuel driven industries of the last century or is the world going to take this opportunity to move forward with renewable energy and energy efficient industries.  Are we going to design policies that promote sustainabilty and utilize the need for massive investments to implement these policies.  The Arava Institute has joined with other NGO's to try to create a New Green Deal for Israel.
• On Tuesday morning over 30 members of the staff squeezed into the meeting room to raise a toast to the new year.  Miriam and I went through all of the amazing events that took place this past year and we then raised our glasses in the hope that this year will bring even more success but most of all peace and stability to our region and the world.

Shana Tova and Eid Mubarak

David