Weekly Reports - December 20th -31st, 2009

The week of December 20th to the 25th:

• Seth Morrison, Chair of the Friends of the Arava Institute (FAI) visited the Arava Institute during the first few days of the week. Seth met with staff and also participated in the Biodiversity short course run for students and alumni. Seth also participated in the Arava Institute Board of Directors meeting and the Annual General Assembly of the Association.


• The students had a busy week. From Sunday through Tuesday, students had the choice of participating in one of 3 short intensive courses: Biodiversity of sand dunes, Geological Information Systems (GIS) or Community decision making. On Wednesday, all the students participated in a "Sand Day" activism workshop as part of the Environmental Leadership Seminar (the EL in PELS). Students slept out at Timna park on Tuesday night and then spent the next day exploring local environmental issues including the Samar Sand Dunes mining controversy and the proposed hotel resort to be built near Timna Park. The following day, the students went to Jerusalem for a Peace-building study tour (the P in PELS) meeting with Jewish Settlers, visiting Gilo, looking at the issues around the separation wall and visiting a Palestinian refugee camp. It was a very intensive trip which is still having a rippling effect on the students.


• The Arava Institute Board of Directors met for the final meeting of 2009, approving the 2010 budget, hearing from Tamar Keinan, a Board member and Arava alum about her experience at he Copenhagen Climate Change conference and receiving the half year financial statements from instituter's CPA. Seth Morrison reported on FAI activities in 2009 and prospects for 2010. The board said goodbye to Hillel Gordon, a member of the Board of Directors since its founding in 1998. The board also welcomed two new members, Philip Medlinker, an investment lawyer and member of the Board of Directors of the Israeli Electric Company and Yaakov Karni, Professor at the Weizmann Institute specializing in solar energy. Following the Board meeting, the institute held its annual General Assembly of the Association in order to approve the Directors for the coming year.


• On Wednesday, I travelled to the District office of the Keren Kayemet L'Yisrael (KKL - the Israeli JNF) and presented the dorm project for approval. The committee greeted the plans to build a new set of dorms at the Arava Institute very warmly and gave their approval. This will enable the Friends of the Arava Institute to work together with the JNF to raise money for the project and send it through KKL.


• Thursday night, the Arava Institue was hosted by Becky and Tal Rowe Litman in their home in Gan Yishua for a "chug bayit" (parlor meeting). Thirty friends and neighbors came to hear Roee Elisha, Sulieman Halasah and me present the work of the Arava Institute. This chug bayit is part of an ongoing effort to raise awareness in Israel about the Arava Institute and to lay the foundation for an Israeli Friends of the Arav Institute.

The week of December 27th to December 31st was a considerably quieter week for both staff and students:

• On Sunday, the Admissions and Scholarship committee met to discuss the dilemma of having more applicants for next semester than beds. It was decided to aim for 45 students and to request to rent 2 more apartments from the kibbutz.
• The next day, the staff held the long awaited followup on the February staff communications seminar. The general consensus seemed to be that the communications seminar was successful, that the atmosphere at the institute is positive but that there is always room for improvement. The staff also looked at issues that they would like raises at the next seminar.
• Noah David from MASA visited the institute and met with students and staff. Noah discussed with staff members ways the institute could leverage the resources of MASA in order to increase the visibility of the institute and recruit more students from abroad.

I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year

David

Weekly Report September 6th -11th, 2009

Though I am travelling in the United States this week, I am happy to report on a succesful staff trip held this week. Once a year the institute organizes a field trip for staff members to deepen their knowledge of current environmental and coexistence projects in the region. The following is a report that Miriam Sharton sent me:

1. We met Roee Elisha on the Dead Sea where he gave us a talk about his work with the Dead Sea Preservation Company (DSPC) and the major problems and possible solution specifically regarding the flooding of the hotels. It was great to what Roee has achieved and hear about the important work he is involved in. We were all impressed and proud of him- he gave an informative and interesting talk.
2. We met with Noam Ilan (NOT our Noam Ilan from Lotan) and his partner in the project Elad, who took us to the village of Susia in Southern Hevron. The residence of susia literally live in caves and shacks. Noam and Elad together with the residents of Susia installed a solar panel and a wind tower to provide enough energy for the basic needs of 8 families . We visited the site and had an interesting discussion with Noam and Elad about this project and other potential projects.
3. Next we picked up Munther Hind who took us to another village in Southern Hevron where he built and is running a small wastewater system that provides clean water to two families – 18 individuals. We heard about the project and then were invited into the house of one of the families and heard about the history and challenges of the village which is situated in a politically unstable area of the west bank.
4. We were then joined by Elan Pitchi from "Break the Silence" which is an organization started by ex- combat solders who's mission is to share with the media testimonies of soldiers who have served in the West Bank . Elan gave us a short tour of the area of southern Hevron and talked to us about the work of his organization.
5. After that we drove to Clive's house where Clive and Hani hosted us for a great BBQ dinner. Thank you Clive and Hani!!

In addition to the the staff trip, the institute enjoyed a special "simcha" (happy event) when Uri Nusinow's daughter, Avital, was married on Thursday. Congratulations to Uri and his family.

Finally, I am, in the United States this week and am heading to the Board of Trustees meeting in Baltimore with Tareq Abu Hamed, David Weisberg and Jessica Reed. Tareq and I were in Minneapolis and St. Paul Minnesota hosted by the JNF and Debbie Jewett, Abby Lutman's sister. We had a number of successful fundraising events and I had a good Mexican meal.

David