Weekly Report May 23rd -27th, 2010

• It was another interesting and packed week at the Arava Institute:
• On Sunday afternoon and evening, Michelle Shachar took the students up into the mountains behind Kibbutz Ketura for a PELS overnight under the stars. The students started by riding bikes from the Neot Smadar restaurant at Shizafon Junction, located about 12 kilometers west of Ketura junction (and a well known watering whole to Israel Ride alum). The students ended their ride at the Nahal Kisui sand dunes, where they hiked, frolicked, cooked dinner, sang and slept. The next morning , they hiked back down the mountain to Ketura.



• Sharón Benheim reports: also on Sunday, the Institute hosted the Quebec Labrador Foundation's (QLF) 2010 Land Conservation Fellowship program this past week. The QLF Middle East Program (see: http://www.qlf.org/internat_program/mideast_program.htm ) includes a Fellowship, during which North Americans visit and share innovations with partner organizations from Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the West Bank and the Middle Eastern fellows visit the New England area. The goal is to foster citizen diplomacy and cross-border environmental collaboration as a bridge to greater understanding, dialogue, and cooperation. Staff member Gail Osman participated as a Middle Eastern Fellow in the first part of this 2010 program, visiting the American Fellow's and learning about their case studies and this week hosted the American group at the Institute to learn about the Samar Sand Dunes Campaign. Participants heard about the campaign from David Lehrer and visited the site with Yaniv Golan. Sharón Benheim, a former QLF fellow and staff member Abby Lutman also helped host the group and make their visit a memorable one.



• On Monday morning, Taal Goldman, Sababa Coordinator and I met with the Hevel Eilot Regional Council Chairman, Udi Gat, regarding ongoing local environmental issues such as the planned golf course at Ber Ora, the hotel that is planned to be built in Timna Park, the inscription of Timna Valley as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the Samar Sand Dune campaign. We intend to meet with the Regional Council Chair once every two months in order to update him and discuss on going issues.



• That evening, the Sababa subcommittee on Timna Valley inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage Site met to discuss ongoing negotiations with the Park Timna Management Committee. After that meeting the full Sababa Steering Committee met in order to discuss all of the current issues that Sababa is working as discussed with the Regional Council Chair in the morning. The committee finalized Sababa's stand on the Timna Hotel which will be presented to the residents in the region in the near future. The Steering Committee also viewed a presentation prepared by Taal Goldman about the upcoming plans of the Airport Authority to build an international airport in between Timna Park and Ber Ora on the border with Jordan.



• On Wednesday, the institute was flooded with activity. First of all, the New Arava Center for Sustainable Development in Arid Lands (ACSDAL) hosted a delegation of 7 staff members of MASHAV, Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The delegation was headed by the Director of Policy Planning and External Relations, Mr. Ilan Fluss. The visitors had the opportunity to hear about the Arava Institue, the work of the new center, see Elaine's experimental orchard, visit the Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation, see a demonstration of a water harvesting and purification system developed by the Arava Institute together with the Shamraz Company and participate in a meeting between students and an official government delegation from Ontario Canada (see next item). The MASHAV delegation was very impressed with their visit and at the final meeting at the end of the day agreed to work together with the institute to develop a long term partnership between MASHAV and the institute.



• On the same day, the Premier of Ontario, Canada, Dalton McGuinty, the Canadian Ambassador to Israel, Jon Allen and a group of Ontario business leaders and reporters visited the Arava Institute. The Premier met with students in the Kibbutz Community Center (which also serves as a classroom for the institute). Students, staff, regional council staff, members of the Jewish Agency staff and the Ontario delegation crowded into the classroom in order to hear four Arava Institute students, a Jordanian, a Palestinian, an Israeli and a Canadian, introduce themselves and tell a little bit about their background and about the institute. Aftwards, the Premier himself gave a very inspiring speach to the students recognizing the uniqueness of the institue and the importance of our message that only by working together can we achieve sustainabilty and peace for our planet. The Premer praised the work of the institue and the courage of the students. Udi Gat, the Hevel Eilot Regional Council Chair closed the session by thanking the Premier for visiting the institute and the region. After the meeting, the Premier was taken on a tour of the Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation by Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed.



• Parallel to these visits, 9 students from the Arava Institute organized and participated in an activity with 37 African refugees from Eilat at the Samar Sand Dunes. The students have been voluntarily working with African refugees in Eilat all semester. The students facilitated activities of finding animal tracks is the sand, yoga, games and Pita bread making. The kids played in the sand, came to know the dunes and left back home happy with great big smiles on their faces. The students were as pleased.

• On Thursday morning, a group of about 20 Allegheny College students accompanied by Professor Eri Pallant, Allegheny College faculty and Friends of the Arava Institute Board member, crossed from Jordan into Israel and after a quick stop at the Samar Sand Dunes, arrived at the Institute. The group of Allegheny students are participating in an eco-tour of Jordan, Israel and Palestine organized by the Arava Institute's Eco-Paths Department. While in Jordan, the students were hosted by Arava Institute's Jordnian alumni who made all of the arrangements for their tour. The focus of the program is on environmental issues especially issues around water and nature conservation. The students will spend the weekend at the institute and then head north. In the evening, the students were invited to participate in the a celebration of the graduation of 5 Arava Institute Masters students from Sde Boker. See the next item.



• On Thursday afternoon, a group of about 15 Arava Institute Masters students came down from Sde Boker where they are studying at the Albert Katz International School of Desert Studies of Ben-Gurion University. Five of the students who came down have completed their Masters and are graduating this semester. The Arava Institute wanted to honor the students and inaugurate an annual event to celebrate the succes of the Joint Masters Program. The 5 students are Adi Maimon, Eitan Amiel, Sulieman Halasawah, Ziv Sherver and Jennifer Golding. Mazen Zoabi, a 6th graduate could not come down to the institute for the event due to family commitments. The 5 students presented their research to the other Masters students and to the current students at the institute in the afternoon. In the evening all of the students, Masters students. staff, Allegheny students and friends and familes gathered at the pool for a celebration including food prepared by the Arava Institute staff, ceremonial cetificates and gifts, a slide show, musical entertainment and dancing. The Joint Masters program in Desert Studies, Environmental Studies Specialization was initiated in 2002. So far over 35 Arava Institute students have been accepted to program and over 15 have completed their studies and graduated. A number of those graduates are now on their way to their PhD. This was a very proud evening for the Arava Institute.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report May 16th-20th, 2010

After last week's long and action packed report, I am happy to provide a much shorter and calmer summary of this week's activities:

• Students commemorate Nakbah Day "the Great Catastrophe of the Palestinian People"- One of the more difficult aspects of running a program where Palestinians and Israelis live together, is how to deal with national holidays and rememborance days. There is always a hightened level of tension around these events and every year, staff and students struggle to find the right balance of national pride and sensitivity to others. For a reminder of how the staff and students dealt with Israeli Memorial Day and Israeli Independence Day, please refer to my weekly report from April 11th to April 23rd, 2010. The following is a brief report by Yousre Odeh, one of our Program Associates and one of the staff who helped organize the Nakbah Day event this year.
• On Monday night, we met together on the campus (North American, Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian students) to commemorate the memorial day for Nakbah (Catastrophe). The commemoration was a student run activity which took place in 3 parts. We started with the screening of a documentary that shows the situation in Palestine from early 1984 untill 2007, shedding light on the human rights situation in the West Bank by interviewing civilians, politicians, Palestinian students, Israeli activist and Israeli professors. The second part of the activity was the telling of personal stories from selected students. We tried to have a diverse group of student speak. One student talked about her grandfather's experience as a refugee in the West Bank. Another spoke about his grandfather's experience as a refugee in Jerusalem. One student whose family were refugees in Jordan and another whose family is living in Haifa talked about their experiences. The last part of the activity was to divide up the group into smaller groups (family groups) where we reflected on what we heard and we tried to relate the personal stories and the movie to events in our lives. The impression about this session was difficult but positive and students stayed on the grass discussing their thoughts untill after midnight. - Yousre Odeh Student Life PA.
• The students and staff had a break this week as Shavuot, the festival of Weeks commemorating the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, started on Tuesday night. On Tuesday afternoon, the kibbutz members, children, residents and students gathered together for the ceremonial offering of the first fruits (Bikurim). The kibbutz holiday staff organized a Bikuriada, a contest between various branches of the kibbutz. The Arava Institute went up agains the Kibbutz Environmental Committee in the trash recycling contest, seeing who could recycle the most trash within the time limit. Our valiant team was led by PA Lauren Rauch, but victory was snatched from our grasp as the kibbutz team managed to take the trophy (we of course have lodged an appeal on the judges decision). In any case, this game seemed unfair as the opposing team captain was our own Yonatan Chessler, wearing his other hat as head of the Environmental Committee. We'll get you next time Red Barron!
• Finally, this week we celebrated Hannah Medaliah's 90th birthday. Hanah holds the world record as the oldest research intern at the institute. Hannah has been volunteering for years with Dr. Elaine Solowey in the Experimental Orchard. Born in Germany, Hannah made aliyah with her parents when she was a child. Hannah lived for more than 40 years on Moshav Bnei Zion near Rechovot, where she attended agricultural school. A number of years ago, Hannah moved to Kibbutz Ketura in order to be able to work with Dr. Solowey. Every morning after her coffee in the dinning room, Hannah walks down to the fields to spend the whole day, planting and taking care of trees, bushes and herbs. Clearly a recipe for a long life. The Arava Institute staff and some students threw a surprise birthday party for Hannah this morning at Keren Kolot.

Hannah Medaliah on the left, Dr. Elaine Solowey on the right.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report May 9th-14th, 2010

This was an extremely busy week at the Arava Institute. I am not sure I can fit everything that happened on to one blog posting, but I'll try:

• On Tuesday, the Arava Center for Sustainable Development in Arid Lands (ACSDAL) hosted Rabbi Micha Odenheimer, the founder and director of Tevel B'Zedek http://www.tevelbzedek.org/. Tevel B'Zedek is an organization that brings Israelis and Jews from around the world to do volunteer work in Nepal and is starting to work in Haiti. The goal of ACSDAL is to provide sustainable solutions, training and extensions services to developing countries around the world. After we introduced Micha to the work of the Arava Institute and he introduced our staff to the work of Tevel B'Zedek, we discussed how our two organizations could cooperate. We decided on 4 areas of cooperation:
• 1) Creating the opportunity for our alumni to go from the Arava Institute to volunteering with Tevel B'Zedek
• 2) Helping Tevel B'Zedek develop practical sustainable technological solutions to water problems and other issues that they are confronting in Nepal and now Haiti
• 3) Cooperation on a new develoment project in an arid section of Nepal
• 4) Developing a certification program in Israel for development workers
• These were the initial ideas and we expect there to be follow up in the next few months.
• PELS was also very busy this week with two important guests. On Tuesday, Professor Mohammed Dajani of Al Quds University spoke to the students about "Wasatia" - which promotes centrism and moderation in Islam. The students heard from Professor Dajani about an approach to Islam which allows for the coexistence of Jews and Moslems. Wasatia teaches a moderate form of Islam which accepts fundamentalism in all religions as a belief in the teachings and writings of the religion but does not mean denying other religions or the promotion of violence or terrorism. "Radicalism and the claim of exclusive monopoly for the truth is the disease". www.bigdreamsmallhope.com/wasatia.pdf .
• The Toronto Partnership 2000 Steering Committee spent time in the region this week. On Wednesday, Dr Tareq Abu Hamed and I met witht he committee and presented the progress of the Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation (CREEC). This progress report included reports on 8 different research grants which have been approved for funding, including solar hydrogen production, biodigester development for the Bedouin Community in Israel, Palestine and Jordan, PV panels for hothouses, dust effect research, PV panel cooling and the latest research funding for PV panel cleaning granted by the US Binational Science Foundation. In addition to research progress, we also discussed the slower progress of the development of a Master's Degree in "Energy and the Environment". Though progress has been slower than hoped for, there have been recent discussions with the Vice-Rector of Ben Gurion University, Professor Yael Eidan which have been very promissing.
• Later that day, the Toronto Steering Committee took a tour of the new CREEC lab and Technology Validation Center at the institute. The Toronto Partnership 2000 program is a major funding sponsor of CREEC.
• Wednesday and Thursday, the institute hosted Professor Pua Bar (Kutiel) the Academic Coordinator for Ben Gurion University who lectured in the Ecology of the Arava class. Professor Bar (Kutiel) also met with Arava Institute Associate Director Miriam Sharton and Academic Director Dr. Elli Groner to discuss the establishment of a new Masters Degree track in Environmental Policy.
• In addition to Professor Bar (Kutiel), the institute also hosted Dr. Hussein Tarabieh. Dr. Tarabieh is a native of Sakhnin co-founder and director of the Regional Center for Environmental Education and R&D (TAEQ) in the Beit Natufa Basin near Sakhnin. He is also head of the environmental unit of the local villages council. Dr. Tarabieh recently came back from a post-doc at George Mason University where he researched and wrote about environmental mediation. Dr. Tarabieh gave a lecture to the Environmental Politics class.
• On Thursday morning Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed and I met with the CREEC Steering Committee at the Weizmann Institute to discuss progress on developing the Master's Degree in "Energy and the Environment". BGU has proposed that the institute enlist an researcher or an academic institution from abroad who would partner with the institute and BGU in this program. The committee members brainstormed on potential partners and how to approach them.
• Tareq and I had to rush back from Rehovot to the institute that afternoon in order to participate in the second major PELS activity of the week, the guest lecture of former Israeli Chief of Staff and current Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of Strategic Affairs Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon. Vice-Prime Minister Ya'alon is a member of Kibbutz Grofit and though he is now a full-time politician and senior member of the Israeli Governement, maintains his connection with Kibbutz Grofit (Kibbutz Ketura's neighbor to the south) and with the Arava area in general. It was a great honor for the students to have the opportunity to hear directly from such a high level Israeli politician. Though what Vice-Prime Minister Ya'alon had to say was not always what many of the students wanted to hear, Ya'alon was honest, candid and direct (he did not attempt to sugar coat anything). He presented a very authentic Israeli view of the history of the conflict and the current peace prospects. Unfortunately, his narrative seemed to place 100% of the blame for the failure of the peace process so far on the Palestinans and on the Arab world and did not seem to allow for the possibility that current or past Israeli governments may also have been responsible for failures. This did not seem to me to be a very productive starting point for discussions. The students showed great restraint and respect though I am sure many of them had very strong reactions to the Vice-Prime Minister's speach. Once Vice-Prime Minister Ya'alon had concluded his remarks, students had the opportunity to ask questions. Again the students showed great restraint and maturity in their questions. They challenged the Vice-Prime Minister on current Israeli Army policy in the territories and on the treatment of the Palestinian people in general. The Vice-Prime Minister listened with patience to our students questions, responded and even engaged the students in discussions after the formal session ended. The overall tone of the Vice-Prime Minister's speach was not optimistic. He did not give much chance to the current negotiation process and stated that he did not believe we would see a peace agreement in this generation. Vice Prime-Minister Ya'alon did say that though he did not believe any more in top-down negotiated solutions by the regions political leaders, he did believe in bottom-up solutions. He said that the only way to change the reality in the Middle East is through education and people to people projects that allow Palestinians and Israelis to get to know each other and transform attitudes. This will be a long slow process but the result will be a new generation of moderate and leaders who will be able to reach an agreement on peace. The Vice-Prime Minister praised the Arava Institue as a great example of how to bring about peace in the Middle East. At least there was one thing that the students and the Vice-Prime Minister could agree on.

As I said - a packed week, I am tired just reading about it. Next week we celebrate the Jewish agricultural holiday of Shavout (Weeks). At least we will have some down time to rest. Happy holiday.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report May 2nd - 7th, 2010

• The Academic Study Program left this week for a 4 day trip around the Dead Sea Basin as part of the Water Course taught by Dr. Clive Lipchin. The trip started on Monday morning when the students crossed into Jordan at the Arava Border and headed north towards Wadi Mujib on the Dead Sea. The Palestinian students and Yousre, our Palestinian program associate are not allowed to cross into Jordan from at the Arava Crossing. They are required to go in and out of Jordan through the Allenby Bridge crossing, therefore they left on Sunday for Jordan spending the night in Amman. The Palestinians met the rest of the staff and students at Wadi Mujb for a wonderful hike in water that at some points reached people's waist. Students finished the day in Amman. The next day, the trip travelled up the Jordan Valley meeting with water professionals and visiting the King Abdallah Canal. The day ended in Irbid close to the Syrian border. The next day, the Palestinians students once again had to take a seperate route leaving early to cross back over the Allenby Bridge in order to eventually reach the Sea of Galillee. The rest of the students and staff visited the Yarmouch River where water is divided between Israel and Jordan. Then students and staff crossed at the Beit Shean border crossing back into Israel. That day included rafting on the Jordan River and a night on the Sea of Galilee. The final day of the trip included a visit to the Sapir pumping station where water is pumped out of the Sea of Galilee and sent by way of the National Water Carrier down to the Negev. The trip concluded with a visit to the West Bank and meetings with Palestinian water professioinals.
• I did not join the students on their trip but I also travelled to Jordan on Sunday and Monday in order to acompany Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed in meetingw with the Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST) in Irbid and the National Energy Research Center (NERC) in Amman. At JUST we met with the Vice-President of the University and with the head of the Renewable Energy Department to discuss a joint research project on Biogas and the possibility of collaboration on a Masters Degree Program in Energy and the Environment. Our meetings in Amman with our NERC partners also concerned the Biogas project.
• The student trip left the institute empty and quite but the staff left behind still had their hands full between visits, student registration at BGU and helping Ben Morgan in his recovery from his broken leg. Ben is doing fine but is on a crutch and needs a bit of help getting around. He got a note from the Doctor saying he was excused from classes for the next month!
• On Tuesday, we were honored with a quick visit from the Treasurer of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Hagai Merom. Hagai has visited the institute in the past but was pleased to see the progress being made and to hear about the good relationship with the Toronto Jewish Federation through the Partnership 2000 program. The Chairman of the Regional Council, Udi Gat accompanied Hagai on the quick visit.
• On Thursday, I met with a group from the JNF doing an environmetal tour of Israel. Among the participants in the tour was Bobbie Landau, a supporter of the Arava Institute who was thrilled to see the institute for the first time. Dr. Elaine Solowey took the group to meet the 2,000 year old date palm, Methusala and then took the group down to her Experimental Orchards.
• That night, I was asked to come to Eilat to meet a group on a different JNF mission from Atlanta. This mission was organized and led by the Atlanta JNF Rep and past FAI Board member, Beth Gluck. I came a bit early to meet with Willian Rosenberg, a participant in the trip and a past head of the Air Quality Division of the US EPA. William and I discussed possible collaboration on a policy paper on renewable energy and his further involvement with the institute.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report April 25th to 30th , 2010

• Raed Samar, the Director General of the Bethlehem Rural Waste Joint Service Council for Planning and Development and Munther Hind from the Palestinian Wasterwater Engineers Group were hosted by the Dr. Clive Lipchin from the Arava Institute Resaearch Department and Shira Kronich from Arava EC&T. Raed and Munther are very interested in the Arava Institute's help the introduction of small scale wastewater treatment and reuse projects in the southern West Bank villages. In the West Bank village of Batir for example which has a lot of fresh water resources, there is no central wastewater treatment. Wastewater is mostly treated on an individual family level with septic tanks. The wastewater is seeping from the septic tanks into the ground water, contaminting the ground water, making it unusable for drinking, recreation or agriculture. Building a large scale wastewater treatment plant is unrealistic because of the required investment but also because of the need for Israeli permits and the need for a large tract of land that the village does not have. The Arava Institute has proposed implementing small scale family or building wastewater treatment and gray water reuse projects which would require less investment and not permits from the Israeli military authorities. The Bethlehem Council and the Arava Institute will seek funding for this projet (about $5,000 per family unit).
• By chance, we ran into Udi Gat, the head of the local Hevel Eilot Regional Council here in the Arava in the dining room of Ketura. I introduced Munther to Udi. who was very pleased to make Munthers' aquaitance. They compared the work of the two councils and Udi tactfully mentioned that he had visited the southern area of the West Bank but only as a soldier. Munther responed that he invites Udi to come back to the area but as a civilian and "without his tank".
• The Human Resources Committee of the institute is intensively looking for a replacement to Elad Topel as Director of Eco-Paths. Elad has been the Director since 2006. He is now going to work full time as CEO of Arava EC&T. After putting out a tender for the position the committee spent this week interviewing candidates and will hopefully be able to make a decision by next week.
• Shir Harel, our webmaster also spent a day at the institute meeting with staff regarding the website and other new media projects. We look forward to an even more interesting and dynamic website which will interface with facebook, youtube and other forms of social media.
• On Tuesday afternoon, the Arava Institute Board of Directors met at the institute. Udi Gat was invited to present the establishment of the Arava Renewable Energy Technology Center Consortium in which the Arava Institute is a shareholder (see last blog posting). The Board members also received a presentation by the institute's CPA of the draft 2009 Financial Statements. The final version of the 2009 Financial Statements will be approved in the June Board meeting.
• Daniel Bar Elli, Secretary General of UNESCO Israel, visited Timna Park in order to discuss with local residents, the process for inscription of Timna Park as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Center for a Healthy Environment in the Arava (Sababa) is spearheading the effort in the region to inscribe Timna as a World Heritage Site in order to increase the level of conservation and protection of the region's national environmental and historical treasure.
• Sadly, last night, Ben Morgan, one of our students, broke his leg playing basketball. He is in the hospital for the weekend and hopefully will be released on Sunday. Unfortunately, it looks like Ben will not be rafting down the Jordan River next week with the rest of the students on the Water Trip. We wish Ben a speedy recovery.

David Lehrer

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

Weekly Report March 28th to April 9th, 2010

Dear Director's Blog Fans,

After months of intensive non-stop action at the Arava Institute, the past two weeks have been incredibly calm, quiet and relaxing. I for one, have really enjoyed the spring break. There are still a few important things to report about the past two weeks:

• Elad Topel, the Director of Eco-Paths for the past 4 years has announced his intention to leave the position by June in order to work full-time as the CEO of Arava Institute subsidiary, Arava Environmental Consulting and Technology (Arava EC&T). Eco-Paths is the department at the Arava Institute which runs the Israel Ride. The Human Resources Committee has begun to look for Elad's replacement. The institute wants to thank Elad for his incredible committment and energy to Eco-Paths and to the Israel Ride and wishes him luck as full-time CEO of Arava EC&T.
• Gail Osman, Director of the Development Department is leaving this week for a Fellowship Program sponsored by the Quebec-Labrador Foundation. The program is called, Developing Strategies for Community-based Natural Resource Managment and is funded by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participants in the 2 week program come from Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, the West Bank and North America. The program takes place in Massachussets, Maine and New Hampshire.
• The students left for their spring vacation two weeks ago and regular classes only resume on Sunday. Some students, however, returned early to participate in the short-course, Biodiversity of the Sand Dunes, run by Professor Uri Shanas of Haifa University. The course is a jointly run for Haifa University students and students of the Arava Institute. About 10 students participated in this year's course, half from Haifa and half from the Arava Institute. The students get up early in the morning in order to trap gerbils, lizards, beetles and spiders. Professor Shanas has been working together with the Arava Institute on biodiversity research of the Arava on both sides of the border for many years.
• On Thursday, a number staff members from the Arava Institue attended the monthly regional research seminar jointly sponsored by the Dead Sea Arava Science Center, the Southern Arava Agricultural R & D Center and the Arava Institute. The forum brings together researchers engaged in research in the southern Arava and Eilat. Thursday's seminar was attended by about 30 researchers and included lectures by both Professor Uri Shanas on the biodiversity of the southern Arava and by Dr. Reuven Yosef, Director of the International Birding and Research Center Eilat and one of Israel's leading ornothologists. Both Uri and Reuven are part-time lecturers at the Arava Institute.
• Uri revealed some amazing results of the studies he has been conducting for the past 6 years with Arava Institute students and with Haifa University students, on the biodiversity of the Arava on both sides of the border. One conclusion of the research is that nature apparently does know borders. Uri's research found that, probably due to the cultural differences between the human populations on the Jordanian side of the border from the Israeli side of the border, there is a greater abundance of species on the Israel side, while there is a greater diversity on the Jordanian side. There are certain species which only appear on one side of the border or the other. In addition, Uri and his research assistants have found that some species inhabiting the Samar Sand Dunes have a closer genetic relationship to animals in North Africa then they do to animals living in other adjacent sandy habitats in the Arava. Uri could not give a definite explanation to this phenomenon but emphasized the global scientific importance of this discovery.
• Dr. Reuven Yosef then spoke to the seminar about the importance of the establishment of the International Birding and Resarch Center Eilat on the old Eilat garbage dump. Reuven showed aerial photographs of the Eilat region prior to the establishment of the State which revealed a florishing salt marsh eco-system that was destroyed by the development in the region and agriculture. The salt-marshes at the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba were a critical refueling station for birds flying from Africa back to Europe during the spring. The first researcher to make this connection was Professor Uriel Safriel in an article he wrote in 1968. In 1993, Dr. Yosef was able to get permission from the Eilat municipality to reestablish a small nature reserve on a city garbage dump at the entrance to Eilat. Over a half a million birds fly through Israel to and from Africa every fall and spring. Much of Reuven's original research in Eilat was done with the aid of students from the Arava Institute. Using solar radiation data to create a multi-year GIS map of Africa, Reuven showed the seminar how the migrating birds from Europe move in a circular pattern from Europe, to Western Africa, then as the winter progresses, on to Southern Africa and finally when spring arrives heading back towards Europe via Eastern Africa. The first refueling station available to the birds after flying across barren North African deserts is Eilat, thus making the Eilat Israel Birding Center a critical part of the global highway for migrating birds.

David Lehrer