Environmental History and the History of Water in Israel and Palestine: International Conference. Sunday–Monday, September 18–19, 2011 The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, 43 Jabotinsky St., Jerusalem, Tel. 02-560-5222 www.vanleer.org.il

Sunday – September 18, 2011
10:30 – 10:45 – Greetings
Prof. Gabriel Motzkin, Director, The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute
Prof. Menahem Yaari, Deputy Chair, The Israeli-Palestinian Science Organization (IPSO)
Dr. Anat Lapidot-Firilla, The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute
Greetings from UNESCO and the Consulate General of Italy in Jerusalem

Session 1 – Politics of Water [10:45 – 12:45]
Samer Alatout (University of Wisconsin), From Abundance to Scarcity (1936-1959): A ‘Fluid’ History of Jewish Subjectivity in Historic Palestine and Israel (to be confirmed)
David Schattner (Tel Aviv University), Who Designed the Israeli “National Water Carrier”?
Dan Bitan (IPSO), American Involvement in Planning the Israeli National Water Carrier in the 1940s: From Progress to Hegemony?
Abdul-Rahman Haj Ibrahim (Palestine), The Ionides Report and its Political Impact, 1939-1942

Session 2 – Water to Jerusalem [13:15 – 14:15]
Vincent Lemire (Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée), A Water History of Jerusalem, 1840-1948: Reflections on a Global Hydro-Political Approach
Assaf Selzer (University of Haifa), Water to Jerusalem, Before 1948 and After: What Has Changed?

Session 3 – Water and Landscape [15:15 – 16:15]
Eran Feitelson (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Water Facets of Landscape Change in Israel/Palestine in the Early 20th Century
Marwan Abu-Khalaf (Palestine), The Local Landscape Effects of a Regional Water System in Artas, 1850-1948

Session 4 – Water Law Amer Marei (Palestine), Water Legislation in Mandate Palestine [16:45 – 18:15]
David Schorr (Tel Aviv University), Who Made Water Law in Mandate Palestine?
Maya Duany (University of Haifa), Law and Water: Between History and Narrative

Discussion and Concluding Remarks [18:15 – 19:00]

Monday September 19, 2011

Session 5 – Collapse of Civilizations [10:00 – 11:30]
Ronnie Ellenblum (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Collapse: What Can We Learn from the Events of the Eleventh Century AD & Climate Change?
Discussants: Benjamin Z. Kedar (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) Ruthy Gertwagen (University of Haifa)

Session 6 – Cultural and Anthropological Perceptions as Shaping Agents of the Environment: Historical Perspective [12:00 – 13:30]
Tal Alon Mozes (Technion, Israel Institute of Technology), Public Parks and the Emergence of Israel’s Environmentalism
Shlomit Tamari (Sapir Academic College), The Concept of Nature in Education: From Rousseau to Merleau-Ponty
Daniel Naveh (University of Haifa), Changes in Hunter-Gatherers’ Approach to the Environment: In Light of Past and Present Cases

Session 7 – Justice, Environment and Regional History [14:30 – 16:00]
Miri Shefer (Tel Aviv University), A Muslim Environmental Discourse and Its History
Thabet Abu-Rass (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev), Environmental Injustice in Israel: The Case of the Unrecognized Bedouin Villages in the Negev
Maya Negev (Tel Aviv University) and Nadav Davidovitch (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev), The Politics of Water and Health in Palestine/Israel: A Critical Historical Perspective

Discussion and Concluding Remarks [16:00 – 17:00]

Conference program: http://www.vanleer.org.il/Data/UploadedFiles/Events/1275.pdf