The Heschel Center Sustainability Updates from Israel By Ran Raviv The most recent bicycle accident in Tel Aviv succeeded in finally attracting public attention to the issue. Among the many articles that were written, the question of the infrastructure needed for safe, easy, convenient and comfortable bicycle riding was raised repeatedly. That is, riding without […]

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By Josh Curtis and Alex Frumkin | 11/01/2018 Water availability hasn’t always been a problem for Susya, a Palestinian village in the Israeli-controlled part of the southern West Bank. Until recently, the village has been able to fulfill its needs from rainwater collection. However, between 1999 and 2001, the Israel Defense Forces destroyed most of […]

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The most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns of the devastating implications for civilization if we don’t take dramatic steps in the coming years. In particular, the Middle East will be hard hit with extreme temperatures, droughts and more, impacting life in Israel severely. The Heschel Center stands at the […]

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By Meira Hanson, with the assistance of Dr. Irit Rotem. In municipalities across Israel election day looked like Heschel Alumni day. 13 Heschel Alumni ran in the elections on October 30: their agendas were diverse but all of them were driven by, unsurprisingly, from the will to lead change. The local arena is no stranger […]

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There is also a criminal investigation into EAPC over what expert called the worst spill in Israel’s history. By REUTERS October 31, 2018 16:37 A 2014 oil spill by a secretive state-run company that flooded an Israeli nature reserve caused 281 million shekels ($76 million) worth of damage, Israel’s Environmental Protection Ministry said on Wednesday. […]

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Along the Iraqi banks of the Euphrates river, one question dominates the conversation. What killed the fish? Thousands of tonnes of freshwater carp have washed up dead this month, leaving Iraqi fish farmers reeling from the significant loss of earnings. Carp is the country’s national dish, commonly barbecued outdoors across restaurants in Baghdad. Agriculture officials […]

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An Egyptian government program to pay traders to buy rice straw from farmers at the end of harvest has helped to combat one of Cairo’s ugliest features – a huge black cloud that hangs over the capital during the burning season. Cairo is the world’s second most polluted megacity, the World Health Organization says, and […]

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Banque Du Liban’s second vice-governor Saad Andari announced during a conference that Lebanon expects to start exploratory offshore drilling for oil and gas by the end of 2019, LBCI news said on Tuesday. The exploration will take between three to four years, and will be conducted by a consortium led by French oil giant Total, […]

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Caretaker Economy Minister Raed Khoury said that strict measures will be taken against private generators owners who enforced a two-hour shutdown on Tuesday depriving subscribers from power supply, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Wednesday. “The Ministry will legally pursue all private generators owners who cut off electricity. We will take strict measures against them, they will […]

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Zafrir Rinat | Nov. 8, 2018 | 3:24 AM The Tourism Ministry is said to be checking an alternative to the construction of a hotel in the Sasgon Valley in the south, which has been the subject of public controversy for years. In two weeks the ministry and the Hevel Eilot Regional Council are to […]

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Op-ed: Declarations and threats against Hamas will not solve the problem. The Israeli government must make a strategic commitment to solving the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as it did when confronted with missiles and tunnels, only that will stop the violence. David Lehrer 11.03.18 All acts of terror are abhorrent. Declarations and threats against Hamas, […]

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EcoPeace Middle East Co-Founders Receive the 2018 Stanford Bright Award Gidon Bromberg and Munqeth Mehyar, EcoPeace’s co-founders, travelled to California this month to receive the prestigious 2018 Bright Award from the Stanford Law School, for their outstanding work in promoting global sustainability. “Gidon Bromberg and Munqeth Mehyar are unparalleled environmental leaders and visionaries … at […]

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The water level in Israel’s only freshwater lake fell further in November, approaching an all-time low Zafrir Rinat Nov 07, 2018 The water level in Israel’s only freshwater lake fell further in November, approaching an all-time low The water level in the Sea of Galilee has receded to its lowest point in 17 years, hydrologists […]

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Not only are fires more common but the trees are more vulnerable to pests in arid years, which are expected to become more frequent, and worse Zafrir Rinat Oct 22, 2018 3:59 PM Israel’s forests have been declining for years, and now a groundbreaking study has found a correlation between increasing tree mortality and the […]

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Following Jordan’s decision to cancel the annex to the peace treaty with Israel, senior ministers say ‘increasing water supply to Jordan while Israel is drying up is absurd’; Political sources: Israel also bears responsibility for this crisis—the writing was on the wall. Itamar Eichner and Gad Lior |Published: 10.23.18 Senior Israeli ministers have complained that […]

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The Israeli army on Monday accused Hizbullah of setting up a new observation point in south Lebanon near the border under the guise of an environmental NGO. A senior military officer charged that the position, near the border village of Adaysseh and the Israeli settlement of Misgav Am, was a violation of U.N. Resolution 1701 […]

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By Hana Namrouqa – Oct 17,2018 AMMAN — Authorities on Tuesday uncovered major water violations in Lubban, south Amman, in which more than 36,000 cubic metres of freshwater were being diverted monthly for the irrigation of over 100 dunums, according to a government official. The Ministry of Water and Irrigation, the Jordan Water Company (Miyahuna) […]

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By JT – Oct 20,2018 Talal Abu-Ghazaleh AMMAN – It is 2020. America has sneezed and Jordan, among many other countries, has caught pneumonia: a new a “graver” economic crisis is at play, predicts Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, founder and president of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Group (TAG). Abu-Ghazaleh, a knowledge mogul, whose group operates all over the world […]

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October 24, 2018 Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm Sohag governorate announced a state of emergency on Tuesday as a result of increased pollution caused by agricultural waste burning on plantations, particularly corn waste. The agricultural waste burning caused black clouds and air pollution on Sohag over the past three days. Sohag Governor Ahmed al-Ansary instructed […]

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The ministry cites hazardous emissions at some 300 ad-hoc dumps and need for legislation to counter this dangerous phenomenon Zafrir Rinat Oct 30, 2018 Waste is being burned illegally at some 300 sites around Israel, emitting quantities of some pollutants that are even greater than those spewed out by factories and motor vehicles, the Environmental […]

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