Proposed amendment to Planning and Building Law, would make Israel’s overarching environmental plans nonbinding. By Zafrir Rinat | Jun.27, 2013 Environmental organizations are up in arms over a government proposal to do away with what they view as a key tool for protecting the environment: binding national master plans. The proposed amendment to the Planning […]

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The glaring discrepancy in water allocation from West Bank supplies forces Palestinians to rely on water from tankers. Last Modified: 01 Jul 2013 Belen Fernandez is the author of The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work, published by Verso. She is a contributing editor at Jacobin Magazine. Last week, on June 23, Israeli President Shimon […]

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By SOLON SOLOMON 06/29/2013 The Samaria and Judea environmental protection associations’ petition to the Environmental Protection Ministry and the Ministry of Justice has an urgent character, and is important and interesting in that it comes in a highly political context. Right-wing parties and their supporters have long argued for the annexation of Israeli settlements. Only […]

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Petra | Jun 27, 2013 | 23:23 Updated: Jun 27, 2013 | 23:24 AMMAN — Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour on Thursday stressed the importance of speeding up renewable energy projects to reduce the Kingdom’s energy bill, which poses a heavy burden on the state budget. During a meeting with Energy Ministry officials, the premier was […]

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By HAROLD GOLDMEIER 06/30/2013 Socially responsible investors will want to look at a nascent hive of activity where governments and the private sector are lumbering to save the world food supply threatened by mass crop displacement. The survivability of the tiny, nuisance bee is one key to that monumental task. Bee populations around the world […]

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Home Front Defense Minister Erdan’s appeal not to erect controversial plant near potential Gaza rocket fire is rejected. Rejecting an appeal filed in May by Home Front Defense Minister Gilad Erdan, cabinet members reaffirmed their decision to erect a natural gas plant in the controversial Be’er Tuviya Industrial Zone on Sunday. Residents from the Be’er […]

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July 02, 2013 12:39 AM BEIRUT: Birdlife International this year marked 30 years since the founding of The Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon at its annual congress in Ottawa last month. SPNL was honored for the leading role it has played in the revival of the “Hima” – a traditional community-managed protected […]

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June 29, 2013 BEIRUT: The cornerstone for a controversial dam in Batroun, north Lebanon will be laid Sunday, with the Energy Ministry promising that the project will meet the water needs of more than 40,000 residents. A statement by the ministry, issued Friday, said the Balaa dam project represents “the first large-scale water project” in […]

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July 01, 2013 BEIRUT: A major eco-friendly tourism project was inaugurated in south Lebanon Sunday to boost economic development in the region. The Tree House project is located in the Bkassine village of Jezzine, and is funded by the European Union under the patronage of State Minister Mohammad Fneish. Hind Oweidat, a ministry representative, described […]

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July 01, 2013 12:35 AM BEIRUT: The Environment Ministry and other environmental organizations Sunday launched the new tourism season at the Palm Islands Nature Reserve just off the coast of Mina. A launching ceremony was held by the commission tasked with supervising the reserve and the Committee for Environmental Care, under the patronage of caretaker […]

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By SHARON UDASIN 06/20/2013 01:41 Biennial World Leadership Conference focuses on sustainability and global environmental cooperation. Development of the proposed Red Sea-Dead Sea conduit will occur under the joint administration of the State of Israel and Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund, leaders from both parties announced on Tuesday. Energy and Water Minister Silvan Shalom, KKL-JNF […]

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By SHARON UDASIN 06/25/2013 19:36 Haifa-based Mapal Green Energy will be bringing its floating aeration system into a municipal wastewater treatment plant in Stanbridgeford, north of London. An Israeli developer of advanced water purification systems will next week install its technology in an English wastewater treatment plant in the country’s Midlands, after signing a contract […]

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By SHARON UDASIN, GREER FAY CASHMAN 06/23/2013 Collaboration to foster water research at a molecular scale; agreement signed at presidential complex in presence of Peres. In an effort to develop less expensive and more efficient water resources throughout the world, the presidents of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the University of Chicago launched a […]

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The sale of mineral water bottler Mayanot Eden to a foreign investment fund has reawakened concerns about who profits from Israel’s natural resources. By Shuki Sadeh | Jun.25, 2013 The tranquillity of the Salukia Spring in the Golan Heights belies the uproar that arose over it this month, when Ron and Yehuda Naftali sold their […]

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26/06/2013 01:05 BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Palestinian youths burned tires and briefly stopped traffic on a main Bethlehem road Tuesday, as they protested against water shortages in the occupied West Bank. Several dozen residents of Bethlehem’s al-Azza refugee camp joined the demonstration in which participants set fire to tires and blocked traffic with a dumpster they […]

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Detractors say the project providing clean cold water free of charge to registered users constitutes an invasion of privacy and excludes the poor. By Ido Kenan and Jonny Silver | Jun.23, 2013 Seven new water fountains that will provide pedestrians with chilled filtered water were installed last week around Tel Aviv as part of a […]

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by Hana Namrouqa | Jun 25, 2013 | 22:57 Updated: Jun 25, 2013 | 22:57 AMMAN — The Ministry of Water and Irrigation is studying and evaluating the country’s surface and groundwater resources to prevent violations and detect pollution, a government official said on Tuesday. The 1.7-million-euro study, to be implemented by a German consultation […]

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By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, June 15, 2013 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/opinion/sunday/friedman-egypts-perilous-drift.html?smid=fb-share&_r=1& MARSA ALAM, Egypt — ON Tuesday, I visited a bakery in Cairo’s dirt-poor Imbaba neighborhood, where I watched a scrum of men, women and children jostling to get bread. You have to get there early, because the baker makes only so many subsidized pita loaves; he sells […]

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By: Hila Sagie, Avigail Morris, Yodan Rofè, Daniel E. Orenstein & Elli Groner Source: Journal of Arid Environments, Volume 97, October 2013, Pages 38–48 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140196313000967 Abstract: This research explores local resident perspectives on ecosystem services (ES) in the hyper-arid Arava Valley/Wadi Araba, which spans across both Israel and Jordan. Identifying and characterizing ES, an increasingly […]

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By SHARON UDASIN 06/10/2013 19:38 With Jordanians suffering electricity shortages due to the ongoing influx of Syrian refugees and Lebanon’s capital city facing occasional 24- hour power outages, the natural gas finds in the Eastern Mediterranean must be used to leverage regional cooperation on energy sources, experts stressed at a conference last week. “If the […]

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