By Svenja Oberender and Johannes Manz The diverse NGO landscape in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) can be confusing. Its fragmentation sometimes has a paralysing effect on the search for local partnerships and cooperation. A case in point is the environmental sector. A recent mapping study, conducted by Nada Majdalani Azzeh on behalf of the […]

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By Paola Handal-Michael When I first started working in elementary schools in Palestine, I was flabbergasted by the amount of waste on the floor. At the end of recess, the school yard was usually filthy: candy wrappers on the floor, bamba and potato chip bags everywhere, and ice cream sticks thrown on the grass and […]

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By Abeer Abu Aisha At the end of August, Friends of the Earth Scotland vice-chair Eurig Scandrett joined Bobby Peek from Friends of the Earth South Africa (groundWork) as part of a three-day international delegation to the West Bank. At the invitation of Friends of the Earth Palestine (PENGON), they were asked to witness and […]

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By Sarah Friedman, Tel Aviv, Sept. 13, 2012 Source: Green Zionist Alliance It began with exorbitantly expensive cottage cheese and unaffordable rent. As more people joined together, united by disaffection with their economic status and lack of opportunities, the grievances of the Israeli masses gradually coalesced into the agenda of the social-justice movement that reached […]

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Fields of Heaven: A Joint Israeli-Palestinian Farm May Take Root in West Bank by Harvey Stein. Posted: 08/22/2012 For the last year or so, I’ve been spending time with unlikely friends: a loose group of West Bank Palestinians and Jewish settlers, most of them neighbors, living within a few miles of each other. The mainstreams […]

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Friends of the Earth-Middle East, consisting of Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians, has successfully pressured their governments into acting to save the river. By Zafrir Rinat | Oct.02, 2012 The water of the Jordan River, debilitated by waste and intensely utilized for agriculture, may finally become cleaner thanks to steps now being taken by the governments […]

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Dead Sea loses 1.5 meters since last October, Kinneret highest in five years. By Zafrir Rinat | Oct.02, 2012 The Dead Sea is sinking fast. Over the last year the level of salty inland sea has gone down by 1.5 meters (over 4.5 feet), the sharpest decline in its recorded history, according to the October-to-October […]

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October 01, 2012 01:14 AM By Van Meguerditchian QARAOUN, Lebanon: A comprehensive plan encompassing all levels of government is required to save the Litani River and Qaraoun reservoirfrom pollution, civil society activists and government officials said Sunday. In a media tour to the Litani River basin in the Bekaa and Qaraoun Resevoir, the Association of […]

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October 04, 2012 01:13 AM By Mohammed Zaatari SIDON, Lebanon: The municipality of Sidon will launch Thursday a long-awaited project aimed at closing down the city’s dump. The site has caused a catalog of environmental disasters and fires over the years, severely damaging the city’s development progress. Plans show that the city’s dump, which currently […]

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By SHARON UDASIN 10/02/2012 23:19 Eilot Regional Council are the first authority in Israel to put new Packaging Law in action with large orange bins. In the Eilot Regional Council, large orange bins are joining the green garbage collection vessels on the streets, making the council Israel’s first authority to begin putting the terms of […]

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Gov’t unveils new measures to recharge renewable energy drive by Taylor Luck | Sep 30, 2012 AMMAN — Officials on Sunday unveiled new measures paving the way for citizens to sell electricity back to the national grid in a bid to encourage renewable energy use across the country. According to the Ministry of Energy, the […]

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Looking back from age 93, Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel founder Azaria Alon describes how lonely it felt to be battling against the cement-and-mortar ethos that pervaded Israel in the state’s early years By Zafrir Rinat | Oct.01, 2012 Teva Ve’adam ‏(Man and Nature‏) by Azaria Alon. Am Oved (Hebrew), 298 pages, […]

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By SHARON UDASIN 10/02/2012 23:28 Hundreds hike to Jerusalem Forest to celebrate western woods and protest plans to divide area with multi-lane highway. Hundreds hiked into the Jerusalem Forest on Tuesday in a mass effort to celebrate the city’s western woods and protest plans to divide the area with a multi-lane highway. Road 16, slated […]

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A group of 30 scientists, led by a biologist from Israel’s Weizmann Institute, spend a month adrift in the north Atlantic Ocean in hopes of unlocking the ecological secrets hidden in simple, slimy sea algae. By Asaf Shtull-Trauring | Oct.03, 2012 As the northern hemisphere sweltered in summer, more than 30 scientists, led by an […]

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By NADAV SHEMER 10/02/2012 15:23 Evan Thornley, CEO of the company’s Australian branch replaces founder Agassi, who stays on as board member, shareholder. sraeli company Better Place dismissed Shai Agassi as chief executive officer Tuesday, replacing him with Evan Thornley, CEO of its Australian branch. Agassi, who founded the company in 2007, will continue to […]

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BETHELEHEM, September 27, 2012 (WAFA) – Jewish settlers from the illegal Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit Thursday pumped waste water coming out from the settlement into Palestinian-owned agricultural land in Wadi Fukin, a village west of Bethlehem, according to a local activist. Head of Wadi Fukin village council, Ahmed Sokar, told WAFA that the waste […]

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Published Tuesday 25/09/2012 (updated) 29/09/2012 GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — A family in Gaza that lost eight children over two years says the lack of sanitation around their home in al-Bureij refugee camp is responsible for their deaths. The Salim family lives meters from a landfill in the central Gaza camp, and their home is surrounded […]

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by Hana Namrouqa | Sep 26, 2012 | 18:24 Updated: Sep 26, 2012 | 22:42 ‘ AMMAN – Jordanian fruits and vegetables irrigated by treated wastewater are safe, fit for human consumption and meet strict international standards, according to a report released on Wednesday. The report was compiled as part of a programme for monitoring […]

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By: Boghos Ghougassian The world is now discovering new means to meet the growing demands for energy, to fight climate change. And “Waste-to-energy” (WtE) is the slogan, which is a sustainable waste management paradigm and at the same time a renewable energy generator with proven success stories. Waste sources such as mixed municipal solid waste […]

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