Arava Institute
Browsing through a folder of 130 emails I once thought I might comment on some day I found a newsletter of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, forwarded last December by a friend in Jerusalem. The Institute describes itself as “a regional center for environmental leadership. By encouraging environmental cooperation between peoples, the Arava Institute is working towards peace and sustainable development on a regional and global scale.” The Institute is located at Kibbutz Ketura in the Negev desert north of Eilat in Israel’s far south, across a field and short fence from Jordan. The kibbutz was founded in 1973 by an American Jewish group, which I belonged to until I left Israel earlier that year. Last year, during my month-long trip to Israel and the West Bank, I visited Ketura for the first time and noted its strong environmental ethos, which reflected, I think, its American origins and assumptions.
I’m not sure if cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians on the level of the Institute can really lead to a long-term political solution, especially in the presence of Zionist assumptions that make true equality impossible no matter how nice people are to each other. Still, I like the idea of people in opposing camps getting to know one another as individuals and working on mutual projects, especially when the projects are worth doing.
So it’s troubling to read in the Institute’s newsletter about Israeli restrictions keeping Palestinian students from attending:
…All of our participants bring their strong individual national, cultural and religious identities with them to the program. While never negating their identity, our interdisciplinary program creates a framework that allows the environment to act as the metaphor, the level playing field, and most importantly, the glue that allows us to deal with the more difficult political issues that can’t be avoided with such a constellation of young leaders. This can be a very difficult process for our students, but nonetheless, over the time that they are with us, strong friendships are forged that carry on after they leave the program. Many of our alumni are involved in numerous cross-border environmental projects between Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan.
REDUCED TO one of its core components, this conflict is about land; more precisely - the borders that nations draw on the land. When thinking about what divides nations and in this conflict the land is often viewed as one of the major stumbling blocks to any reconciliation efforts between the various nations and peoples in the region. When the land is looked upon solely as a geo-political instrument that is true. However, when viewed from the perspective of the environment, a new framework opens up. The environment, which does not know from political borders, invites us to not be afraid of the other.
…
Security is reached not just by building walls, but also by breaking down the walls of the misunderstanding each side has of the other. This can only happen when Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians are allowed to meet each other. We have found the ability to do so truncated by the Israeli permit and visa process for our students. Just last year a Jordanian student did not return home after his father suddenly died since the Israeli authorities had not given him a multi-entry visa. If he had gone back home for his father’s funeral he would not have been able to return to his studies with us and would have lost an entire semester of work and credit.This semester we are faced with a total shutdown of the ability to get student permits for Palestinian students. We even delayed our semester by 10 days in the hope that conditions would change. They have not in that regard. With all due respect to the difficult work of the security apparatus we can’t believe that every Palestinian who wishes to study with us now is a security risk. One of them after his studies with us plans “to establish a non-violent environmental NGO to help foster Palestinian civic society.” Another wants to study with us so he can “learn to use the environment as an approach to peace-building between Palestinians and Israelis.”
A third looks to gain skills at the Arava Institute that will help him with “conserving bio-diversity in the Palestinian Authority and raise public awareness of the issue within the PA.”
The irony here is that we make it easier for these individuals to join Islamic Jihad, Hamas and the Aksa Martyrs Brigade than to join Israelis in building that future we all want; a future that will only happen if Palestinians who share our aspirations for peaceful cooperation are allowed to meet like-minded Israelis. If we treat every Palestinian as a terrorist we will eventually see that prophecy fulfilled. One of our best weapons against the Palestinian terrorists is to strengthen and support Palestinians who oppose their violence.
I have a photo gallery of the Ketura area from my 2005 visit, along with other galleries of Israel and Palestine photos.