Event reports
Nadine Mensel, Deputy Director of KAS Israel, welcomed the participants and opened the meeting with an emphasis on the priority of environmental protection: The issue does allow neither the political developments nor any kind of border establishment to diminish its relevance.
Riman Barakat, co-director of IPCRI, underlined this aspect, since especially that issue affected the daily life on both sides and carried not only a local, but also a cross-border impact. Given the difficulties in Israel and the Palestinian territories to work together on a political level, however, positive examples of cooperation between various environmental groups exist. The combined efforts in that regard provided a chance to extend the cooperation also in other areas.
Prior to the workshop sessions that dealt with the question of water and waste management as well as the effects of climate change, two lectures were given by both an Israeli and a Palestinian speaker. One major problem was seen in the Palestinian Authority’s dependency on international donors. Thus, the Palestinian influence on the projects in their region is restricted. The disproportionately strong impact on the decision-making process by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) towards the government representatives is adding to this problem. It is difficult to develop sustainable concepts in such an environment since above all, there is only little stability at the institutional level. The responsible authorities are only willing to act when problems can no longer be ignored. Accordingly, politics merely reacts rather than acting with the appropriate foresight.
Another challenge is the financial consideration of environmental protection in the national budgets. For example, only 15 environmental inspectors are responsible for monitoring and respecting the fixed standards in Israel. It was only under the pressure from NGOs that the Ministry of Environment published any data for the first time. In the Israeli speaker’s opinion, the commitment of the Israeli government to reduce the CO2 emissions by 20 percent until 2020 was due to the newly gained transparency.
The workshop on water management called for an intensified use of "grey water", recycled wastewater, for irrigation and domestic purposes. Previously, the Israeli Ministry of Health has approved this practice only in a few cases. Therefore, authorities still need to be convinced. Pilot projects with “grey water” in the Palestinian territories have already been a success.
The waste management workshop referred to the scheduled close-down of almost all rural landfills in Israel. This measure should help to centralize the waste management in order to control it more easily. Charging a “landfill tax”, the municipalities will be financially equipped to realize further recycling projects in the Palestinian Territories.
Moreover, the industry should get involved with financial contributions. Raising public awareness has become also an issue in the Palestinian Territories. Public activities, such as the mayor of Jenin’s street cleaning campaign involving the residents of the town, can promote public awareness. On the other hand, some participants criticized the approximately 500 NGOs on the Palestinian side. Their committment reflected oftentimes only short-term thinking and cannot help solving the problems permanently.
The workshop on the effects of climate change approached the task via the issue of energy efficiency. The participants suggested to create incentives for the construction of energy-friendly buildings, and to launch international certifications. Because of the climatic conditions in this region it is rather difficult to communicate the problems associated with climate change (e.g. temperature increase) to the population.
Approaches that were relevant for all sectors addressed the possibilities of mediation through educational institutions. It would be necessary to involve children and youths as early as possible and also to turn to focus groups such as women or religious leaders.
Moreover, it would be of advantage if high-profile members of the society became role models in order to help achieving an effective realization of the proposals. To attain a broader understanding of the problem joint Israeli and Palestinian trainings are planned. In general, financial incentives were regarded as the most effective way of implementing the recommendations. Another promising approach is the systematic integration of the media to raise public awareness about the topic. When working on a combined and sustainable environmental policy, the participants see the biggest obstacles within the respective public administration.
In summary, the participants considered as the most challenging topics first, the general awareness of the problem, secondly, the financial sustainability and thirdly, the enforcement of existing legislation.
The recommendations developed during the workshop led to vivid and thorough exchanges between Israelis and Palestinians. Consequently, the dialogue among the participants was successfully promoted and new contacts were established. The increased interest in this form of bilateral environmental cooperation should be deepened in following events.
Translated by Magdalena Hermes
