‘Nature knows no borders’: An Oslo initiative that survived

TOBIAS SIEGAL reports on the Arava Institute, where environmental cooperation continues to enable peacebuilding against the political trends.

“Here, the idea that nature knows no political borders is more than a belief. It is a fact, a curriculum, and a way of life” - Arava Institute

The common Israeli belief that there is no Palestinian partner with whom to negotiate peace is refuted by the work of the Arava Institute in southern Israel.

Established in 1996 in the heyday of the Oslo Accords, the Institute thrives where the accords have stalled, addressing environmental and geopolitical issues by connecting young Israelis, Palestinians and internationals.

The participants work together to solve environmental challenges of our time while acknowledging and respecting each other’s narratives.

Deputy Director Eliza Mayo said the institute’s work arose directly from the optimism of the 1990s’ peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.

“There was a very strong sense that we were making peace agreements with our enemies and that we should start working on environmental cooperation.

 “The idea was to use the environment as a tool for cooperation and cooperation as a tool for the environment.”

That approach is reflected in the institution’s location on Kibbutz Ketura in the Arava Valley – unique in that it is a desert area bordering both Israel and Jordan and reaching the southern tip of the Dead Sea, not far from the West Bank.

The location allows the institute to address regional environmental challenges like water scarcity while engaging in effective cross-border initiatives on its doorstep.

Kibbutz Ketura, described by Mayo as “a very proudly cooperative community,” was founded by American Jewish immigrants in 1973. In the early days of the institute, families on the kibbutz would host students during their studies. Today, students lead an environmental-educational project on the kibbutz every semester. Arava Institute alumni describe a “symbiotic” relationship between the institute and the kibbutz.

The institution also includes several research programs, including a joint Israeli-Jordanian Biodiversity Program and a Sustainable Agriculture Program.

Taking the second track

With the “First Track” of political negotiations stalled, peacebuilding efforts are focused at organisational level through civil society organisations, government bodies and non-state actors.

Track II is an Arava Institute program to promote professional collaborations between these groups facilitating environmental agreements, especially between Israelis and Palestinians.

 The idea is to catalyse "positive change on the ground and in the political arena" rather than wait for overarching peace agreements.

One major project spearheaded by the institute as part of its Track II initiative includes the deployment of Israeli-made devices that produce water from humidity in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian enclave that has been under Israeli and Egyptian blockade since the Hamas terror group seized power from the Palestinian Authority in 2007.

By connecting Palestinian activists in Gaza with the Israeli Watergen company, the Arava Institute was able to install two water-producing devices, one in a hospital and one in a municipality in southern Gaza.

“Drinking water is a major humanitarian issue in Gaza, not to mention environmental as well,” Mayo notes, adding that while Israeli-Jewish humanitarian projects in Gaza are often not marked as Israeli, in this case, “It’s known that this is Israeli-Palestinian cooperation,” potentially paving the way for similar collaborations in the future.

Sharing the narratives

Mayo said this kind of success would not be possible without first establishing genuine dialogue and acknowledgment of the issues in our region.

“The only kind of cooperation that can really last … can’t be normalisation and hiding that there is conflict,” she says.

This idea is integrated into the curriculum of the institute. Students are required to attend weekly meetings referred to as the Dialogue Forum, during which they are encouraged to share their own narratives of current events and how those influence them.

Discussions are moderated by three facilitators – an Israeli, a Palestinian, and an international participant – but are modelled as an open dialogue.

“The goal of the forum is to support students emotionally and through shared knowledge better understand each other’s reality,” says Lior Yom Tov, one of the forum’s facilitators.

This safe zone allows students to share and hear perspectives they would not otherwise encounter. “Most of them, if they’re Palestinians, they never met Israelis except at checkpoints. Same for Israelis, they never met Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank,” Yom Tov says.

The Dialogue Forum is part of a broader program meant to create a community on campus. Other components include celebrating each other’s culture and holidays, leadership seminars and storytelling workshops to help them better tell their own story.

“Dialogue must be part of a bigger envelope that also includes fun. Only having dialogue wouldn’t be enough either – we’re creating relationships and that’s what enables the dialogue,” Mayo explains.

“They’re essentially learning how to deeply disagree while respecting and loving each other,” she continues, “That’s what the Dialogue Forum and the whole cross-border and cross-culture work that we do on campus is about. It’s a good tool for marriage and life altogether, I think.”

“Less naive, more aware”

Oz Drumlevich, who completed his studies at Arava Institute last spring, says his experience was a positive one that allowed him to form unexpected friendships.

But he also describes a sobering experience. There were occasional clashes, such as disagreements with the kibbutz over waving flags on memorial days and difficult political discussions on campus.

“It wasn’t all roses,” he says. “But these complexities can’t be ignored. They’re part of this unique symbiosis. Tension can create positive things, like genuine hope that is less naive and more aware.”

Drumlevich says these complexities, as well as everyday experiences like driving his Palestinian schoolmate to his home in the West Bank or visiting Hebron, allowed him to better understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and his place within it.

“At first, I thought I could change the world … That approach of trying to fix things through my perspective alone was part of the problem. Now, I’m on a journey to learn more about the conflict so I can approach it in a more considerate and sensitive way.”

Photo: Students at the Arava Institute (All photos supplied by Arava Institute)