Arava Institute for Environmental Studies
Encyclopedia
Kibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
Ketura
Ketura (Kibbutz)
Ketura is a kibbutz north of Eilat in the Arabah rift valley. "Ketura" is the name of a hill nearby and the name of the second wife of Abraham . It has approximately 130 members and 150 children...
on the Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i side of the Arava
Arabah
The Arabah , also known as Aravah, is a section of the Great Rift Valley running in a north-south orientation between the southern end of the Sea of Galilee down to the Dead Sea and continuing further south where it ends at the Gulf of Aqaba. It includes most of the border between Israel to the...
Valley. It seeks to train future leaders of the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
in environmental issues so that they will be able to cooperate in solving regional environmental problems.
Environmental peacebuilding
Peacebuilding is both the theory and practice of identifying the conditions that can lead to a sustainable peace between those who have previously been adversaries, and assisting adversaries to move towards a sustainable peace. Environmental peacebuilding examines and advocates environmental...
The Arava is a sparsely populated desert valley that connects the Dead Sea
Dead Sea
The Dead Sea , also called the Salt Sea, is a salt lake bordering Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west. Its surface and shores are below sea level, the lowest elevation on the Earth's surface. The Dead Sea is deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world...
region with the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
, and is part of the Great Rift Valley
Great Rift Valley
The Great Rift Valley is a name given in the late 19th century by British explorer John Walter Gregory to the continuous geographic trench, approximately in length, that runs from northern Syria in Southwest Asia to central Mozambique in South East Africa...
. Between the Dead Sea and the cities of Eilat and Aqaba
Aqaba
Aqaba is a coastal city in the far south of Jordan, the capital of Aqaba Governorate at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba. Aqaba is strategically important to Jordan as it is the country's only seaport. Aqaba is best known today as a diving and beach resort, but industrial activity remains important...
, the Arava forms the border between Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
. Kibbutz Ketura, founded in 1973 by members of Young Judea, is located only a few hundred meters from the border between Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
.
Kibbutz Ketura is one of a small number of intentional communities in Israel, and that makes it an ideal setting for a culturally diverse program. Members of the Kibbutz are both religious and non-religious Jews who have chosen to live together in the same community and maintain an egalitarian synagogue. The kibbutz is also a member of Israel's Green Kibbutzim movement, which seeks to promote environmentally friendly and sustainable practices. A portion of the kibbutz's agricultural produce is organic.
Students and Academic Programs
Students at the Arava Institute live on Kibbutz Ketura while taking classes in sustainable development, water management, environmental law, economic policy, environmental science, and other topics in environmental studies. Classes are taught in English. Members of the faculty are often guest lecturers from universities, both in Israel and abroad, or professionals in fields such as public policy and water management.Students come from around the world to study and conduct research at the Arava Institute. Since its founding in 1996, the Arava Institute has hosted over 400 graduate and undergraduate students of various nationalities, including Israeli Jewish, Israeli Arab, Palestinian, Jordanian, Egyptian, Tunisian, European and American students. The Arava Institute has been able to maintain a diverse student body even during very difficult times elsewhere in Israel and the Middle East.
Students can participate in semester and year-long programs accredited through Ben Gurion University as well as two Master’s degree graduate programs granted by Ben-Gurion University – one in Environmental Desert Studies and the other a “Green” MBA that teaches environmental sustainability and efficiency as well as business management skills. A three-week summer course is sometimes offered to study biodiversity and environmental challenges in the Arava Valley. The Arava Institute is considering establishing a joint Master’s program with Al-Quds University, the only Arab institution of higher learning in Jerusalem. All students are required to participate in a Peace-Building and Environmental Leadership Seminar, which provides them with a facilitated forum for expressing their views on race, religion, identity, and the political situation.
Alumni
Over 75% of Arava Institute graduates are working in the environmental or peacebuilding field. The Institute has created an alumni network to continue supporting alumni by providing personal and professional contacts as well as seed money for alumni projects that demonstrate cross-cultural cooperation. Several alumni of the institute have gone on to work in cross-cultural projects.- Hashem Shahin, a Muslim Palestinian alumnus, is part of a joint Israeli-Palestinian project to discover the genetic basis of deafness.
- Tamar Keinan, a Jewish Israeli alumna, joined a Jordanian alumnus to create the "Good Neighbors Water Project" for Friends of the Earth Middle East.
- Laithi Gnaim, an Israeli Arab alumnus, established a nonovernmental organization called "Arrasid" (Bearing Witness) which trains Arab farmers in the Beit Netofa ValleyBeit Netofa ValleyThe Beit Netofa Valley is a valley in the Lower Galilee region of Israel, midway between Tiberias and Haifa. Covering 46 km2, it is the largest valley in the Galilee and one of the largest in the southern Levant...
in sustainable farming techniques. He has used connections made at the Arava Institute to offer training in sustainable practices and bui Arab-Jewish partnerships in the agricultural sector.
Maya Negev, a Jewish Israeli alumna, working at the Herzog Center for Policy in Tel Aviv University
others are working in NGO's working on solutions to hygiene and energy in rural and poor areas, working on environmental education and awareness, activists in peace related activities and more.
The Arava Institute has recently added a new network to build more connections between alumni. Called AAPEN or the Arava Alumni Peace and Environmental Network, AAPEN brings together alumni from all years of study during an annual conference (most recently held in Aqaba, Jordan), as well as an online presence on facebook, a private online network (NING), updated pages on the Arava website for alumni, a newsletter, and more.
Research Programs
In addition to its academic programs, the Arava Institute conducts ecological research in the desert environment. Its Environmental Policy and Research Center has established trans-boundary projects with the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, and Morocco in the areas of Bio-Diversity, Air Quality, Stream Restoration, Sustainable Agriculture in Arid Lands, and Sustainable Futures for the Dead Sea Basin.At the Center for Sustainable Agriculture, important research is being conducted on water-saving plants as well as endangered medicinal and biblical plants of the Dead Sea region. Recently the Center’s Director, Dr. Elaine Solowey, made international headlines for germinating a 2,000 year old seed of the Judean date palm found in excavations at Masada
Masada
Masada is the name for a site of ancient palaces and fortifications in the South District of Israel, on top of an isolated rock plateau, or horst, on the eastern edge of the Judean Desert, overlooking the Dead Sea. Masada is best known for the violence that occurred there in the first century CE...
.