Dispatches from Jerusalem
Blog post from Elise in Jerusalem
June 28, 2010
So much to digest. Environmental Lawyer Richard Laster organized an incredible group of people working across borders and languages to figure out solutions to arguably any cities most pressing problem – water and sewage. We focused on the Kidron valley where a master plan is being drawn up with the cooperation of Israelis and Palestinians.
I’m too new to the geography and the characters to give this precise coverage but we had the good fortune to be accompanied by Muhammed Nakhal – a Palestinian planner who is working with a team led by Arie Rahamimoff and Liat. Their maps of the topography and plans for the connection of water from Jerusalem’s two valleys is both visually beautiful and inspiringly innovative We were driven by Naim Awisat, a Palestinian entrepreneur who has built several clinics in East Jerusalem which engage Arabic speaking doctors from Hadassah hospital. He is working on creating a health club on an empty patch of land so kids have something to do.
His own children (2 boys, 4 girls) are stunningly beautiful and he and his family welcomed the 10 of us into his home (part of a compound they share with his 8 brothers and their families) where we ate home grown olives, bread dipped in homemade olive oil and zatar. Our group included Vered Doctori-Blass, a Research Supervisor of the Koret-Milken Institute Fellows Program who is also a founder of Engineers Without Borders, and Eival Gilady and his associate, Andrea Diamond of The Portland Trust, an investment group based in London which is focusing on economic development in Israel and the territories.
We traveled to the West Bank where we saw Bedouin villages and the beautiful, 1500 year old Marsaba Monastery which is alongside an incredible canyon (with huts dug in the sides for the Monks to meditate in). As they don’t allow women in, we sat in the shade of an olive tree and enjoyed the amazing site. The abject poverty and trash is striking in comparison to new buildings going up, the stark desert behind it all, the Jerusalem monuments in plain site.
I’s like to close by quoting Arie who describes the levels of engagement he is interested in helping achieve – coexistence, collaboration, then partnership. If the Israelis and Palestinians could sit around the table like we did, we would be well on our way to the first two if not all three.
