Nature knows no borders

Lee Frankel-Goldwater, a Jew from Riverdale, and Manar Saria, an Arab from Haifa, Israel, may not have the answer to Mideast peace, but they did gain valuable insights into how Israelis and Palestinians can work together to solve their common problems when they attended a unique environmental program at an Israeli kibbutz. And, maybe, their experience offers guideposts for an end to a cycle of violence and repression that has gone on far too long.

The pair shared the insights they had gained at the Arava Institute of Environmental Studies at Kibbutz Ketura with an audience at Manhattan College’s Holocaust, Genocide and Interfaith Education Center on Feb. 25.

I went to the lecture expecting to hear details of their environmental projects, but their message was, perhaps, more profound. They talked about how the experience of working together began to break down the cultural barriers between them.

This was no accident. The Arava Institute, goes by the motto “Nature knows no borders.” Its mission is to create a world-class environmental teaching and research institute which prepares future Arab and Jewish leaders to cooperatively solve the region’s environmental challenges. The institute accepts Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian applicants as well as students from other countries with other ethnic or religious backgrounds.

Mr. Goldwater went to the Arava Institute as a part of a Master’s program for Environmental Education at New York University. If you are interested in traveling and learning about things first-hand, outside of Fox News, or YouTube, he said, the institute makes that possible — it’s a place where you can learn by doing.

He was enthusiastic about Arava’s Peace and Environmental Leadership Workshops (PELS), which give students the opportunity to take trips around the area and interact with local people. His group traveled to Jordan and interviewed farmers as part of a cross-border water study.

Mr. Goldwater also recalled helping plant and fertilize a crop on a farm located in the shadow of the wall that separates Israeli and Palestinian territories on the West Bank. The Palestinian farmer was struggling to keep the property that had been in his family for many years. His gratitude and generosity towards the Arava group was touching, Mr. Goldwater said, including a beautiful lunch of lamb and rice topped with yoghurt. For a short time and for this small group, at least, borders were broken down.

But Mr. Goldwater wasn’t sure that this kind of interaction would ultimately lead to peace.

“What’s the answer?” he asked, “There probably isn’t one, but that is for you to make.”

Ms. Saria, who is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, attended the institute during the years 2009 and 2010 after undergraduate school at Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology. She wrote her master’s thesis on adopting solar water heaters in the villages in the Nablus district in the West Bank.

Ms. Saria shared an anecdote with the audience at Manhattan that really helped to put things into perspective for her and her fellow Arava students.

During PELS, the students were instructed to divide into groups based on the languages they spoke. Ms. Saria, who speaks three languages — English, Hebrew and her native Arabic — found herself in a predicament. Speaking Arabic did not automatically grant her a bond with other Arabs, nor did speaking English with the Americans. She pondered where to go, before deciding to sit with her Israeli Jewish friends, who showed surprise and admiration for her decision.

She felt more familiar with them as an Israeli-born Arab than with the other Arabic-speaking groups. She said she realized that as a minority in a country, it is easy to go by unnoticed, and sometimes it takes stepping up to let your presence be known.

Though it has limitations and faces obstacles, the Arava Institute of Environmental Studies has proved that it is, indeed, a beacon of hope that by setting aside differences and uniting for a common goal, Arabs and Jews in the middle east can resolve environmental issues while creating lasting friendships and mutual understanding.

These students, who would be considered enemies on the outside, can — and did — come together to take action for the common good.

Marcelle McIntosh is a Press intern and a junior at the College of Mount St. Vincent. Point of View is a column open to all.