With the aim of promoting awareness of environmental issues and implementing Green development initiatives and activities, Palestinian and Jordanian associations launched the “Almond Blossoms” Forum. The Forum will focus on the implementation of environment friendly activities. The Forum was the brainchild of the Environmental Education Center and Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and Holy Lands and in cooperation with the Palestinian Environmental Friends Association (PEF) at An-Najah Activist and PEF Chairperson Adeen Zafer said:

 “The Forum will launch a website to exchange ideas and arrange for events that will aim at encouraging students, children, women, drivers and citizens to think about ways to deal with the environmental issues”.

The Forum includes students of humanitarian and scientific disciplines and members of the An-Najah PEF. Members will take part in undertaking and supporting its Green activities, such as: a field cleaning campaign, discussions with the public, organising public lectures, film showings, arranging tours to introduce biodiversity in Palestine and its violations, and disseminating information on environmental law.

The CEO Simon Awad said:

“Launching women and youth forums in parallel and celebrating the Palestine Environment Day, which was started by the Center and Ministry of Environmental Affairs on the 5 March, will help, through regular activities, the course of positive change on the individual and collective practices leading to a deepening environmental responsibility for all of society”.

The Center and PEF on Wednesday 19 March held a lecture on environmental issues, presented by Abdulbaset Khalaf. Mr. Khalaf talked about the Palestine Environmental Law of 1997, and drew an image of the environmental scene in Palestine, and its biodiversity, the Occupation violations and lack of awareness.

The participants addressed pressing environmental challenges, most notably, pollution by the Occupation and its illegal settlements, factories and nuclear reactor. They also discussed the random urban sprawl and its effects on the agricultural land; effects of chemicals used in agriculture; the spread of waste; and lack of environmental awareness.

Dr Farid Abu-Dhair, professor of Journalism in the University, said:

“The absence of a national strategy to deal with the environment as a priority complicates the efforts to instill change, and confuses the task”.

He suggested that environmental awareness should begin with children at an early age.

According to the organisers, the first activities of the “Almond Blossoms” will be on the 3 April, through the “Think of it” campaign, which will start in An-Najah and aims at spreading environmental awareness amongst the students, and carrying out a cleanliness campaign on its campuses.

Notes:

-          The Palestinian Environmental Friends Association (PEF): is a non-profit organisation (nongovernmental organisation- NGO). It was established in 1998 by a group of Palestinian experts to meet the demand needed in the field of the environment and natural resources. The establishment of PEF enables environmental friends all over the world to cooperate neglecting geological and political constrains to stop the negative impacts on the environment.