INVESTIGATION INTO
AS A BASIS FOR DEVELOPING
PARTNERSHIP VENTURES
IN ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
BETWEEN
BIRZEIT UNIVERSITY AND CALVIN COLLEGE
by
Bert de Vries
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I: OUTLINE OF LECTURE/ARTICLE
PART II: PROPOSED COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
PART III: A DIARY OF THE INQUIRY
Appendix 1. A list of publications and resources
PART I: OUTLINE OF LECTURE/ARTICLE
The road to Emmaus ... ends at Canada Park
Impressions from an environmental journey in the new Palestine and surrounding region
Bert de Vries
Introduction
1. Global Stewardship Initiative and Task Force
I. Environmental Issues
The Plague of 'Amawas. Ramzi Sansur used the way from Ramallah to Gaza for a photo-tour of new settlements, (Beit 'Ur = Beit Horon and Modi'i'm) and disappeared villages ('Imwas-'Amawas-Emmaus=Canada Park). Canada Park is especially dramatic, because the hedgerows of Sabr cactus that used to border the village properties are still there, as well as many of the fruit trees and the old cemetery. The walls marking the park entry and those used for retainers around the spring and the water pools are built of the neatly quadrated limestone blocks taken from the dismantled village houses -- a strange witness to total ethnic cleansing financed by a (probably unsuspecting) Canadian Zionist, the same Allen Bronfman whose 80th birthday is commemorated in the name of the settlement between Hadasseh Hospital and Hebrew University on Mt. Scopus. As we lingered over this sad evidence, I recalled that the Caliph Omar in 639 was very concerned for the health of his generals and troops in Syria, because it was ravaged by the "Plague of 'Amawas," a wave of the great bubonic pandemic (A.D. 543-749) people thought had broken out there. Had I taught my interim on the Archaeology of the Islamic Conquest, I could have been talking about 7th C. 'Amawas at this very moment in Grand Rapids! Biblical Emmaus, early Islamic 'Amawas, Ottoman/Mandate 'Imwas -- a continuous history from antiquity to 1948 -- gone forever. Canada Park is a pleasant, wooded place with pine trees (remember the UJA campaigns rasing money to plant a tree in Israel?) where Holy Land tourists on the way from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem can stop to picnic with a bottle of wine from the neighboring Latroun Monastery vineyard, without an inkling from local signage that they may be sitting in the old Emmaus village square. The detailed Israeli tour map I've been using similarly labels the place only "Canada Park," accompanied by a symbol indicated as "public or national park" in the map legend. It remains to be seen what tour books, and heard what tour guides, say.
II. Causes of environmental degradation, a summary
III. Solutions? "A long way to go"
Conclusion: Beginning a Calvin College - Birzeit University Partnership
PART II: PROPOSED COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
A. The Regional environment of Palestine
Title: Introduction to the Regional Environment of Palestine
Purposes: 1. To introduce students to the various aspects of the environment of Palestine and surroundings through a combination of lectures and site visits. 2. To create a culturally integrating educational setting by having the class composed of Palestinian (Birzeit University) and American (Calvin College - Coalition of Christian Colleges) students.
Geographic areas: The core focus will be the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza, but sites in Jordan and Israel will also be studied to allow for the fact that nearly all environmental phenomena are regional rather than local.
Disciplines: Environment is broadly defined as natural (non-human condition and use), cultural (past human use) and developmental (present and future human use). The course is therefore multi-disciplinary in a broad sense, involving geology and geography, climatology, hydrology, biology (vegetation and animal life), agriculture, chemistry (water and food testing), sociology (demographic flux, rural and urban settlement patterns), architecture and engineering (urban planning, energy supply, waste disposal, transportation), politics and law (political negotiations and establishment of regulations), conservation (natural and cultural heritage management), religion (sites associated with the three monotheistic faiths), environmental awareness, and more.
Central question: To achieve unity, all those will be drawn on to answer the key course question: How can a reasonable and manageable equilibrium between the natural, cultural and developmental aspects of the environment of regional Palestine be realized?
Constraints on development: solid and liquid waste management; limits and alternatives to agriculture, transport efficiencies, moderation of population density, water supply controls and agreements, others; in sum; achievable limits to the deterioration of the environment (long-term balancing of exploitation and conservation).
Course schedule: Lecturers and site visits to be arranged from the catalogue of information and ideas given in Part III and appendix 2.
B. Jerusalem and Grand Rapids: a Comparative Study in Urban Environments
Title: Jerusalem and Grand Rapids: a Comparative Study in Urban Environments
Purposes: 1. To engage students in a first-hand comparison of the urban landscapes of Jerusalem and Grand Rapids, in order to raise awareness of both the common and distinctive aspects of the environments of a key Palestinian and a typical American city. 2. To create a culturally integrating educational setting by having the class composed of Palestinian (Birzeit University) and American (Calvin College - Coalition of Christian Colleges) students.
Background: The urban landscape of Jerusalem has developed to its present condition under perpetual crisis conditions. The core of this crisis is socio-religio-political, but the ramifications range over all aspects of settlement pattern, infrastructure and natural setting. The resulting (simplified) geographic shape of the landscape is donut-like: the core areas of Old, East and West Jerusalem, containing both traditional population groups and traditional structures, ringed by new settlements with recent settlers and modern structures. The urban landscape of Greater Grands Rapids has similar features, though the socio-religio-political dynamics that shaped them are somewhat different. Here, the core areas (inner city) are ringed not only independent satellite cities, but also by rapidly growing ex-urban settlements in the surrounding rural areas. Comparison of these two landscapes in one course will reveal a surprising number of similarities in both the social and ecological aspects of the two landscapes. For Jerusalem, a major resource is the Institute of Jerusalem Studies (described in Part III and appendix 2); for Grand Rapids, the concept comes from the work of urban sociologist David Rusk (Cities Without Suburbs, 1993).
Disciplines: The course is multi-disciplinary in a broad sense, involving geography, ecology, chemistry (water and food testing), sociology ( urban settlement patterns), architecture and engineering (urban planning, energy supply, waste disposal, transportation), politics and law (political negotiations and establishment of regulations), conservation (natural and cultural heritage management), religion (sites associated with the three monotheistic faiths), and more. Course goals: The course is designed to give both Palestinian and American students a sense of the universal aspects of the effects of modern urban development on both the human and natural environments. Visits to each others' 'home' environments together will also bring about a real experience of sharing of each others' cultures and socio-political spheres that will result in lasting relationships and cooperative environmental ventures well beyond this four week program.
Course structure: Enrollment is to be 10 students from Palestine (Birzeit), and 10 from America (Calvin), for four weeks either in January (Calvin's Interim) or June (good climate either place). For the first two weeks the Palestinian students will join their American classmates at Calvin College to engage in the study of the urban landscape of Grand Rapids. For the last two weeks all will be at Birzeit (or in Jerusalem) to study the urban landscape of Jerusalem. In both cases numerous agencies and individuals are available to cover the disciplines listed above.
Funding: Aspects of this program, e.g. the travel and housing costs of the Palestinian students' visit to Grand Rapids, will need to be underwritten. The possibility here is grants from foundations and govt. agencies, because the affective culture-bridging and peace-making aspect of this course should make it attractive in the current post-Oslo atmosphere.
PART III: A DIARY OF THE INQUIRY
Introduction
This inquiry involved visits to Jordan, Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza during the month of January, 1996. In Amman the resident base was ACOR, the American Center for Oriental Research, in Jerusalem the Albright Institute, from where Birzeit University and various sites in the West Bank and Gaza were visited by local transport. My host at Birzeit University was Dr. Khaled Nashef, the director of the Palestinian Institute of Archaeology, who arranged many of the on-campus interviews and also a number of the off-campus visits. I was accompanied by my wife, Sally de Vries, who made many valuable contributions to the discussions and observations.
The motive for the inquiry was to determine the feasibility of developing a joint Birzeit-Calvin program (research and courses) on the environment of the new Palestine. Implementation had three foci: Interviews with members of the Birzeit University administration and faculty, visits to Palestinian government and non-government organizations involved with the environment, and tours of sites of environmental interest.
The information collected built on a prior acquaintance with environmental concerns and programs in Jordan. Information given by Dr. Cherie Lenzen, a United States Agency for International Development contractor in Amman, who is involved in regional environmental program development was crucial preparation for the Jerusalem component of the inquiry. The report proceeds in diary form, beginning with the day of arrival in Jerusalem.
Day01.bzc, January 4
Bridge crossing
While waiting for the bus to the bridge in the lobby of the Amra Hotel, five Saudis checking out each carried a hunting falcon on their wrists, apparently in the process of transporting them back home. We estimated that was a capital investment of $35,000!
The crossing to Jerusalem went smoothly, and we settled in the Albright Institute for Archaeology hostel.
Meeting with Lea Perez at the United States Information Agency (USIA)-Jerusalem
Lea, an acquaintance from visits to USIA-Washington, is open to notion of Institutional Affiliation application for the joint Calvin-Birzeit partnership development. The program gives seed money for the development of sustainable partnerships in areas that would benefit both institutions and promote the peace. A new program stressing Palestinian-Israeli cooperation is about to be published. She gave us the USIA-Washington contact for a University affiliation application.
Day 02, Jan 5, 96
Educational Bookshop
Tour of Old City led by Khaled Nashef
Day03, Sat., June 6, 1995
Trip to Birzeit
Birzeit University
The university was founded in 1924, became "Birzeit College" in 1942, began university level courses in 1953, expanded to four year program granting BA and BSc degrees in 1972, became "Birzeit University" in 1975. From 1988-92, the period of the Intifada, the school operated under military closure with instruction often taking place in private homes. Its president, Hanna Nasir was exiled to Amman for a decade ending in 1993. Begun as the private venture of the Nasir family, the University is now board operated; Hanna Nasir remains its president.
The old campus, in the village of Birzeit, now houses the Palestinian Institute of Archaeology, two other institutes, the cafeteria kitchens, and the Nasir residence. The new campus is a 150 acre spread on top of the Birzeit high point with most structures of a recent building program in place, but others, like the Gymnasium and the Centre for Law still to be built. Hanna Nasir has donated the family land and found a series of large donors for the buildings. All this went on miraculously in spite of the political troubles of the last two decades.
The school has enrollment of 3500, with majors in (Faculty of Arts) Arabic language and literature, English language and literature, history , sociology, anthropology, archaeology (offered as a double major with history, anthropology or sociology); (Faculty of Commerce and Economics) Accntng, Bus-Ad and Econ; (Faculty of Science) Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics; (Faculty of Engineering) Civil, Electrical, Mechanical, Architecture. Additional electives and requirements are offered in 20 other fields.
The University operates several institutes. The Palestinian Institute of Archaeology (see below), the Environmental and Occupational Health Center (see Day04) and the Center for Law among them. The new Law Centre has the challenging mandate from the PNA of documenting the various layers of law that have been practiced in Palestine this century, often at the selective convenience of the dominating parties (Ottoman, British Mandate, Jordanian, UN, Israeli military occupation). "Environment" and "Research" are strictly research, and have no teaching duties. This is among several indicators that the University and its board have a strong sense of service to the society of Palestine and its desire for independent expression of its own political and cultural identity. Others include (1) a tradition of non-violent opposition to the Israeli occupation, evidenced by the insistence on Palestinian freedom of speech and expression in academic and political senses, and, above all the right of Palestinians to an education in the face of the deliberate and frequent Israeli school closings. There is also (2) a strong commitment to democracy and freedom of expression for both faculty and students. This received international attention in 1994 when the student council elections turned into a "surrogate " for non-existent national elections, with student candidates representing blocks mirroring the various political movements (Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc. (See "Birzeit University through the Eyes of the Western Media", pp. 6-7 , and "Birzeit Student Council Elections: a model for Palestinian democracy," pp. 8-9, Birzeit University Newsletter no. 26 (Aug. 1995).
Tour of the Palestinian Institute of Archaeology
1. General
The institute has ample space, but few furnishings; this will be corrected soon in some areas. The library, in two designated rooms, will be properly furnished with shelving in order to house the Glock collection and other acquisitions.
The various collections represent a large set of holdings, especially in ceramics. Unusual is a study collection of pottery from the last 30 years, divided into wheel- and handmade. This collection is being catalogued by Nail Jalal and Brigitte Porëe Braïtowsky of the École Biblique. There are several unusual Minoan and Mycenean pieces, probably representing gifts Late Bronze "diplomats" used to give each other (see Homeric instances of this custom.) The Jenin and Taanach ceramic collections, including numerous complete vessels of various sizes and types, are each housed in room-size storage.
Consequently, a basic and obvious need is for the design and furnishing of a museum.
Especially impressive is the study sample of animal bones, representative of 60% of known local specimens, well cleaned and stored in excellent drawers.
A similar collection of botanical specimens, unfortunately collected in August when most plants have withered, is being catalogued by Carol Palmer, whose preliminary conclusion is that the sample is characteristic of land use rather than a natural-ecological distribution.
The institute has the only thin-sectioning equipment in Palestine. Its microscope needs a new camera.
3. Institute goals
The Institute inherited from Al Glock a specific focus on the archaeology of Palestine with a method that worked back form the ethnographic present into the stratified sequences of the past. However, the Institute is developing a new policy. The current program of a double major, i. e., Archaeology with History or with Anthropology/Sociology, will be revised will be revised into a single major with a broad horizon, which includes Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia and the Aegean.
The Institute is working on developing an MA program with an emphasis on environment and artifact analysis. Furthermore, it wishes to promote philological fields related to Palestinian archaeology. Thus the list of specializations within the planned MA program comprises the following:
The institute plans to begin field school activities with the excavation of Khirbet Birzeit this summer.
An additional challenge is the clearing of the slate of previous activities left unfinished by the untimely death of predecessor Albert Glock. This involves the acquisition of the Al Glock library from his widow Lois Glock, who originally asked for $100,000, on the basis of an assessment by NYU Middle East librarian Meryl Gaston. A deal seems to have been completed in order to enable bringing the library to Birzeit before Mrs. Glock moves to the U.S., but the Institute is still engaged in fundraising for developing its archaeological library. The other strand is the publication of the Tell Taanach materials remaining from Lapp's excavations in the sixties and Al Glock's later seasons. After his death an ASOR committee was formed chaired by Nancy Lapp, but the Institute has now taken responsibility for publication of the 1965-1968 Taanach on the grounds that it was in the past included in the overall publication plans of the Institute. In view of that, the Institute has sent notices to all potential contributors to declare their publication intent in the next two months.
Birzeit Public Relations
1. Director Albert Alghazarian runs this office like a majlis tent, dispensing jovial hospitality and information to the constant stream of visitors. Because of the Ayyash assassination and the cancellation of classes by the student council strike, we decided to postpone my Umm el-Jimal, lecture out of sympathy, from 2:00 pm that day to 2:00 pm next Thursday, Jan. 12.
2. His assistant, Kathy Gasteyer also runs a Human Rights Action Project. She knew me from my tours of Jerash and Umm el-Jimal for her Great Lakes classes. Her publication:
Birzeit Human Rights Record (Issue 15, April-July, 1995, 7 pp.)
Lunch
We were delayed because Hanna Nasir was in strike crisis. Attending were: Khaled Nashef, Carol Palmer, Ahmed Baker (VP), Hanna Nasir, Lily Feidy, Sally de Vries, Bert de Vries
Meeting with Hanna Nasir, 2:15-3:45
Attending: Lily, Khaled, Ahmad, Hanna, Sally, Bert
List of possible cooperative programs given by Bert and discussed by the group:
Reaction: very favorable, except summer was considered better for weather and BZ schedule. Notion of 4 week summer session, half of the BZ normal summer course
2. Archaeology institute physical plant enhancement; e.g. CAP book contributions
3. Faculty and student exchanges
4. Long range archaeological field school arrangement, after end of UJ field work, possibly beginning 1999 or 2000.
5. Summer or semester Arabic language and culture program. One possibility is to combine Environmental Studies (1) with this in the summer.
Reactions to all appeared favorable. Lily Feidy would be a good coordinator /
representative for Birzeit alongside Khaled.
Day04.bzc, Sun., 7 January
Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI)
Meeting with Robin Twite and later Gershon Baskin
Twite put on first two conferences and is planning 3rd, all called "Our shared environment,"
to be held Dec. 16-19, 1996. He would welcome a paper on the Archaeological environment.
Twite: 400 environmentalists in Palestine are divided 200-200 on issue of cooperation with Israel. Twite was director of the British Council in Israel before he took on the task of coordinating joint Israeli-Palestinian efforts on dealing with the environment. Twite listed a number of people active in environmental programs (app. 2). He has been based at the Hebrew University with adjunct status at IPCRI. IPCRI is dedicated to [publishing on the environment (app. 1).
Interview with Stephen Gasteyer
Stephen, whose wife Kathy works in the Birzeit University Public Relations office, described numerous agencies and persons active in the environment of Palestine (app. 2).
Day05.bzc, Jan. 8, 1996
Institute for Environment and Occupational Health, Birzeit University
This institute, directed by Dr. Ramzi Sansur, is devoted to testing the effects of pesticides on the Palestinian environment and on the diet of Palestinians. It is extremely well equipped with both a traditional chemistry laboratories and computer operated analysis machinery. The main center is at the Birzeit University campus, but there is a branch lab. in Gaza. The Institute s dedicated to training farmers in the proper use of pesticides and fertilizers. A particular challenge is that products are often distributed with only Hebrew or English labeling, so that Arab reading farmers have great difficulty how and how much to apply.
Dr. Sansur has written good articles on the environment and development of the West Bank and Gaza (app. 1), and he is a popular lecturer for international students enrolled in the Palestine and Arabic Studies Program (see next). He and chemistry professor Simon Kuttab are planning to teach two environmental studies courses: "Environmental Toxicology" 438 (senior level) and "Environmental Science" 131 (introductory level).
Others involved are: Yaqub Ziadeh (chemistry); Husni Zahlan (geology)
Palestine and Arabic Studies Program (PAS), Birzeit University
PAS, directed by Antonina Gentile, serves foreign students, who come in for summer terms, mostly from Europe, but some from the U. S. She feels that the environmental course would benefit from being linked with this international students' program.
Soon (Feb.) to be replaced by Kim Kohlhammer (back to Australia to get MA)
Antonina arranges special lectures for the international students and is excited about:
1. Ramzi Sansur's environment lecture is the most popular with students.
2. Field tours to destroyed villages are a must, done by the Documentation Center's Saleh Abdul Jawad and Walid Mustafa (see below). Kamel Abdul Fattah, geographer covers the north (Nablus); the record of massacres makes Deir Yassin a relatively small incident.
Palestinian Hydrology Group, Ramallah
This is a private group (directed by Ayman Rabi) of professionals (engineers), who have taken on the challenge of water supply and pollutant analysis. They concentrate on water testing, and are publishing significantly on their studies (app. 1).
EcoPeace Source: co-director Ayman Rabi (offices to be located in East Jerusalem)
1. Founding
EcoPeace is an international environmental group modeled on EuroMed and EcoMed, founded in Dec. 4, 1994, after meeting Israeli environmentalists at a Sept. conf. in Tunisia. In Nov. Ayman ad Gidon Bromberg met and set up the founding meeting on "Environmental Safety of Development Projects" in Taba. Goals that emerged were to ensure environmental policies of the respective governments of the region and to clean up the Gulf of Aqaba. The EcoPeace assumption is that the environment is a region-wide phenomenon requiring international cooperation for the development of policies and implementation of procedures.
2. Planned Activities
3. Structure of EcoPeace
Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel
Located in West Jerusalem on Hamalka Heleni, a narrow street running between Jaffa Rd. and Hanevim within easy and pleasant walking distance of the Albright Institute. (Neighborhoods in this part of Jerusalem are predominantly well-maintained and used Ottoman and Mandate houses in which Israelis appear to have replaced Palestinians completely. It is the district immediately west of the Green Line that separated Israeli and Jordanian Jerusalem from 1948 - 1967. This former Green Line is now a major four-lane highway separating East and West Jerusalem, which was created by bulldozing the traditional neighborhoods abandoned on the dividing line during the 19-year Jordanian hegemony over EJ.) No one was there when I visited in late afternoon.
Day06.bzc, Tues., Jan. 9, 1996 -- Gaza
Ramzi Sansur, Trip from Ramallah to Gaza with Ramzi Sansur
Ramzi Sansur drove me from Ramallah to Gaza, he to visit his Gaza lab, I to meet with the director of antiquities of Gaza the Gaza Strip.
1. The Plague of 'Amawas: Israeli re-development and the human environment.
Ramzi Sansur used the way from Ramallah to Gaza for a photo-tour of new (Israeli settlements, (Beit 'Ur = Beit Horon and Modi'i'm) and disappeared villages like ('Imwas-'Amawas-Emmaus=Canada Park). Canada Park/Emmaus is especially dramatic, because the hedgerows of Sabr cactus that used to border the village properties are still there, as well as many of the fruit trees and the old cemetery. The walls marking the park entry and those used for retainers around the spring and the water pools are built of the neatly quadrated limestone blocks taken from the dismantled village houses -- a strange witness to total ethnic cleansing financed by a (probably unsuspecting) Canadian Zionist, the same Allen Bronfman whose 80th birthday is commemorated in the name of the settlement between Hadasseh Hospital and Hebrew University on Mt. Scopus. As we lingered over this sad evidence, I recalled that the Caliph Omar in 639 was very concerned for the health of his generals and troops in Syria, because it was ravaged by the "Plague of 'Amawas," a wave of the great bubonic pandemic (A.D. 543-749) people thought had broken out there. Had I taught my interim on the Archaeology of the Islamic Conquest, I could have been talking about 7th C. 'Amawas at this very moment in Grand Rapids! Biblical Emmaus, early Islamic 'Amawas, Ottoman/Mandate 'Imwas -- a continuous history from antiquity to 1948 -- gone forever. Canada Park is a pleasant, wooded place with pine trees (remember the UJA campaigns rasing money to plant a tree in Israel?) where Holy Land tourists on the way from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem can stop to picnic with a bottle of wine from the neighboring Latroun Monastery vineyard, without an inkling from local signage that they may be sitting in the old Emmaus village square. The detailed Israeli tour map I've been using similarly labels the place only "Canada Park," accompanied by a symbol indicated as "public or national park" in the map legend. It remains to be seen what tour books, and heard what tour guides, say. See app. 1 for bibliography.
2. At the Gaza border.
We arrived at the Israeli-Gaza border to discover that because of the closure none of the 1000s of Gazan 'gastarbeiters' were crossing; the traffic consisted only of a trickle of diplomats and foreign voluntary agency workers, with all three cars waiting to enter having a UN marking; Ramzi's was UNDP. His notion that that marking would get him in was soon squashed. In fact, of the six of us crowded into the small booth seeking entry from the Israeli soldier only three of us were allowed entry into Gaza. Ramzi Sansur, a Palestinian from Jerusalem with an American passport and an Israeli Jerusalem residence card, was refused because his passport contained no entry visa to Israel and the closure stipulated that all residents of Jerusalem, no matter what nationality were not allowed entry into Gaza. Disgruntled, he returned to Ramallah.
Fortunately, one of the other entrants was Tom Neu the Jer. director of ANERA, American Near East Refugee Aid, an NGO that helps Ramzi's labs in Birzeit and Gaza. He delivered both me and the chemicals Ramzi was carrying to our appointed destinations.
Tour of Gaza Antiquities and Environment
1. Environmental concerns
Mo'in has a strong interest in environmental issues, and has written on the role of Gaza antiquities in the overall environmental picture in Moh. Aggour's publications. In our discussions 3 areas figured prominently besides the obvious overriding factor that the Gaza infrastructure is in a mess, especially the raw sewage pouring into the Mediterranean from Muhayyam Sha'ti (Gaza Beach Refugee Camp): (1) The Israeli settlements, which occupy 40% of the strip, are pumping water out of the beach-front aquifers at such a rapid rate that winter rains cannot replenish them. The resulting underground vacuum is beginning to produce sinkholes and is also sucking in salt water, so that some Arab sources are turning brackish. (2) Dealing with Gaza's environment has to be comprehensive, not only in terms of government policies, but also in terms of the involvement of society. Thus environmental issues have to be built into the Palestinian educational system. as being initiated by Imad al-Atrash (see day07), but he stressed especially that no efforts would succeed unless women could be recruited into the activities. Here he did not mean the usual awareness teaching of village women who are the primary users of polluted water and vegetables, but women educated and trained to be leaders in various GOs and NGOs. (3) Mo'in advocated strong policies for the preservations of the archaeological-historical heritage of Gaza. This involves immediate identification and cataloguing of archaeological sites, implementation of strong cultural property policies, including erection of shelters over fragile antiquities like church mosaics and limitation of construction on land immediately adjacent to archaeological sites (prevention of visual pollution). Such restoration of cultural sites must be integrated with the general tourism development of the strip, where pristine (after cleanup!!) beaches will be a major attraction (Israeli settlements on the south end are already succeeding in this and drawing the beach crowd from Tel Aviv in significant numbers in spite of Israelis' fear of entering Gaza.). Thus a further concern is the prevention of high-rise tourism hotels on the beach itself.
3. A tour of Gaza antiquities and sections of Gaza City and the Beach Refugee Camp made clear the dire straits of the infrastructure of the area, ranging from the total need for a sewer system in Gaza City to the protection and conservation of the numerous archaeological sites, especially ancient Gaza.
Afterward, Thomas Neu, the director of ANERA, drove me back to Jerusalem. He gave good insights into the refugee situation and the prospects of Palestine in general, and may be a good resource for a class briefing on the subject of refugees.
Day07.bzc, Wed., 10 Jan., 1996
Children for the Protection of Nature, Bethlehem
The director of CPN, Imad al-Atrash, The morning tour was attended by myself, Sally de Vries, paleobotanist Carol Palmer, sedementologist Walid Sharif and osteologist Mohammad Muqbil. In the afternoon, Imad and I were alone.
1. New Kiryat Arba Road
We stopped to photograph the road construction on the Jerusalem to Kiryat Arba by-pass road (see Robert Fisk, "The PLO trail has many turnings," Jordan Times (Dec. 28-29, 1995), p. 7; the point of Fisk's article is that these roads are not temporary). The scarring of the landscape is obvious and severe. It includes the destruction of the limestone hills, and, closer to Hebron, Palestinian vineyards and other farmland. The destruction is threatening an orchid exclusive to the region, orchida anatolika.
2. Bittir Village (or Battir)
Bittir is a classic hillside village, with water oozing out of springs all the way down creating a swatch of green down to a river-bed agricultural area, through which run the Wadi Sorik and the Jerusalem to Tel Aviv Ottoman narrow-gage railway with continuing passenger and freight service. Possibility: a class trip from Jerusalem to Haifa to get a cross section of the landscape away from modern roads and settlements. Features of Bittir:
a. The well maintained old agricultural terraces.
b. Bittir Railroad Station, constructed in 1882.
c. The Wadi Sorik carries a lot of water that is the combined product of natural runoff and sewage from the Gillo Settlement (Rekhes Bet Gillo, next to the Arabic Beit Jala suburb of Bethlehem) visible on the hills above to the north. Acc. to Atrash, this waste water will poison crops, and cannot be used for irrigation. The challenge is to teach the villagers not to irrigate from the stream, but only from the springs in the above slopes. It also threatens wildlife, including many bird species (kingfishers among them), foxes, porcupines and 2 species of gazelle. The Israelis have a treatment plant on the stream on their side of the border and use the recycled water for irrigating the farms on the Israeli agricultural plain to the west.
d. Nature. The scrub-growing hill slopes to the west belong to the West Bank, but towards their tops the border with Israel is marked by the beginning of dense pine forest, the product of years of reforestation, so effectively used in the greening-of-Israel propaganda in the U. S. and Europe. Atrash explains that the import of foreign, European pines has created an artificial landscape upsetting the natural flora and fauna balances of the Palestine hills. Whereas such forests do well in the wetter climes of northern Europe, here they contribute to a type of desertification (my term), especially because they expose the region to the threat of major forest fires; one such consumed 100s of acres on the slopes west of Jerusalem last summer. (Jordan has developed similar problems.) Atrash's goal of nature restoration is the replacement of stands of imported pine with native trees: pistachio, olive, carob (karoub) and oak (balout).
e. Agricultural development. USAID has just contributed to the construction of a farm access road which is making the maintenance and development of agricultural terraces used mostly for olive plantations in a side valley of the Bittir community fed by a spring named 'Ayn Jama.
f. Two schools in Bittir have adopted the teaching of Atrash's "Children for the Protection of Nature" program.
3. New center for CPN at Talita Kumi (Evangelical Lutheran) School
a. The Lutherans have given him a hill top section of their school compound to build his Environmental Center. He plans to start immediately with $50,000 in hand for a $200,000 total cost. The place has great views over the hills SW of Bethlehem; naturally, a priority is the gradual replacement of the European pines on the property with the native trees mentioned above.
b. Goals: To spread the teaching of environmental awareness in the schools of Palestine. The program has grown rapidly, with over a hundred volunteers in the West Bank and Gaza. All publications stress nature conservation, and teaching involves awareness of the native plant and animal populations. In-school teaching is supplemented with summer camps.
c. Cooperation: He sees his local effort as part of an East Mediterranean Network of Environmental Awareness (he has association with Anwar Khattib of the University of Damascus, who is similarly active in Syria). EuroNature is useful in its sponsorship of region-wide annual meetings.
d. Conferences, workshops, exchanges, courses.
Atrash is very eager for the opportunity for local environmentalists like himself to participate in workshops in N. America to help contact with environmentalism world-wide. The addresses below represent some of his own contacts for this. I suggested that Au Sable Institute could play a role, and that I would raise the possibility at the Azusa Pacific conference in March.
He is also eager for short courses about the environment for primary and secondary school teachers. These would have to take place in the summer, and money would have to be raised for trans-Atlantic travel. A practical option, of course, is the use of local academic expertise like the Birzeit University Biology Department.
4. Beit Sahur & Wadi Kidron
After Walid Sharif took everyone except Atrash and me back to Jerusalem, we travelled through Beit Sahur to the Judean Desert above Mar Saba Monastery. The Dead Sea and the Zerqa Ma'in geology east of it were clearly visible in the warm winter sunshine. Landscape features:
a. The contrast between the lush Bittir valley west of Bethlehem and the barren hills to the east is dramatic visual evidence of the rainfall pattern paralleled by the similarly amazing contrast between the west and east sides of Amman.
b. Garbage. A kilometer long strip of the Mar Saba road, running along a precipice on the north side has become a major dumping site for garbage and construction debris from communities to the west, possibly Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Israeli settlements all visible on the nearby western horizon. (Atrash either did not know or would not divulge the identity of the culprits.) The whole mess is an ugly visual and pollutant scar on the otherwise pristinely naked, vegetationless hill country.
c. Wadi Kidron The Kidron river runs form the famous valley between Old Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives through the Judean Desert immediately below Mar Saba down into the Dead Sea. Like the Wadi Sorik it is a torrent of black, foamy waste water from Jerusalem and surrounding settlements running untreated into the Dead Sea. (I hope Ayman Rabi of the Hydrology group has information on the chemical makeup of these waters.)
5. Mar Saba Monastery
The Monastery hangs from the cliffs above the deep canyon of the Wadi Kidron where St. Saba first established his hermitage, and then the cave church (after an appearance from St. Mary) that is the core of the settlement today. The wonderfully clean and romantic architecture in the rock cleft desert setting make the place truly "spiritual." A monk took us on a tour of the complex, including the newer church and the original one with its display cases of the rows of skulls of monks who were massacred by Roman and later persecutors. Highlight: A view of two rocky hyraxes chasing each other on a ledge across the canyon near St. Saba's original hermit's cave. The visit ended with an unusual hospitality gesture. The monk served us a shot of 'araq (Arabic equivalent of ouzo), a chaser of pure spring water and a chocolate bonbon. A conversation about Byzantine church mosaics with a second monk , father Theophanes, at the entrance led to my promise to send him Piccirillo's Mosaics of Jordan. The hermitages of Mar Saba were excavated by archaeologist Yosi Patrich, whose report is now published in English. (Patrich works with Ken Holum at Caesarea.)
6. Course idea: A hydrologic tracing of the course of the Wadi Kidron from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea, including stops at Mar Saba and environment and verification of the nature and sources of the pollutants.
7.Contacts in the U. S.
The tour ended with a visit to Beit Sahur with a view of the Herodion on the way and a stop at the Shepherds' Field Monastery, (an affiliate of Mar Saba; Imad Atrash is Gr. Orthodox and clearly loves these places).
After a stop at his house where he gave me the addresses of agencies and persons from which he has received help and support (app. 2), he took me back to the Bethlehem - Jerusalem checkpoint, beyond which he could not go because of the closure, so I took a service taxi back to the Damascus Gate.
Salim Tamari, Institute of Jerusalem Studies
Salim Tamari is a professor of sociology on extended leave from Birzeit University, who visited Calvin's Sociology Dept. a decade ago and lectured on the Peace Settlement at Grand Valley S. U.'s Eberhard Center for the Inst. for Global Educ. of Grand Rapids on Dec. 14, 1995. The Institute for Jerusalem Studies is a branch office of the Institute for Palestine Studies, which is responsible for the publication of Arab, French and English versions of the Journal of Palestine Studies. Salim and his office could provide terrific support for a course concentrating on an urban-environmental course focused on Jerusalem.
Day08.bzc, Thur., Jan., 12, 1996
Dept. of Archaeology in Ramallah, Hamdan Taha, director
His plans for orchestrating the transition from Israeli control to autonomous management of Palestine's antiquities could serve as a model for elements of the natural environment (e.g. nature preserves):
a. Negotiating transition with Israelis, namely the military occupation authorities who were responsible for antiquities in the territories. They have promised to turn over their records, but not their site inventory. The question of sites like Qumran is still to be settled as part of Zone C negotiations.
b. Site inventory is a priority. We agreed that the software of the Jordanian Antiquities Database and Information System (JADIS) developed by ACOR could serve this end. ACOR director Pierre Bikai had offered that verbally, but details, including funding, still need to be worked out. (Stephen of the World Bank visited ACOR 24 Jan. to discuss with Pierre and Patricia Bikai the possibility of supporting the adaptation of JADIS, The Jordan Antiquities Database and Information System, to the needs of the new Palestine Department of Archaeology.)
c. Excavation rules for foreign teams will not follow the old imperial tradition, but must satisfy the requirement that excavation is also for the benefit of the people in residence in the place of excavation.
d. Developing policies will involve extrapolating from the legal precedents, which include Jordanian law for the West Bank, Egyptian law for Gaza, previous Ottoman law and the laws used by the Israeli occupation authority. I suggested that the Antiquities sector of the Jordanian environmental strategy would be useful, and I would try to get it for him.
Center for Research and Documentation of Palestinian Society, Birzeit University
Meeting with Walid Mustafa (director Saleh Abdul Jawad was not there): The center is devoted creating an archival record of information on the Palestinian villages, like Emmaus, that have disappeared since the 1948 war. The method combines oral history - interviews with surviving villagers in refugee camps throughout the reason -, and archaeology - location, surface study and mapping of the villages. The goal, publication of a book on each village has been partly realized, with a number of works in Arabic, and incipient publication in English (see app. 1). The center is ready to cooperate with lectures and tours.
Office of External Relations at Birzeit University; Lily Feidy, director
Dr. Feidy is in charge of External Relations and Assistant Professor of Linguistics; she will be the person clearing and expediting the course concepts with Birzeit's administration and educational policy committee. She feels that the issue of January vs. summer as the time for scheduling a course hinges on VP Ahmad Baker's plan to shift the fall semester so that it will end before Christmas, thus vacating the month of January. We agreed to keep the early summer 1997 as the target date for the first course, but keep January as an option, especially after the first instance of the course.
Lecture on Umm el-Jimal at Birzeit University (by Bert de Vries)
Carol Palmer did the introduction in place of the ill Khaled Nashef. In attendance were Taenia Nasir and sister, Vera Tamari (Art and Architecture), Ramzi Sansur, Brigitte Porëe Braïtowsky and Marcel Sigrist from the École Biblique in Jerusalem, several Institute staff and students. The lecture was well received, and Vera Tamari and I agreed to discuss mutual interests next time around (May, 1996). Taenia sent several gifts for Sally and me, including Riwaq Center (see next) calendars for 1996.
Riwaq, Center for Architectural Conservation
Founded in 1991 to stem the tide of neglect of the traditional vernacular and historic architecture characterizing the Palestinian landscape. Main goals are "conservation and restoration of older buildings and promotion of an indigenous Palestinian style of architecture based on firmly rooted building traditions and techniques." (Riwaq, 1996 calendar, back page)
Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA)
PASSIA "undertakes studies and research on the question of Palestine ... and encourages the publication of various research studies within a context of academic freedom." (From a statement of purpose inside the cover of its publications.)
Day0x.bzc in Jordan before and after WB visit
Cherie Lenzen report on Dec. 1995 conference on Our Shared Environment at Tantour, Israel, Dec. 31, 1995
Dr. Cherie Lenzen is a USAID/Amman contractor responsible for cultural matters and archaeologist with great expertise in late antique sites ranging from Caesarea Maritima to Tell Irbid/Beit Ras and Umm el-Jimal, where she is the ceramics specialist for my Umm el-Jimal Project.
1. Key people participating:
Adnan Badeiri, RSCN, Jordan, Gidon Bromberg, EcoPeace, Ayman Rabi, EcoPeace, Zakaria al-Qaq, IPCRI, Mohammad Aggour, Min. of Planning, Gaza, Mohammad Sadek, Dept. of Antiquities, Gaza. Most of these I saw later on my visit.
2. Main environmental issues discussed at the conference:
Intro: Short term-long term: Implementation of peace will lead to identification of immediate crisis issues like the sewerage treatment in Gaza; the concern is that these not preoccupy at the expense of ignoring the long term issues.
a. The Palestinian watershed
Gaza has shortage of potable water, West bank does not.
Disputed water rights issues: USAID is contemplating a $13 mill. dispute-resolution project.
b. Transportation
Planning of roads in Israel and the West Bank for separation of populations and security represents major ecological threat due to sheer quantity of paving and leveling of the landscape. Examples:
c. Waste water and solid waste management
d. Pesticide use, an as yet little discussed and studied subject (but see notes on Birzeit Institute of Environment and Occupational Health)
e. Abolition of Agriculture-for-export from the entire region?
Theory of Alan Richards in the U. S. Rationale is that the region of the Jordan River Watershed, Israel, Palestine, Jordan is so water poor that its use for agricultural irrigation (for exporting produce) is too costly. The ecologically cheaper alternative is to rely on agriculturally rich neighbors (Syria, Egypt, Turkey?). Note the need for regional cooperation and interdependence implementation of such a concept would presuppose.
Key organizations and people in Jordan
1. Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN)
a. Anis Mu'asher, founding father, Adnan Budeiri, director
c. Nature preserves
Shomari, in the desert south of Azraq; goals are to restore desert vegetation from overgrazing and restore traditional wildlife: Ibex, Oryx, Gazelle, Wild Asses, Ostriches.
Dana Forest, terrain between Tafila and Petra including slopes from high elevations (1000 masl, down into the Arabah where Wadi Dana merges into the Wadi Feidan. The forest includes a "thousand year old" stand of Mediterranean Pine, many ancient scrub oaks, ecologically spaced to allow for poor soil and extreme weather conditions. Though much of the terrain is pristinely natural, the preserve also includes the traditional, abandoned village of Dana, which is being restored for tourism and a newly developed silver jewelry industry using designs copied from nature. Key figures in this town restoration are 'Amar Khammash and Rebeccah Salti. If the course is held in summer, a one- or two-day campout on the northern bluff above the Dana canyon would be marvelous. In winter this would be too cold. Exploration of the Wadi Dana-Feidan-Feinan complex would in itself be an ecological-natural-geological-archaeological high for the course. It could include the mining complexes of Feidan and the British comprehensive examination of the Byzantine community in the Wadi Feinan (overseen by the British Institute in Amman for Archaeology and History and its director, Alison McQuitty).
Dead Sea/Wadi Mojib (=River Arnon) Preserve. This is a rocky bluff above the Dead Sea south of the Wadi Mojib now reachable via the new highway running on the east shore from South Shuneh to Safi and Aqaba. When I visited in 1989, a young heard of Ibex from the San Diego Zoo had just been installed within a fairly limited fenced enclosure to allow acclimation to the new environment. (Such restoration of the native animal population parallels what the Israelis have done in reserves on the opposite shore, e. g. at Ein Gedi.)
Note: A two- or three-day foray to examine these last two parks along with visits to the Jordan Potash plant and (of course!!) Petra, would be an extremely attractive and unusual component of the course for both Palestinian and American students. This could be combined further with examination of the coral reefs at the Royal Diving Center in Aqaba (a great hit with my archaeology field school students) and introduction of the work of the new Jordan Ecological Diving Society (JREDS, see next).
2., Jordan Royal Ecological Diving Society (JREDS)
JREDS, an association of 100 members with an interest in diving and ecology directed by a board of young professionals chaired by princess Basma Bint Ali has as its goal to protect Aqaba Gulf's rich marine life from further destruction. The group currently expects the arrival of a research vessel, a Chinese junk, named 'Heraclitus' after the Greek philosopher-scientist, on an expedition launched by the U.S.-based Planetary Coral Reef Foundation, an international NGO.
Sources: Jennifer Hamarneh 1996 (app. 1). Cherie Lenzen: "This is an energetic young group of professionals with heart and ability. The cleanup of the Aqaba coral reefs will be done in cooperation with EcoPeace and involves USAID funding."
JES, Jordan Environment Society
This society, directed by Ahmad 'Obeidat, has environmental awareness goals for Jordan similar to Imad al-Atrash's "Children for Protection of Nature." in Palestine.
Mundhir Haddadin, creator of Jordan Valley Authority and Jordan-team negotiator at the Madrid-derived conferences in Washington, chair of its water resources sub-committee.
My notes: A significant component of the whole hydrology question is the Jordanian development of the water resources in the Jordan River run-off region on the East Bank. This includes the development of the East Ghor Canal, and the more recent construction of dams on the eastern tributaries of the Jordan River. These range from the long completed King Talal Dam on the Zerqa River (with its endemic industrial and malfunctioning es-Samra waste-water treatment plant pollution problems that parallel those of Wadis Kidron and Sorik near Jerusalem) to the still not realized Muqarram Dam on Yarmouk River (a cooperative venture between Jordan and Syria that has hinged on a regional peace settlement for final implementation that may never be executed.) (USAID is currently funding corrections of the malfunctions in the es-Samra sewage treatment plant.) Note that the drop in Dead Sea water level was dramatically illuminated by Khairieh 'Amr (D. of Ant., Jordan) in a survey of archaeological remains along the east bank of the Dead Sea: The Herodian harbor at Zara (ancient Kallirrhoe) was at 395 m below sea level, whereas the modern water level is at 408 m b.s.l., a drop of 13 m = 43 ft.! Reference: Rami Khouri 1996 (app. 1)
A one or two-day course trip up the east side of the Jordan Valley could feature examination of the depletion of the waters of the Dead Sea (e.g., by studying the recession of its shore line over the past 40 years), of the East Ghor Canal, of the King Talal Dam. The overall purpose would be an approximate measure of the depletion of water supply by up-stream and up-country collection and diversion. Topics for consideration: the wisdom of collecting polluted water for irrigation of produce; the ecological economy of diverting waters from the Jordan Valley system for potable-water needs in population centers like 'Amman and Tel Aviv; environmental-political-economic-cultural implication of the current dam-construction craze/fad, the equitable sharing of Jordan run-off waters between Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Israel (and even Egypt?).
An interesting sidetrip would be to the archaeological remains of Pella, combined with an examination of efforts to exploit its natural springs for the water supply of the Irbid municipality (sources: archaeologist Pam Watson of BIAAH/Amman, C. Lenzen, USAID/Amman). Note: Timely action by archaeologists (Pam Watson, Alison McQuitty, Sultan Schraideh, Cherie Lenzen) and concerned Jordanians resulted in the reversal of construction in order to conserve these principles: Preservation of the underlying antiquities, visual pollution of a scenic archaeological sight, preservation of spring area as local park with picnic and water recreation. Alternative water sources proved to be environmentally less destructive. Pella is an excellent example of continuous but very varied human exploitation of a "hospitable" complex of natural sites from the pre-historic to Islamic periods. In January the tour could include a nature hike up to the Hellenistic fort at Jebel Sartaba, and its surrounding fields of in-bloom native cyclamen. The topic of site conservation and tourist access could be illustrated with a visit to the Pella Resthouse, designed and constructed 1990-91 in the traditional Late Ottoman manner by architect/artist Ammar Khammash with an ACOR/USAID contract overseen by Cynthia Shartzer during my tenure as ACOR director. Site guides and lecturers: Pam Watson and Ammar Khammash.
Jordan's National Environment Strategy
This study was coordinated by the Ministry of Natural Resources, from 1989 to 91. Committees were appointed to prepare reports (Arabic and English) in each of 7 major sectors, including one on archaeological and traditional sites. Ruba Kana'an and I did the basic writing for this, on "Antiquities and Cultural Resources." The "sectors" could be a convenient potential topical outline for the proposed course.
The National Environmental Law, adopted by Jordan in 1991, includes only one sentence on cultural heritage sites, acc. to C. Lenzen. She is getting me documentation: NEEP.
Petra National Trust (PNT)
Petra N Trust is an NGO (of which Sally and I are life members) founded for the preservation of Petra in the face of the touristic onslaught. It has recently refurbished the famous Nazal's Camp, the original tent-camp/hotel inside Petra (featured in Agatha Christie's Jerusalem murder mystery), now used as the dig camp for the various teams excavating there. At the opening dedication on 20 Jan., 1996, Dr. Talal Akasheh, (PNT Brd. Mem.) led a panel of presenters on "Conservation of Biodiversity of Petra Project." (I could not attend.)
Higher Commission on Science and Technology Amman, Jordan
Dr. Talal Akasheh, director; not visited this trip.
Friends of Archaeology Society
Long supported by overseas archaeological institutes, especially ACOR (director James A. Sauer played a key role in the 70s), which organized lectures and field trips, in cooperation with Jordan's Department of Antiquities (I organized and led many tours in the 1980s), the group recently registered as a locally chartered society, and is now fully operated by Jordanians. The organization has been successful in generating popular support from Jordanians for their own cultural heritage and site preservation. It also continues to serve short-term foreign visitors with its bi-monthly tours to archaeological sites and projects. Especially active in the society have been businessman Ghazi Saudi and journalist Rami Khouri, past and current presidents, both site-conservation activists. The society publishes Ancient Jordan, a monthly newsletter that gives information on trips, lectures, current publications and short excavation reports. (Editors Samaa Abu Sharar and Rami Khouri).
Rami Khouri's two books on the development and archaeological sites on the Jordanian side of the Jordan Valley, though somewhat dated now, would be good supplementary reading for the course component of the Jordanian side.
The American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR) in Amman
ACOR serves American, Canadian, Jordanian and other archaeologists and students in Jordan. Especially useful for a program in environmental studies are its library, which has an excellent section on physical and cultural environment, and its hostel, especially in January, when it is not crowded.
A sampling of ACOR's library holdings in "Environment." ACOR's library has become a leading regional collection on archaeology, anthropology, history, geography and politics of Jordan and the region, including a core in Biblical Studies provided by the G. Ernest Wright Library (Harvard OT theologian and archaeologist). Good holdings in the area of the environment result from ACOR long involvement in the area of cultural resource management, begun by Joseph Greene (currently at the Harvard Semitic Museum) in the 1980s and continued by Gaetano Palumbo (currently at the Getty Museum) in the late 80s to early 90s. Their systematic collection of publications on culture and environment was excellent (see app. 1).
Additional information on the West Bank and Jerusalem
The Albright Institute
Directed by Seymore Gittin. It does in Jerusalem what ACOR does in Amman, but has residence facilities only for fellows.
Institute of Islamic Archaeology, Al-Quds University
Director: Dr. Marwan Abu Khalaf
Workshop of Association of European Schools in Jerusalem, 1994, 1995
Source: Brigitte Porëe Braïtowsky, ethno-archaeologist based at the École Biblique, currently spending two months at ACOR to complete her Ph. D. Her ongoing residence is at the British School at Jerusalem. Her experience is significant for planning a similar course.
The workshop is organized by the Association of European Schools in Jerusalem, which consists of the École Biblique, The German Protestant Institute (dir. Volkmar Fritz), and the British School. Marcel Sigrist is president of the association. One of its goals overlaps mine, that is, to bring students from Palestinian and western countries together in a single course.
In 1994 the subject was archaeology and involved site visits. In 1995 the subject was architecture, and concentrated on Nablus for three months. Foreign students were drawn from the institutes, local students from the archaeology program at al-Quds University in Jerusalem, with one or two from Birzeit. In 1995 Palestinian students were given monthly stipends funded by the French consulate in order to compensate for the loss of income (most students have jobs to support themselves during their college careers).
Note: A grant to generate funding for both Calvin College and Birzeit students may help to launch the Birzeit-Calvin program. (See above, interview with Lea Perez, USIA.)
For Nablus Area Resources
Zahir al-Masri Foundation in Nablus; purpose: urban planning for modern Nablus with physical and human environment in mind. Khair Yassine of Dept. of Archaeology at University of Jordan in Amman is VP.
Ruba Kana'an, a. b. d. in architectural history at Oxford University, would be an excellent lecturer/guide on the traditional architecture of Nablus in the settlement-pattern component of the course. (She was employed by me in ACOR's Cultural Resource Management Program from 1989-91.)
World Bank, Stephen Lintner
Stephen, Principal Environmental Specialist of WB, offered the World Bank publications on the environment of Jordan and Israel, as well as the Dutch studies of Gaza and the West Bank. in quantities of 20 - 30 as ideal texts for a course on the environment of the region.
Appendix 1. A list of publications and resources for the environment of Palestine and surroundings
Palestinian Institute of Archaeology
Oded Borowski, Albright AP, contributed:
Coogan, Michael D. Exum, J. Cheryl and Stager, Lawrence E., eds.
1994 Scripture and Other Artifacts. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press
See especially: James A. Sauer, "A new climatic and archaeological view of early Biblical traditions," pp. 366-98.
Theses by sedementologist Walid Sharif:
IPCRI Publications
IPCRI News, Summer 1995
Assaf, Karen, Nader al-Khatib, Elisha Kally, Hillel Shuval
Robin Twite and Jad Ishaq, eds.
Robin Twite and Robin Menczel, eds.
Institute for Environmental and Occupational Health, Birzeit University
Ramzi Sansur
The Palestinian Hydrology Group
Palestinian Hydrology Group, Land and Water Est. for Legal Services
The Spring. Occasional Bulletin of the Palestinian Hydrology Group (Dec. 94 & Dec. 95 issues)
Rabi, Ayman, Fadia Daibes and Amjad Aliewi
Aliewi, Amjad, Sayel Wishahi, Qasem Abdul Jaber, Ayman Rabi
EcoPeace
EcoPeace
Emmaus/Amawas
For the Plague of 'Amawas see Gautier H. A. Juynboll, trans., The History of al-Tabari, vol. XIII, The Conquest of Iraq, Southwestern Persia and Egypt (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), pp. 95-101; Lawrence I Conrad, "Arabic plague chronicles and treatises: social and historical factors in the formation of a literary genre, " Studia Islamica LIV (1981): 51-93.
Gaza publications
Aggour, Mohammad, ed.
de Vries, Bert
On by-pass roads
Robert Fisk, "The PLO trail has many turnings," Jordan Times (Dec. 28-29, 1995), p. 7
Publications of the Children for the Protection of Nature (all in Arabic)
Tir al-Husoun. Environmental Awareness Magazine, 3 issues
'Imad al-Atrash, A children's book on flowers of Palestine, published by UNICEF
Jad Ishaq and 'Imad al-Atrash, Flowering Plants of Palestine, a catalogue of pictures (Atrash) and description (Ishaq), with Latin and English names and Arabic text.
A book on environmental awareness, published by IDRC, International Development Research Centre of Canada.
Also: "Proposal to Establish an Environmental Education Center,"
"Education and Environmental Awareness" (typed 3 & 2 page papers by Atrash)
Palestine Department of Archaeology, Ramallah
Hamdan Taha, "Management of Cultural Resources in Palestine," 4 pp., unpub. paper.
Hamdan Taha, " Organizational Structure for the Department of Archaeology," 1 p., unpub. paper.
Palumbo, Gaetano, ed.
Center for Research and Documentation, Birzeit University
Saleh, Abdul Jawad and Walid Mustafa
Saleh Abdul Jawad
Khalidi, Walid, ed.
PASSIA Publications
Khaled A. Khatib
Many people I met use the PASSIA directory of professional organizations and persons as the reliable means of locating one another.
Conservation Journal
Kathryn Gleason, Albright Fellow and excavator of the Herodian Promontory Palace at Ceasarea is the co-editor of a new journal that publishes articles on conservation matters world-wide, with a site-wide focus. (An archaeological "site" is defined as "any site that is no longer inhabited, either an excavated site or a standing ruin." (advertising circular). It is published quarterly from 1995. Particulars:
Other Resources
1. Got Oslo II poster map from Carol Palmer, need to get English text in U. S., for the provisions on archaeological sites and nature preserves.
2. Carol Palmer gave biblio. on arid land farming, to go with the institute in Hebron and my Umm el-Jimal research:
Martha Mundy and Richard Smith, eds. Part time farming. Yarmouk University: Inst. of Arch. and Anthro. (1991 or 2)
Journal of Lybian Archaeology: develops theory that olive culture went deep into the desert by use of flood irrigation in the rainy season, without periodic irrigation in the dry summer season. This needs to be checked against notion that olive trees that are irrigated are not hardy enough to withstand prolonged droughts.
Jordan Times (Jordan's English lang. newspaper, ed. George Hawatmeh)
Jennifer Hamarneh
Rami Khouri
Jordan's National Environment Strategy
John D. McEachern, ed.
In the ACOR Library
Science and Technology Division, U. S. Library of Congress
Kana'an, Ruba
Mediterranean Action Plan, United Nations Environment Programme
Bröder, Ernst Günther, and Conable, Barber B., eds.
Khouri, Rami
Taboroff, June
Dunn, edit, and Zaki M. Aslan
Bintloff, John L., Davidson, Donald A., Grant, Eric G.
Balaam, Nicholas and Rackham, James
Note: In the last two, several general and introductory chapters serve as good explanations for the relationship between archaeology and the environment. Suitable for both courses, "The Regional Environment of Palestine" and "Introduction to Archaeology."
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