MENU

About the Organization

Established 25 years ago, EcoPeace Middle East is the only organization that brings Palestinians, Israelis and Jordanians together under a single mandate. The organization is a trailblazer in the implementation of environmental peacebuilding. With offices in Ramallah, Amman and Tel Aviv, EcoPeace focuses on the shared environment as a means to promote cooperation. The organization’s work on water and climate security has attracted global attention.

https://staging.skoll.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/ecopeace-sl1.jpg

Climate change will contribute to even greater water stress and regional insecurity in the Middle East.

https://staging.skoll.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/ecopeace-sl2.jpg

EcoPeace engages environmentalists and community leaders in essential dialogue about managing shared water resources.

https://staging.skoll.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/ecopeace-sl3.jpg

EcoPeace builds support for collaborative water management and an international Jordan River Peace Park. Results include a master plan for the Jordan Valley, and a Good Water Neighbors program engaging 28 Israeli, Palestinian, and Jordanian communities.

Ambition for Change

EcoPeace combines community-based activities with research-based advocacy to show Israelis, Palestinians, and Jordanians that their national destinies and self-interests are inextricably linked to their shared environment, encouraging people to view natural resource management as an opportunity for cooperation across borders, rather than a source of conflict.

Path to Scale

EcoPeace adds value and achieves scale through cooperation: its educational activities are embedded within national school systems, reaching thousands of youth in the region; its strategies and methodologies are shared with international organizations and networks, accelerating innovative ideas and projects.

Skoll Awardee
Nader Al Khateeb

Former Palestinian Director, EcoPeace Middle East

Munqeth Mehyar

Chair and Jordanian Director, EcoPeace Middle East

Gidon Bromberg began his work in environmental peacebuilding while studying international environmental law at American University in 1993, with a focus on the environmental implications of peace. Fearing that unsustainable regional development plans were being vetted as part of the then-nascent Oslo peace efforts, Gidon, from Israel, joined forces with Munqeth Mehyar from Jordan in an effort to promote the integration of environmental considerations into the regional development agenda. In 1994, Gidon and Munqeth established EcoPeace Middle East as an environmental, non-governmental organization with the goal of bringing together Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian environmentalists to work together to put environmental issues on the peace process agenda and to create a regional vision and response to water crises, furthering sustainable development and peace in the region. In this tripartite structure, Gidon serves as the Israeli Director and Munqeth, who has a background in regional planning and architecture, serves as the Jordanian Director. In 2001, Gidon and Munqeth recruited Nader Al Khateeb, an engineer with experience working for UNDP’s Water Resources Action Program, to serve as the Palestinian Director. In 2017, Ms. Nada Majdalani, formerly a board member, replaced Nader as the Palestinian co-director of EcoPeace and as its first female co-director. EcoPeace and its three country directors have received international recognition in the field of environmental peacebuilding and water security, receiving international awards such as the Aristotle Onassis Prize for the Protection of the Environment, TIME Magazine’s Environmental Heroes Award, the Green Globe Award and the Euro-Med Award for Dialogue between Cultures.

Impact & Accomplishments
  • In the past year, EcoPeace successfully launched a new phase of its flagship Good Water Neighbors program, including a unique school curriculum, regional and national teacher and student trainings, and a Water Diplomacy program for young professionals.
  • EcoPeace spearheaded a successful campaign to address the Gaza water and sanitation crises, helping create the conditions that enabled the completion of the first modern sewage treatment plant in Gaza, and agreements to build a gas pipeline that will drastically improve the energy situation in Gaza.
  • In the Jordan Valley, EcoPeace convened investors with entrepreneurs focused on climate-smart agriculture, delivered farmers’ trainings on water efficiency and plant protection, and started building a solar farm to power a wastewater treatment plant.
  • EcoPeace’s global program, launched in 2017, continued to develop, with workshops taking place this year with civil society organizations in the Lake Chad Basin, North Africa, and the Rift Valley.
Affiliated
Nada Majdalani
Palestinian Director, EcoPeace Middle East
Yana Abu Taleb
Ecopeace co-director, EcoPeace Middle East
Dalit Wolf
Deputy Israeli Director, EcoPeace Middle East
Nader Al Khateeb
Former Palestinian Director, EcoPeace Middle East
Munqeth Mehyar
Chair and Jordanian Director, EcoPeace Middle East
Gidon Bromberg
EcoPeace co-director, EcoPeace Middle East
In the News
Related Content

EcoPeace Middle East and a Breakthrough Israeli-Palestinian Water Deal

A water deal between Israelis and Palestinians reached earlier this month will ease the chronic shortages that have threatened to become a public health risk for the Palestinian people, particularly…

Fix Mideast Water Crisis to Advance Peace Process

Despite continuing disputes over settlements, Jerusalem, borders, and refugees, there is at least one problem on which Arabs and Israelis can still make progress—water. Much hard work lies ahead. The…

See All Awardees