Nestled in the Arava Valley, in between Israel’s Eilat Mountains and the Edomite Mountains of Jordan, a tragedy and a victory sit side by side. Part of Samar — a square-mile patch of sand dunes home to scores of animals, some near extinction — has been stripped of its sand in order to make concrete. But next to the wasteland, a victory: More than two-thirds of Samar has been saved, due to the efforts of the Green Zionist Alliance and its partner organizations in Israel.

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Saving wilderness, fighting fracking, protecting Israel’s 99 percent from the world's 1 percent  — what a decade it’s been!

December marks the end of the 10th anniversary of the Green Zionist Alliance. Back before Israel’s Tent Cities and Occupy Wall Street, the Green Zionist Alliance began 2011 by becoming part of a successful effort to change the equation of what percentage of natural-resource profits goes to companies and what percentage goes to the Israeli public, who collectively own the resources. Fighting against some of the largest oil and gas companies in the world, the Green Zionist Alliance and its allies pushed a new law through Knesset that will put billions of dollars into education, healthcare and environmental protection — money that, without our intervention, simply would have gone to multinational corporations.

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Dr. Orr Karassin — a GZA representative on the KKL-JNF board of directors — led the KKL-JNF delegation to the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP 17/MOP 7) in Durban, South Africa.

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Hydraulic fracturing and in-situ retorting for oil in Israel should be banned in Israel pending further research into the environmental effects of the relatively new fossil-fuel extraction techniques, according to a new report issued by Israel’s Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael / Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) at the initiation of the Green Zionist Alliance.

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Most scholars believe that chapter 28 of the Book of Job is a later poetic addition into the text. The poem is nonetheless a beautiful hymn to Hokhmah — Wisdom — and a meditation on how to acquire it. The unknown Wisdom teacher who composed this poem is warning us that we cannot find wisdom in the ingenuity of human activity, which can even encompass the searching the depths of the Earth through the mining of precious metals and jewels.

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If you thought Theodor Herzl’s dream was fulfilled with the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948, think again. Thousands are camping out in Israel’s cities, demanding social change. Thousands more around the world, angered by the Palestinians’ situation, seek to boycott Israel. Meanwhile, Egypt, Israel and Gaza volley bombs and rockets in escalating attacks and counterattacks. Which brings us back to Herzl. His dream wasn’t simply the creation of a Jewish democratic state, but the creation of a model state — a place that would protect its environment, a place powered by clean, renewable energy, and a place where all people, regardless of religion, ethnicity or social class, would be treated fairly.

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About six years ago the Ghanaian government brought a delegation of Jews from the Israeli town of Dimona to Accra, Ghana’s capital, to speak about the importance of local agricultural production and consumption. But even though Ghana has a long way to go on its path to becoming a developed nation — becoming part of the so-called “First World” — there's a lot that Israel can learn from Ghana.

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When David Ben-Gurion envisioned making the desert bloom, bulldozing Bedouin villages to make way for new groves of trees is not exactly what he had in mind. But, in the name of environmentalism, that is exactly what Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael / Jewish National Fund did recently, bulldozing the village of al-Araqib for the 21st time since last July as part of its $600-million Blueprint Negev project.

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Israel is about 7,500 miles from California, and transporting goods consumes energy and emits pollutants. For every 100 tons of food transported from California to Israel, 9 tons of greenhouse gases are emitted. If we are truly committed to halting global climate change and reducing our overall consumption of greenhouse gases, sourcing locally in Israel is a great way to start.

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Trees just might be the ultimate environmentalists. They provide shelter and food for animals large and small. They nourish the soil with their fallen leaves, and protect it with their strong roots. And trees not only pump oxygen into the atmosphere, allowing every animal on the surface of the planet to breathe, they also filter out greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, as well as precursors to acid rain, such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. How many other environmentalists can claim that?

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If we're going to green the world, we can't do it alone. We need to engage with our brothers and sisters of all faiths.

In Israel, that means that we need to work with Christians and Muslims, both within Israel and in Israel's neighboring lands as well, because nature knows no borders. The Green Zionist Alliance, for example, is a North America-based Jewish environmental organization that has embraced diversity: Our volunteers, speakers and interns have included Christians, Muslims and Hindus. At the Green Zionist Alliance, anyone who wants to help green Israel and the Middle East is welcome.

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When the Indian Ocean tsunami devastated the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in December 2004, women died, in part, because they could not swim, because they put the needs of their children first, and, most tragically of all, they drowned in their homes because they would not flee after debris had torn off their clothes. In the years since the tsunami, these shocking facts have motivated NGOs to develop programs to prepare women for the increasing number of disasters expected to result from climate change.

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The Green Zionist Alliance, a North America-based 501(c)3 nonprofit, offers a place for all people — regardless of political or religious affiliation — who care about humanity's responsibility to preserve the Earth and the special responsibility of the Jewish people to preserve the ecology of Israel. The GZA works to educate and mobilize people around the world for Israel’s environment; to protect Israel's environment and support its environmental movement; to improve environmental practices within the World Zionist Organization and its constituent agencies; and to inspire people to work for positive change.

By focusing on the environment while working from a pluralistic and multicultural base, the Green Zionist Alliance seeks to bridge the differences between and within religions and people — helping to build a peaceful and sustainable future for Israel and the Middle East.