June 27, 2022
The West Coast offices of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) spoke with Gidon Bromberg, the Israel Director of the Israeli-Jordanian-Palestinian non-profit EcoPeace. EcoPeace, founded in 1994, seeks to turn the challenge of climate change in the Middle East into an opportunity to build broad regional trust and cooperation. In 2022, EcoPeace celebrated the landmark Israeli, Jordanian, and Emirati agreement as a vital opportunity to advance regional cooperation and address issues related to renewable technology and water scarcity. EcoPeace has also been a long-time supporter of the Green Blue Deal, a comprehensive plan for addressing how Israelis, Palestinians, and Jordanians can take a leading role in reversing the damaging ecological effects impacting the Middle East. This work has also been profiled by The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and heralded by U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry.
This event was born out of a desire to combat the illusion that, for environmental "green" groups, being anti-Israel and being pro-environment go hand in hand. As pro-Israel advocates and Washingtonians, we all know that this is a preposterous assumption, and yet it's pervasive in the progressive and environmentalist community.
