Nada Majdalani
Nada Majdalani is a prominent Palestinian environmentalist and director of EcoPeace Middle East, a nonprofit organization dedicated to addressing environmental and water management issues in the region. She holds a Master of Science degree in environmental assessment and management from Oxford Brookes University and has collaborated with various international agencies to enhance infrastructure and sustainability, particularly concerning water resources. Majdalani emphasizes the importance of dialogue in resolving conflicts over shared resources, especially amid the ongoing tensions between Palestinians and Israelis regarding water access and pollution.
Under her leadership, EcoPeace Middle East works to foster cooperation among Palestine, Israel, and Jordan to tackle water-related challenges exacerbated by geopolitical issues. Majdalani has played a pivotal role in initiatives aimed at reducing pollution in the Jordan River and advocating for water releases from the Sea of Galilee to benefit all parties involved. She is also a key figure behind the Green Blue Deal for the Middle East, which proposes collaborative desalination projects utilizing solar energy. Despite facing criticism for her efforts, she remains committed to promoting environmental sustainability and fostering constructive dialogue among youth from different backgrounds, aiming to inspire the next generation of leaders in the region.
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Nada Majdalani
Activist
- Born: Unknown
- Birthplace: Unknown
Significance: Nada Majdalani is the Palestinian director for EcoPeace Middle East, an organization designed to bring Jordanians, Israelis, and Palestinians together over ecological issues, especially clean water and water rights.
Background
Majdalani has a Master of Science degree in environmental assessment and management from Oxford Brookes University in the United Kingdom (UK). After receiving that degree, she worked with a variety of international agencies to develop infrastructure. Her work focused on managing waste so that it did not pollute water sources and other sanitary projects. She also worked to determine how to keep water supplies clean. Sustainability is also important to her when it comes to water, as the Middle East has a limited amount of water that everyone must share.
Majdalani believes that dialogue brings people and groups who are in conflict closer to a resolution, especially on topics such as water, where they must share resources. She has also worked with people in the private sector to understand their needs and how they can be satisfied along with those of their government. This allows her to balance needs and desires for economic growth in her country.
Majdalani has also invested herself in the greater dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis. She has worked as a moderator for youth dialogue groups such as the Palestinian-Israeli Young Entrepreneurs Forum and the OneVoice Movement. Majdalani maintains a network that includes environmentalists, people working in the private sector, those with international interests, and local governments.
Life’s Work
In 1994, the Oslo Accords helped move forward the peace process in the Middle East. However, they left problems with water unresolved. Majdalani works to solve these problems, such as who gets access to water; when, where, and how water is cleaned; and how sanitation issues are handled. EcoPeace Middle East, which has a fifty-person staff, was formed to begin to address these issues, and Majdalani became the organization’s director.
Given watershed patterns in the area, Majdalani believes that people from Palestine, Israel, and Jordan need to work together because they share the same water supply. Pollution problems in one area will affect the others, and any hoarding of water by one area means that another will not get what they need to survive.
In addition, access to water has become a major issue in the disagreements between Palestine and Israel. Israel controls many of the water sources, and Israeli households use more water than those in Palestinian because they have easier access. Israel has also blocked some shipments of parts that Palestinian areas need to keep sewage out of their water, which eventually flows into the sea and negatively affects the entire area.
Majdalani, along with her Israeli and Jordanian counterparts, works to counteract these problems. She has spearheaded several important projects aimed at getting Palestine and Israel to work together for the sake of their water. For example, Majdalani worked on a team that convinced the countries’ governments to begin efforts to stop dumping pollutants in the Jordan River. She also helped convince Israel to release more water into the river that flows out of the Sea of Galilee.
In December 2020, Majdalani began work on the Green Blue Deal for the Middle East. This deal proposes ideas that would require even more cooperation throughout the region regarding water. The Green Blue Deal has proposed using solar power plants in Jordan to get energy for desalination projects in both Israel and Palestine. These projects work to remove salt from seawater, making it drinkable and usable in other capacities. Once the salt is removed, some of the water from these solar power plants would be moved via pipeline to both Israel and Palestine and back into Jordan.
As of June 2023, the Green Blue Deal is still being discussed. Majdalani is a key player in these discussions, working to effectively represent the needs of the Palestinian people. Many Palestinians have a dire need for access to more clean water, and they do not have much financially to offer in return. Majdalani faces some criticism from activists on all sides who wonder if such a deal can be accomplished without resolving all the other areas of tension in the region.
Impact
Majdalani is the director of EcoPeace Middle East, a nonprofit, regional organization that brings together environmentalist from Palestine, Israel, and Jordan. She and other leaders of EcoPeace Middle East have received commendations from these three governments, which are all involved in the region’s water crisis. Even when she has been called a traitor for working with Israel, Majdalani has persisted, which has led to some positive steps being taken to bring more clean water into the area.
Majdalani is also working to bring young people into the work she is doing. She encourages them to converse with people who are unlike them to bring about positive change. She encourages an open dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian youth and has a vision for making government work more dynamic so that young people are drawn to it. Even if she does not achieve all her water-related goals in the region, Majdalani will leave a legacy of working hard to promote change even in the face of insult and repeated defeat.
Personal Life
Little information is available to the public about Majdalani’s personal life.
Bibliography
Baker, Aryn. “The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Is Also a Looming Climate Disaster.” Time, 11 Jan. 2023, time.com/6242238/climate-change-israeli-palestinian-politics/. Accessed 20 June 2023.
Gallagher, Adam. “Water Can Be a Rare Win-Win for Israelis, Palestinians and the Region.” United States Institute of Peace, 15 Dec. 2022, www.usip.org/publications/2022/12/water-can-be-rare-win-win-israelis-palestinians-and-region. Accessed 20 June 2023.
Hincks, Joseph. “A Decade After the Arab Spring, These Activists Are Finding New Ways to Fight for Progress.” Time, 12 Jan. 2021, time.com/5926742/arab-spring-decade/. Accessed 20 June 2023.
Whelan, Carolyn. “Nada Majdalani.” Driving Change, 5 July 2022, drivingchange.org/2050-nada-majdalani-the-peacemaker/. Accessed 20 June 2023.