On Friday, October 16 a fascinating meeting was held in the framework of the SFP change agents course for leaders in environmental justice.

The meeting took place after a long summer break and postponement of a September meeting due to the ongoing health crisis. For the same reason, the three hour meeting was conducted online over Zoom.

The meeting, which was facilitated by Mazen Zoabi and Noa Barkai-Kara included seven women participants, six of them Jews.

The meeting began with an open, frank conversation about the participants’  personal lives and questions regarding the absent Palestinian group members. One of the participants suggested to create a questionnaire for the whole group in order to include the voices of the absent participants.

We continued with a fascinating lecture by Dr. Orly Ronen on “An Introduction to Existential Sustainability”.

Orly is a graduate of our second change agents course for leaders in environmental justice and a lecturer at the Porter School of Environmental Studies at Tel Aviv University. She brought fascinating information about pathways to sustainability, latest developments in the field, the nature of our ecological footprint, the effects of the current pandemic on the environment and more.

After this stimulating and refreshing lecture, the participants engaged in discussion about their place in the deepening ecological and environmental situation, and how values of environmental justice and equality ​​influence and are influenced by the complex processes underway.

We ended the session by formulating the mentioned questionnaire for the whole group.

If the corona regulations continue in the current format, during the next month we will hold a virtual tour that will allow us to see places where environmental justice is violated.

In hope of quieter and healthier days.

Noa Barkai-Kara (Jewish facilitator).