Word: alon
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...prey, is more hawk than dove. But in a symbolic sense it carries an olive branch in the Middle East. Confronted by devastating changes in its habitat, the bird is endangered in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Now dozens of Jewish and Arab schoolchildren, recruited by conservationists Dan Alon and Nader al Khateeb, have come together to help save the kestrel--and learn lessons in cooperation and friendship...
...Alon, 31, is the Jewish director of the Israel Ornithological Center. Al Khateeb, 39, is a Palestinian engineer who runs the Water and Environment Development Organization in Bethlehem. Despite their very different backgrounds, Alon and al Khateeb share a passion for preserving beleaguered creatures like the kestrel. The bird, a native of the Mediterranean region that feeds on crickets and other insects, builds its nests in the gutters and ventilation ducts beneath the red-tiled roofs of the traditional stone houses that once dominated the Middle East. Over the years, though, many of the old-style homes have been knocked...
Three years ago, Alon set out to reverse the decline by lobbying for the preservation of green spaces as feeding grounds and nailing nesting boxes high on the outside walls of homes. He chose older houses that had been refurbished, so that the birds could return to familiar haunts. The birdhouses are plain pinewood, about the size of a shoebox, with an entry hole in front. So far, Alon and his colleagues in Operation Kestrel have put up 40 boxes in Jerusalem and 50 in Haifa. "The kestrels are dependent on people," says Alon, who started bird watching...
This year Alon has joined forces with al Khateeb and a Palestinian conservation crew to put up birdhouses in the West Bank. Together they had the wonderful idea of enlisting the help of children--from both sides of the Middle East divide. In February, 50 Arab kids from Jericho and 30 Jewish kids from Jerusalem converged at Jerusalem's Biblical Zoo to learn to make the birdhouses and get to know one another. Coexistence didn't come easily. A Jewish fifth-grader, tears of frustration flowing down her cheeks, rushed to her teacher. An Arab boy wouldn't give...
...lesser kestrel is a nice, noncontroversial subject," says Alon. "It won't solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it can create understanding between people who are destined to live together, whether they like it or not." Al Khateeb strongly agrees. "We share a common environment," he says. "We have to work together if we are to achieve results. Our kids grew up thinking all Israelis were soldiers who wanted to shoot them. Their kids thought all Palestinians were terrorists. We want to promote the environment as a tool to build peace...