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Middle East peace park: an oxymoron?
But for the past 60 years, the confluence of the Yarmouk and Jordan rivers has been an emblem of conflict.
In 1948, fighters from nearby kibbutzim repelled Arab forces, and since then the river has been a boundary between wary neighbors. In 1997, three years after Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty, a Jordanian soldier shot and killed seven Israeli schoolgirls visiting the area known as nahareim in Hebrew and naharain in Arabic — two rivers.
A group of Jordanians and Israelis is hoping to rehabilitate the area through a bold concept in the Middle East: a bi-national peace park.
Under a plan that could start taking shape as early as next year, the area on both sides of the rivers — part agricultural, part closed military area — would become open to people, passport-free, entering from Israel and Jordan.
The archeological sites and other structures would be refurbished — including an early 20th-century hydroelectric dam as a visitors’ center — and a wetlands would be restored to attract migratory birds and bird-watchers.
“It’s absolutely critical to the peace process,” said Luis Moreno, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv. “This project doesn’t have a downside, at least I can’t see a downside.”
The Jordan River Peace Park would cost $14 million over 25 years. Proponents will be seeking official approval from the two countries in the coming months.
Regional leaders from both sides have signed onto the plan, and were present at a recent meeting in Jerusalem to discuss the initiative — except for Ali Hussein Ali Alagi, mayor of the Jordanian village, Muaz bin Jabal. He was denied an entry visa by Israeli authorities.
Further proof, participants said, of the need for a peace park.
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