Joint Environmental Mediation Service (JEMS) was created in 2000 to build environmental mediation expertise in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. In addition to political and territorial conflict, the stability of the area is threatened by ongoing tensions over land use, infrastructure development, management of water supplies and the need for waste management. Successful environmental problem-solving is necessary, not only to improve the quality of life of all participating communities, but also to reduce overall conflict potential. In furtherance of this goal, JEMS trains Israeli and Palestinian environmental professionals in dispute-resolution techniques, distilled in years of study and practice in the United States and Europe, and deploys teams as impartial aides in the resolution of active environmental disputes.

JEMS was created as a partnership between the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI), a joint Palestinian-Israeli public-policy think-tank devoted to developing practical solutions to the Middle East conflict, and the Consensus Building Institute (CBI), a non-profit organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts that provides mediation and dispute-system design services to public and private clients worldwide.

The V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation provided key funds that supported the creation and maintenance of JEMS.

For more information visit: www.ipcri.org/jems

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