An Unexpected Plan for Peace in the Middle East | Nada Majdalani | TED

As the war rages in the Middle East, I sometimes wonder, are we witnessing the wrong war? Amid the loudness of bombs, famine and fear, there's a silent threat multiplying. Climate change. According to scientists, not my own words, climate change is a magnifier of instability and suffering. In a region like ours, already tinted and torn by pain, there's still a chance for hope. There is an untapped power to heal. Let's look at the example of the European Union post-World War II. Germany and France, two bitter enemies, they chose cooperation over fighting. They signed the Coal and Steel Agreement, which converted battlefields into the European Union in the early 1950s. But what if I tell you that in the Middle East, we have resources that are more powerful and more environmentally sustainable than coal and steel? We have the Sun, we have the sea, and we have transformative ideas that could unlock the potential of our region into a region of prosperity for all. My name is Nada Majdalani, and I'm the Palestinian director of EcoPeace Middle East. And I'm here to take you on a journey of hope. To tell you a little bit about myself, I was born and raised in the diaspora. I was exposed to various experiences and cultures, but I could never call a place home until 1994, when the Oslo Peace Agreement was signed between the Palestinian Liberation Organization and Israel. It granted thousands of Palestinian families, among my own, the right to return to Palestine. It was such a profound emotional moment, and the air was filled with hope. As a kid, I joined environmental peacebuilding organizations and activities, and I encountered the first Israeli who was not a soldier. A teenager like myself, who was fond of wildflowers and watching birds. And since then, it was EcoPeace Middle East, my dream job. And after various trials for many years, failures, rejections, I was able finally to join. So lesson learned, never stop chasing your dream. (Applause) EcoPeace Middle East is a unique organization, 30-year-old, co-led on equal footing by three co-directors Gidon Bromberg, the Israeli director, Yana Abu Taleb, Jordanian, and myself. I stand here representing 60 environmental peacebuilding professionals and activists from our three nations. This cross-border team is our true strength and all unique to our region. It's experienced and knowledgeable to actually deal with all the challenges that we face as we are considered a climate hotspot. What does that mean? It means that many parts of our region are going to experience, by the end of the century, an increase in temperature by five to eight degrees Celsius and a decrease in precipitation by 40 percent. And all of this is certainly not going to stop at natural phenomena. Our region is also shaped, and our reality is shaped, by power asymmetry, where natural water is not equally shared, pollution doesn't recognize boundaries or checkpoints, and our ecosystem is also jeopardized and held hostage to the stagnation in the political horizon. But we at EcoPeace recognize that we live on such a tiny piece of land that is so interconnected and so vulnerable that it requires cooperation and shared responsibility. We at EcoPeace turn water and energy into an opportunity for mutual benefits.

We train thousands of Palestinian, Israeli and Jordanian young professionals every year on the principles of water diplomacy, climate change, water energy realities and negotiation skills. With cross-border efforts, we also provide skills and green solutions to schools, businesses and farmers. And we address the drastic humanitarian disaster and crisis in Gaza Strip. We refuse the status quo. We dream forward. And we have a vision for the day after the war. EcoPeace introduced a concept of a “Peace Triangle.” This Peace Triangle includes Palestine, Israel and Jordan integrated within the India-Middle East- Europe Economic Corridor, also known as IMEC. IMEC was launched in the G20 Summit in New Delhi in 2023, and it aimed to boost global development and global economy through regional integration and interconnectivity. Our Peace Triangle initiative focuses on three sectors. And three catalytic projects in the sectors of water, energy and sustainable transport for trade. These all come based on extensive research and data, and advocacy and networking with regional and international partners and experts. Let's first imagine that huge amounts of energy are produced in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt and exported to the eastern and southern parts of Europe to provide them with 30 percent of their energy needs. This is all aligned with the Repower Europe initiative and also with the Euroasia interconnector, which already is based on existing agreements between Egypt, Cyprus and Greece, and between Israel and Cyprus. But what if I tell you that we add a green line here that adds Gaza as a node for exporting renewables to Europe. Let's also imagine a large-scale desalination plant in Gaza, not only to provide clean and drinkable water to Gaza, but also to the West Bank, and to sell this water to Jordan and transfer it through the Israeli national carrier. If these projects are realized and implemented, we achieve interdependence in shared resources, just similar to the coal and steel of the European Union. And finally, let's imagine our region as a conduit of goods from India, the Middle East to Europe. IMEC is all planned around a railway from the Gulf to Jordan to the port of Haifa in Israel. What if we add and extend this railway from Jordan to the West Bank to the port of Gaza, so that both the Port of Gaza and the Port of Israel, of Haifa, serve as the gateway of the Middle East to Europe. These projects, if realized and implemented, they will achieve not only economic prosperity. The Peace Triangle is not merely an economic revolution. It comes with a geopolitical security agenda that would make the Palestinian state an achievable dream alongside the state of Israel. To achieve the two-state solution. It would propel the reconstruction of Gaza into non-traditional ways that would achieve regional integration and prosperity for all. Some of you might think that these are dreams that are impossible. Some of you would never see such stories of hope on mainstream media. And maybe you would think that such ideas and long-term visions are also really unrealistic during the time of war. And I tell you the truth that most of us at EcoPeace, we are condemned of treason, we are condemned of normalizing with the enemy, and our reputations are smeared. But also, each one of us has a story of grief and loss. I live in the West Bank under military occupation, but I stand strong here, calling for peace.

I stand here for my beautiful daughters and for the children of our region. I stand here for humanity, sanity, freedom and justice. I stand here for my comrades of peace at EcoPeace Middle East, because we know and we believe that we all deserve better. I invite you all to share our vision. I invite you all to talk about the Peace Triangle. Tell our story that there's people in the Middle East who coexist, who refuse destruction and the killing and the loss of innocent lives. Tell the people that in the Middle East, we have people who work together on concrete, bold ideas because we want to move forward. We deserve peace, we deserve prosperity. It matters to you as it matters to us. We have a shared future. Our future is entangled, and our survival is shared. Thank you. (Cheers and applause)