A civil society advocacy organization jointly established by environmentalists from Israel, Jordan and Palestine, ECOPEACE Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME), was awarded the 2010 Anna Lindh Foundation’s Euro-Mediterranean Dialogue Award.

The theme for this year’s award is Intercultural Dialogue for Ecological Sustainability. Recipients of the award are voted for by members of the Anna Lindh Foundation’s region-wide network of 3,000 civil society organizations working across the 43 countries of the Union for the Mediterranean.

In response to the award, the organization’s regional co-directors – Gidon Bromberg (Israel), Munqeth Mehyar (Jordan) and Nader Khateeb (Palestine) – issued a joint statement: “Our ‘Environmental Peacemaking’ work focuses precisely on the interdependent nature of our region’s shared natural and cultural resources, thus creating a platform for dialogue so necessary in our area. The exposure and recognition from this award will help us to continue to forward ecological sustainability in our shared region.”

Andreu Claret, Executive Director of the Anna Lindh Foundation, said: “This year’s winning organization ‘Friends of the Earth Middle East’ is an inspiring example of how intercultural action can address the major issues of our time. In bringing together NGOs from Jordan, Palestine and Israel, ‘‘Friends of the Earth Middle East’ are in a unique position to promote social and environmental stability, as well as a culture of peace at the grass-root level.”