The Jordan River has been named as one of the world s 100 most endangered ecological sites, and an environmental group blamed, in part, the poor cooperation between Israel and its Arab neighbors for the river s demise. The region s current policies treat the river as a backyard dumping ground, Friends of the Earth Middle East said in a statement, blaming Israel, Syria and Jordan for diverting 90 percent of the river s natural flow for domestic and agricultural use, replacing it with sewage. Munqeth Mehyar, the organization s Jordanian director, told the Jordan Times that Israel and Jordan are not working together, as they promised to do in the Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty, to preserve the river, which has significance in all three major religions. Meyhar said that when he discusses the problems with the two nations, they shift the blame. When we talk to Jordanian officials they tell us if the Israeli side gives the go ahead, then we will follow suit and vice versa meanwhile, nothing is done and the two countries continue to dump their waste into the river and divert water for agriculture, he said.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
