Yale University will participate in discussions aimed at creating the first peace park in the Middle East. Faculty and students from the university’s acclaimed School of Architecture will meet with Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian designers May 12 to discuss the project, according to a news release. The proposed park would be situated south of the Sea of Galilee at the confluence of the Yarmouk and Jordan Rivers. The location, known as the Three Bridges Site, encompasses an old hydroelectric power station and three bridges traversing the Jordan. “The goal of the event is to develop ideas on how to re-create a wetland from the dry lake bed into a bird sanctuary, convert the old power station into a visitor’s center, the old workers’ homes into eco-lodges and renovate the bridges so they can be used again,” said Munqeth Mehyar, the Jordanian director of Friends of the Earth Middle East. The park idea is based on a provision of the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty that allows Israelis to enter a Jordanian area called the Peace Island without a passport.
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