In Israel, Whales Are Not Kosher

The good thing about being a small country, is that when an emergency presents itself, the whole population can group together, focus and take swift action. That's what happened recently when the US Secretary of State called Israel earlier this year asking Israel to support the US anti-whaling position at the annual International Whaling Commission (IWC) in St. Kitts-Nevis.

The vote would be tight as Japan, a pro-whaling nation was allegedly buying the votes of small, land-locked countries in dire need of humanitarian aid. Greenpeace International has an Israel base and were pushing from within, giving a play-by-play to Israeli government officials on how to join the IWC and the background on the whaling industry. Five out of six resolutions were passed in the way Greenpeace would have chosen. Thanks to IMMRAC (Israel's local save the whales and dolphins group), Israeli environment and foreign ministries were convinced a "NO" whaling policy would need to be heard from the Middle East in an international forum.

IMMRAC is one group working to preserve biodiversity in the Mediterranean Sea and gives eco-education to tourists; another neat one which this TreeHugger got to take part in last week is Eco-Ocean, a floating, environmental yacht making waves in Mediterranean Sea research. The latter seeks interns.