Given my relationships in the Gulf and Middle East for the past 20 plus years, I created a Pelican Peace Project to bring together my friends from Bahrain, Israel, and UAE to create community and commerce and demonstrate the possibilities of the Abraham Peace Accords. On Friday November 13th, 2020, I am leaving for the UAE to lead my first Pelican Peace Project Peace Mission.
What a delightful surprise to receive the following email and videos from Professor Yossi Leshem the day before my trip:
Dear Friends,
Since the draining of the Hula Valley in the 1950’s, the draining of coastal swamps during the previous century, and the drying out of water sources along the pelican migration route in Turkey, Syria and Lebanon, Pelicans are fed in Israel reservoirs, in the Mediterranean lowlands.
They are fed with fish purchased by the Nature and Parks Authority and the Ministry of Agriculture. about 200 tons of fish every fall for the 50,000 migratory pelicans.
Once they feed, the Pelicans can continue to migrate to the swamps in south Sudan.
I am sending a presentation of a feeding in Bahan Reservoir: https://bit.ly/2ItIK6A
In addition, a number of videos, so that you will can enjoy the impressive feeding:
Best regards, Keep safe,
Yossi Leshem
Professor Yossi Leshem is a Senior Researcher in the Department of Zoology in the Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel Aviv University and is the founder and Director of the International Center for the Study of Bird Migration at Latrun, Israel. He has worked at the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) as a guide, as Director of a Field Study Center, as Head of the Nature Protection Department, Initiator and Director of the Israel Raptor Information Center, as Executive Director and as the Chairman of the SPNI Council. He has been involved with many aspects of nature conservation and bird research. He has partnered with the Israeli Air Force on numerous occasion, saving lives and money by decrease the number of aircraft collisions cased by birds by 76%. He won the Mike Kuhring Prize for his achievements and research in 2005.
My mother (of blessed memory) Myra Yellin Outwater Goldfarb had met Professor Yossi Leshem a number of years ago as part of a bird watching and preservation conference in Israel. She wrote an incredibly moving article on the experience that you can read about here. Yossi Leshem spoke at my mom’s memorial service in NYC in November 2016.
His timely message of pelicans in the Holy Land is a blessing and a sign of more blessings to come thanks to the Pelican Peace Project.
