Bright Award 2018
Gidon Bromberg and Munqeth Mehyar, who are unparalleled environmental leaders and visionaries were the 2018 Bright Award winners. Their work has been foundational in the field of environmental peacebuilding and their current projects are on the cutting edge, ambitiously tackling the world’s most difficult environmental, peace, and security challenges.
2018 Recipients
Gidon Bromberg
Israeli DirectorEcoPeace Middle East
Munqeth Mehyar
Chair and Jordanian DirectorEcoPeace Middle East
EcoPeace Middle East

Over three decades ago, Mr. Bromberg and Mr. Mehyar co-founded EcoPeace Middle East, a singularly unique organization that brings together Israelis, Palestinians, and Jordanians to advance regional peace and security through environmental sustainability. EcoPeace Middle East is the only collaborative organization of Israelis, Palestinians, and Jordanians, not only in the environmental field, but in any field. It is the first transnational environmental group in the Middle East and a global leader in environmental peacebuilding. The organization has offices in Amman, Bethlehem, and Tel-Aviv employs over 40 paid staff, and actively involves hundreds of volunteers.
Since founding EcoPeace Middle East, Mr. Bromberg has served as its Israeli co-director and Mr. Mehyar has served as the Jordanian co-director, spearheading resoundingly successful initiatives on water conservation and conflict resolution on the Jordan River, Dead Sea, and Gaza water and sanitation crisis. For example, Mr. Bromberg was able to facilitate what many viewed as impossible: cooperation between Jordanian, Palestinian, and Israeli stakeholders on rehabilitation of the Jordan River. In 2013, as a result of EcoPeace Middle East’s efforts, water was allowed to flow from the Jordan River to the sea of Galilee for the first time in over 10 years. And, in 2015, EcoPeace Middle East facilitated a cooperative Israeli-Palestinian-Jordanian regional management plan for sustainable development of the Jordan Valley.