In a rare show of solidarity, citizens of Israel and Jordan came together to declare war recently, not on one another, but on a common enemy plaguing both--houseflies.
A delegation of Israelis and Jordanians met in the Jordanian city of Safi to discuss the problem facing residents of both sides of the Dead Sea as a result of sea's shrinkage, according to Haaretz.
The delegation, along with officials of the Jordan Valley Authority and district governors, signed a breakthrough memorandum of understanding to work together against the flies and against the desiccation of the sea.
In addition, they agreed to establish a border crossing for merchandise and workers on the Dead Sea's southern shore, and to establish a regional peace park south of the Dead Sea.
"It is a rare event in which the representatives of so many Jordanian bodies meet with Israelis, as political pressure usually prevents such meetings," said Gidon Bromberg the joint Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian Friends of the Earth-Middle East (FoEME) that organized the trip.
He added that the shared nature of the issues on the local level had created the level of trust needed to reach the understandings.
The source of the fly problem was finally discovered in the fields near Safi: a fertilizer that attracts the winged pests.
"People here are poor, and they don't have money to buy suitable fertilizers," said Dr. Farouk Arslan, a Jordanian ecologist accompanying the group. "This fertilizer gets wet and attracts the female flies, and that's how the next generation develops," explained Shlomo Abadi, a pesticide expert advising both sides.
Most residents of the banks of the Dead Sea on both the Jordanian and Israeli sides have never visited one another. In many respects, however, they are mirror images of each other, complete with potash works and their evaporation pools and a large number of hotels.
The shrinkage of the Dead Sea, the lowest point on the surface of the earth, requires intervention at high levels. Mayors on both sides are trying to raise international awareness of the importance of preserving the area, one of the most important geological formations on earth.
