Zalul Environmental Association is an environmental not-for-profit organization committed to protecting and maintaining clean, clear water along Israel’s rivers and shorelines. Founded in 1999 by a group of concerned citizens alarmed by the ongoing degeneration of Israel’s natural water resources and the lack of infrastructure and regulations to safeguard them, Zalul is comprised of a dedicated small team of professionals from various fields, devoted to protecting Israel’s natural heritage and to bring issues of environmental protection to the forefront of the public agenda. Today, Zalul is one of Israel’s leading environmental NGOs.

Each year over 50 million cubic meters of industrial effluents and sewage are dumped into the coastal waters of Israel by special permit of the Inter-ministerial Committee for Issuance of Discharge Permits without any discharge fee. Millions of shekels stay in the hands of corporations rather than going towards the application of best available technologies or a governmental fund for protecting the environment.

Join Zalul for a unique extension to your GA 2008 Israel experience! Delve deeper into the problems facing the beautiful beaches of the Holy Land and what is being done to protect them during a one-day tour on either November 13, 2008 or November 20, 2008.

Spotted on July 28, 2008 along the Yarkon River from Tel Aviv's port by Zalul's Deputy Director, Sagit Rogenstein: Israeli policemen dumping what they described as "sand" into the River. The mixture, according to Channel 10, could quite possibly be marijuana from a drug lab that the police were trying to dispose of.

On Monday, July 7, Zalul and the Bat Yam Municipality Beach Division held a beach clean up on Bat Yam's Selah Beach with 100 teens from the NFTY Tikkun Olam Israel program and the Seminar in Israel program.

In a special news feature on river pollution in Israel, celebrity newscaster Danny Kushmaro interviewed Zalul's National Campaign Director Ezer Fischler about the problems facing the Lachish River in Ashdod, specifically the extremely high levels of pollution that are discharged in the river daily.

Zalul and the Acco based organization, Green Cell, partnered to bring together 200 students from the Acco area to protest the closure of their beaches during the middle of the summer season.

After a long and difficult battle between environmentalists and the fish cage companies, the fish cages will finally be removed from Eilat at the end of the month. Zalul, which was founded in 1999 to save and protect the Red Sea and has since expanded to include all of Israel's sea and rivers, led the fight the past 10 years to remove the polluting fish cages from the sea.