Save the Dead Sea Before It’s Gone Forever? | Oded Rahav

[00:00:07] Welcome to the Israeli Trailblazers show. This podcast doesn't tell you what to think, but it shows you why Israel matters. And after listening, you won't just appreciate Israel, you'll stand with it. Because Israel isn't just an ally, it's a friend worth having.

[00:00:24] I'm your host, Jennifer Weissmann, and Israel is not just hummus and holy sites. After years of living there, I'm now back in America, and I see it clearly. Israel is one of the most misunderstood countries in the entire world. It's out there changing the world with technology and medicine and agriculture and defense and you name it. And humanity has no clue.

[00:00:49] Each episode of this podcast shows you how Israel is a nation that punches way above its weight and helps keep the world moving forward. That brings me to my topic today, the Dead Sea. Did you know that the Dead Sea is actually shrinking? It's literally disappearing. It's the lowest point on earth, sitting almost 1400 feet below sea level.

[00:01:16] This sounds like the beginning of a joke when I say an Israeli, a Jordanian and a Palestinian walk into the Dead Sea. But the truth is my guest today, Oded Rahav, is an environmental activist and an entrepreneur and an all-around go-getter. And he has made it his mission to save the Dead Sea. Welcome, Oded. Thank you so much, Jennifer.

[00:01:40] So you've done a lot of things. You've used swimming as a mode to raise awareness. I know you swam from Cyprus, you swam to save sharks, and now you've set your sights on the Dead Sea. Why is the Dead Sea shrinking? Dead Sea is shrinking because no fresh water is coming in. The historical flow was from the Jordan River. But way back then, it was dammed.

[00:02:06] The Jordanians, the Syrians, the Israelis, everyone dammed the water that flows into the Jordan River. All the tributaries, more than 40 of them were dammed for legitimate reasons, for agriculture, for drinking. But nowadays, at least for the last 20 years, we don't have to use the water that goes into the Jordan River or the Sea of Galilee because we desalinate water.

[00:02:27] Israel desalinates more than 90% of its drinking water. We're considered, if not the first, then the second. I think the first are the Saudis today. But we were the first up until recently. So we produce water. Therefore, we don't need to take water from nature. The source of water into the Dead Sea has been shut off. Exactly. For many years. Yeah, for 40 years or so. 40 years. And how much is it shrinking each year?

[00:02:55] It's falling 1.2 meters every year. About four feet a year. Four feet a year. In 30 years, 40 meters. So it's a lot. Third of its surface has vanished already. It's now not just one lake. It's a divided two basins, the northern and the southern. The northern one is the sea itself. The southern one is artificial pools. Basically, the hotels are there.

[00:03:20] And the potash company, the Dead Sea factories are extracting their minerals, selling it all over the world for fertilizers. From what I see, they're overdoing it. So the two sources are fresh water flowing in. And the second is people mining. Exactly. Overabusing. Overabusing the water. Why should someone who doesn't live in Israel care about the Dead Sea?

[00:03:47] The Dead Sea is one of the wonders of this planet. The place itself is the origin of all the three faiths. Everything happened there. Jesus was there. King Solomon, the Jews, the Israelites. Everything was there. Actually, the whole culture started there. And my fear that it might end there if we won't pay attention and we won't preserve it. Okay, the Jordan River is holy to more than half of the population of this planet. And it doesn't look good now.

[00:04:16] And I'm obliged to make it look good. Because people will come from all over the planet to get baptized there. And you know that whenever you go there, you sense it. You see it all around. Nothing has changed for thousands of years. If you go to Qumran or to Masada, it has not changed. And yet the Dead Sea is changing. The Dead Sea. It is receding at an alarming rate. And I want to stabilize it as soon as possible. And it's doable now.

[00:04:46] If we act together now, we can still stabilize it. Probably cannot bring it to the historical level, but we can stabilize it. When we will stabilize it, we will make sure that the people that are surrounding the sea will prosper. And once they will prosper, they will have hope. And once they will have hope, people will come and visit. Because this region is a very busy, noisy region, as you may know. And if you watch our news, you have just one perspective.

[00:05:15] But it's a very interesting place, full of culture and full of love and music and good food and faith. And it's all there for you to heal yourself, to heal your soul. Yes. And now humanity needs healing. And you know, it's interesting. When we lived in Israel, we had almost 90 guests the first year come. And we would do this pilgrimage to the Dead Sea.

[00:05:42] And there is just something that is mesmerizing about walking into that heavily salty water. And inevitably, somebody takes out a newspaper and they get their Instagram photo floating. But there's just nothing like the Dead Sea. I want to back up for a second and talk about what's happening. There are sinkholes that are forming. More than 7,000. 7,000. And it must be dangerous. Tragic. Yeah, because what's happening, it's a phenomenon.

[00:06:11] The fresh water coming from the mountain is dissolving the minerals. And all of a sudden, boom, you have this crash. The soil just falls and it takes away the whole infrastructure. So many of the roads there are already gone. Because the Dead Sea is receding. The fresh water is coming, dissolving the minerals. And you have these sinkholes all of a sudden. And if business is usual, eventually the sea will turn into a pond. It'll be a dangerous place. It won't be sexy.

[00:06:40] It won't be something that people from all over would like to see. Imagine every tourist that comes to Israel, he would either go first to the Dead Sea and then to Jerusalem or vice versa. There will not be one tourist that won't visit this place. If God forbid it'll be broken, they won't come because people don't come to a place that is broken. And now we are a very, very small neighborhood. Israel is a tiny place. It's not that it's something happening in Chernobyl. It's 20 minutes from Jerusalem. Right.

[00:07:08] It's like you see it when you stand and sip your coffee in Jerusalem. You see the Dead Sea and you want to go there because the Dead Sea is a magnet. There's a longing. Whenever you go there, like, shh, peace and glory. Healing, healing properties. Yes. The highest percentage of oxygen, 6% more than anywhere else, you know, as opposed to the Himalaya. There's minerals that exist only there. Lowest radiation. So if you have skin issues,

[00:07:36] there's 125 million people in the world suffering from psoriasis. This is the only place on the planet, the only natural place that provides them ease and cure. Fun fact. Did not know that. Another fun fact. Another fun fact. You know the word salary? Yes. People take their salaries. The word salary came from salt. The Roman Empire, who ruled Judea, used to have their salaries for the soldier.

[00:08:04] Every three months, they gave them a bag of salt. Salt. Sal. Salarium. Salary. There you have it. Amazing. Another fun fact. Another fun fact. I know you swam to save sharks, and you swam from Cyprus to... Israel to raise awareness for the overuse of plastic and push forward the law. And you were successful at getting... We were successful, and that's why we embarked on that mission in 2016. We crossed the sea for the first time ever.

[00:08:32] We were the only one on the planet to do so, swimming from Jordan, from the Arnoun River to Israel. It's a seven hours swim. Don't try it at home. It's very salty. 36% of salinity. We had to practice. It took me 18 months to make this swim come true. It's considered the most complicated sport event, I was told, by the Olympic Committee. What made it complicated? The face mask? Good question. First of all, we live in a region where borders are an issue.

[00:09:02] The Dead Sea is a border between Israel and Jordan. So in order to swim that stretch, you need a permit from the king and from the army. Yes, this is how it goes there in that region. It took me 18 months to arrange all these permits. And the swimmers, we had swimmers from nine countries, and they're all really, really good swimmers from all over. And when they came to Israel, and they're like really prominent one that can do such a swim. Seven hours in a very saline water. And I told them the swim is not about you.

[00:09:32] The swim is about the message. It's about saving the sea. You will now become the ambassadors of this place. You will tell the story, like we say in Hebrew, It's about telling a story. Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there were these people who stood up for a sea, swam across it, and by doing so, they saved it. And that was the idea. You swam freestyle, Freestyle, which is the old crawl, with a face mask,

[00:10:02] from the Israeli side, From the Jordanian side, From the Jordanian side to the Israeli side. Yeah, see the trailer. There's a trailer. It's called Dead Sea Guardians. That's the movie. And there's a trailer on YouTube. The documentary that you did, Dead Sea Guardians. How far is that in terms of miles? 17 and a half kilometers, we would say in miles. Yeah, okay. 12 miles, 13 miles. 17 and a half kilometers. Yeah, I think that's about right. That's a complicated swim. What makes it complicated? Because it floats.

[00:10:30] So your lower body floats. The whole posture, the whole way you swim is different from any other swim on the planet. Okay, you just use your upper body first. And second, you have a full face mask because you can't breathe. A tiny drop of water that goes into your eyes, it soars. And if you swallow it, it's dangerous. Okay, you can't drink that water. You suffocate. You get the spasm. Okay, so you have to make sure. Now you have to train yourself. Every 40 minutes, you take the mask off,

[00:11:00] you drink something not to dehydrate and you eat something and you continue. And when it's hot there, it's extremely hot. It's really hot. And when the wind, you know, if there's a little bit of wind, you can't swim anymore because it's so dense and it moves you. It's this body of water. You're completely floating on the top of the water. Wow. So the movie, the documentary, where can people see the documentary, The Dead Sea Guardians? Okay, so currently for the last actually four years, it's showing on festivals

[00:11:29] all over the world. People see something different. It allows them to see a different perspective and perceive it differently, the whole region and the people. Because up until now, you see these people through the lenses of CNN, BBC, Fox, and so on. But the movie allows you to take a different kind of angle. It makes a different discourse. It was here. It was shown here yesterday. In Miami. In Miami, yeah. And so if people want to get involved,

[00:11:59] what would they do? They will visit my website. It's deadseaguardians.org. Deadseaguardians.org. And the idea is to raise enough signatures to pressure the Israeli and Jordanian governments to open the dams. Open the dam. And let the water flow. That's your goal. And push forward solutions to help revive the whole region. And there are solutions. I'm looking for companies from the U.S., you know, really giant companies to get involved,

[00:12:28] have their tax deduction here in the U.S., and build a bridge. It's literally building kind of a, so to speak, a bridge between the nations, but looking at from an environmental and economic and a strategic perspective. Okay? Following the last year, I'm looking for this day after solution. Everybody's asking, what's your day after solution? I have one. Come and drink coffee with me at the Dead Sea. Let's look at it as a Marshall Plan. This is the Marshall Plan I'm looking forward.

[00:12:58] After 77 years of quarreling, this is a Marshall Plan. Yeah, I want everyone, the Americans, the Canadians, the Saudis, everyone, let's have a ball. I'll bring the coffee, the hummus, everything. Let's have a ball. Let's enjoy life. Life is extremely short. I know, the last year has proven the Jewish people don't need to prove that life is short, not the Israelis as well. So you see it with your own eyes and you say, how can we make a change for the better of the whole region?

[00:13:28] I love it. Join it. Join it. I love it. Believe me, once you'll come to Tel Aviv, you'll know why you made the right decision. Amen. You'll extremely enjoy the ride. Yes, I agree. Wherever you are from. Nobody's come to Tel Aviv and not said it was the most amazing city they visited. So just imagine if I'll take them to the Dead Sea. Take them to the Dead Sea. Well, all right, well, I'm coming. So deadseaguardians.org. Oded, you are amazing using swimming as your raising awareness message for whatever

[00:13:58] you set your sights to and now it's the Dead Sea and how to save the Dead Sea. Yama Melech as we say in Hebrew, the salt sea. The salt sea. The Dead Sea is done wrongly. It's a Latin thing because they say nothing grows there but there are bacteria and you know why it was used back then? The pharaohs used it to cover the mummies. That was the Bitcoin. There was a certain tar. It came all the way to take that tar, cover the mummies and preserve it and then for ships. So that way it's called the Dead. But no, it's just the salt sea.

[00:14:28] Amazing. You're a man with a mission and I really appreciate you being with me today on the Israeli Trailblazers podcast because you, Oded, are a trailblazer. Thank you so much, Jennifer. Thank you for listening. Be aware that the Dead Sea is shrinking and you can help. Go to Oded's website. He shared the mission of Tikkun Olam, a Jewish concept of repairing the world as another way to say it. If you found value in this episode,

[00:14:57] please share this episode about the Dead Sea with friends and post it on your social media. I'm your host, Jennifer Weissman. Until next time. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. You