38 Facts About Alon Tal

Alon Tal is an Israeli politician, academic and environmentalist.

Alon Tal was born on July 12,1960, and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, as Albert Rosenthal.

Alon Tal was active in the Young Judaea youth movement, served on its national executive board, and participated in its Israel program in 1977.

Alon Tal changed his name to Alon Tal after making aliyah to Israel and becoming an Israeli citizen.

Alon Tal served in the Nahal paratrooper division and saw action in the 1982 First Lebanon War.

In 1986, Alon Tal returned to the US and enrolled in the Harvard School of Public Health, where he studied Environmental Science and Public Policy.

Alon Tal returned to Israel in 1989 and settled at Kibbutz Ketura with his wife Robyn.

In 1996, Alon Tal founded the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies at Kibbutz Ketura, an advanced academic program that brings together Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians and international students.

Since then, Alon Tal has served as one of the Green Zionist Alliance's Israeli representatives.

Between 2004 and 2015 Alon Tal served on the international board of the Jewish National Fund, Israel's forestry and land reclamation agency, as an elected representative of the Green Zionist Alliance, in partnership with the Conservative Movement.

Alon Tal was appointed chair of the JNF's subcommittee for sustainability, which in 2005 drafted new policies for the organization's forestry, reservoirs and stream restoration program.

In 2006, Alon Tal was appointed chair of the Land Development Committee, which oversees the JNF's forestry and land restoration work.

Alon Tal helped bring together 15 Israeli and 15 Palestinian water experts to consider specific areas of agreement and disagreements in regional water management, which was published in the 2010 book Water Wisdom.

Alon Tal won the Charles Bronfman Prize for young humanitarian leadership in 2006, and used the prize money to establish the Alon Tal Fund, which supports grassroots Israeli environmental activism.

Alon Tal received Israel's Environment Ministry's lifetime achievement award as a 48-year-old, in honor of Israel's 60th anniversary in 2008.

Alon Tal has remained active in a range of environmental advocacy initiatives, including preparation of proposed biodiversity protection legislation and involvement in public interest litigation.

Alon Tal was a plaintiff in the successful, 2014 class action suit following the massive oil spill in Israel's Ein Evrona nature reserve, that sought to cover the damage caused by negligence on the part of the Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Company.

In March 2018, along with colleagues in academia and attorney Tzvi Levinson, Tal filed another class action against polluting chemical factories located on the Rotem plain, based on the massive contamination of the underlying groundwater and the resulting polluting of the pristine Boqeq stream in the Dead Sea region.

Alon Tal taught at the Tel Aviv University Law School from 1990 until 2004.

Alon Tal's research has focused on water policy, monitoring transboundary stream water quality, assessing the Israeli government's environmental enforcement program, evaluating national environmental education programs, forestry policy, surveying Israel's environmental movement and assessing a range of environmental history and policy issues.

Alon Tal has been a visiting professor or affiliated with numerous universities including the Harvard School of Public Health ; University of Otago Law School ; Stanford University Center for Conservation Biology ; Michigan State University and Renmin University of China.

In 2017, Alon Tal returned to Tel Aviv University to assume the position of Chair of the Department of Public Policy.

Alon Tal chaired five consecutive conferences, most recently in 2014.

In 2008, Alon Tal was among the founders of the Green Movement, which ran in the 2009 Knesset elections on a joint ticket with Meimad.

In 2010, Alon Tal was elected chair of the party and began promoting a broad social and environmental agenda.

Alon Tal successfully sponsored an initiative to ensure gender equality in the party, ensuring parallel female and male party co-chairs.

Alon Tal was placed 13th on the party list and oversaw the party's environmental platform.

In 2019, Alon Tal joined Benny Gantz's new "Kahol Lavan Hosen LeYisrael" party and was placed 25th on the Knesset list; following the merger with Yesh Atid he was ultimately placed 45th on the slate.

Alon Tal is a regular contributor to the Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs and a former board member of the Israel Council on Foreign Relations.

Alon Tal's articles have focused on global climate change and Israeli politics.

In June 2021 Alon Tal entered the Knesset when members from the 36th Government temporarily resigned their seats to serve as ministers in the new government.

Alon Tal was recognized by Shakuf, an Israeli organization that promotes good government as one of the five most diligent members of the twenty-fourth Knesset and Israel's leading parliamentarian in bi-partisan initiatives.

Alon Tal was one of Israel's first advocates favoring a national policy to reduce population growth as a precondition to a sustainable future.

Alon Tal called attention to population growth as early as 2002, in Pollution in the Promised Land, his survey of environmental history in Israel:.

In 2015, along with Professor Eyal Rotenberg from the Weizmann Institute, Tal founded the non-profit organization "Zafuf" - the Israel Forum for Demography, Environment and Society.

Alon Tal has since written widely in the Israeli and the international press about the perils of overpopulation in Israel and the world.

Alon Tal was listed in the 24th slot on the National Unity party list.

Alon Tal was not re-elected as the party won 12 seats and left office on 15 November 2022.