In March this year, the JTA published a Breaking News story regarding nominations and voting for sites to be included among the New 7 Wonders of Nature.
At that stage, three Israeli sites were identified as having been nominated. According to the story:
As of Tuesday, the Dead Sea was in 38th place, the Ein Gedi oasis was in 97th place and the Rosh Hanikra rock formation was in 168th place.
Given the amount of effort that was put into the voting campaign to get Jerusalem on the Monopoly board (with or without its country designation), I was surprised that nothing similar was done for the New 7 Wonders of Nature.
In my opinion, all the Israeli environmental organisations should be encouraging the Israeli and Diaspora Jewish public to register and vote for the Israeli sites. Being designated a New 7 Wonders of Nature site (or even one of the 21 finalists) is sure to give a much needed boost to the struggle to preserve these unique sites for posterity.
In order to vote for the existing sites (or even nominate another site not yet considered), first register on the New7Wonders website. Only minimal details are required in order to register, and the registration is not effective until you action a confirmation e-mail. Registration and voting can be done simultaneously, and you are required to vote for seven sites (even if you’re interested in only a few). I selected the following in order of preference. The current ranking (where applicable) is shown in brackets.
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Dead Sea, Lake (35)
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Ein Gedi, Oasis (13)
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Rosh Hanikra, Rock Formation
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Red Sea Reef
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Mount Sinai, Mountain
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Cedars of Lebanon, Nature Conservancy Park
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Wadi Rum, Desert (62)
Predictably, most of the sites are listed under Asia, with the Red Sea Reef and Mount Sinai being listed under Africa. The sites are divided under Israel proper, the PA, Egypt, Jordan and the Lebanon.
The whole voting procedure for the New 7 Wonders of the World can be best understood by referring to this flowchart from the New7Wonders website:
Voting procedure for the New7Wonders of Nature
Please use the Tell a Friend button liberally to ensure that as many Holy Land sites as possible will make it to the shortlist, thereby hopefully attracting more conservation energy to both the sites themselves and broader environmental concerns in Israel.
Links/Reading/Resources:
- Israeli sites nominated as natural wonders
- Vote Jerusalem on the Monopoly Board!
- New7Wonders: Welcome to New7Wonders
- The Dead Sea is looking good for a place as one of the 7 Natural Wonders
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