A major highway, planned to link Israels peripheral northern and southern regions with the densely populated center, has aroused major opposition from the countrys environmentalists.
By Simon Griver
The Trans-Israel Highway is planned to become the nations longest road, stretching 324 kilometers from the Galilee in northern Israel to the Negev in the south. While the highway will physically divide the western coastal plain from the eastern hills, the proposed highway has already divided public opinion.
Yael Zotan, spokesperson of Civilians Against the Trans-Israel Highway, an environmentalist group set up to oppose the project, describes the highway as "a disaster which will transform large swathes of fields and forests into an asphalt jungle".
"Israel is not America," insists Zotan. "We simply do not have the space to lose. Our members are not "green freaks", but working people who do not want environmental destruction as part of our heritage."
Israels environmentalists are continuing the fight even as parts of the first central section some 90 kilometers of the highway is under construction. Scheduled for completion by 2004, the Trans-Israel Highway is being built by the Derech Eretz company on a "BOT" (Build, Operate and Transfer) basis, and will become the countrys first toll road.
With the majority of its 6.2 million residents living in the center of the country, Israel is one of the most densely populated states. As most of the coastal plain is already populated, there is a growing concern that the four-lane highway (scheduled to be widened to eight lanes in the future), together with the industrial, commercial and residential development that will inevitably follow, will further endanger a rapidly dwindling eco-system. The regions fauna and flora includes gazelles, turtles and dozens of species of birds and reptiles as well as a wide range of trees, shrubs and wild flowers.
Aryeh Shabtai, spokesman for the Trans-Israel Highway Company, disagrees. "The highway will not cause as many problems as the protest groups are saying," he claims. "Much of it is being built on government-owned land, which is not used for agriculture or inhabited by wildlife. We are investing $125 million for improving the environment and relocating any wildlife that is in danger. In addition, the highway will facilitate the commute further
north and south, thus easing the over-population in the center of the country."
While Israels environmentalist lobby is less conspicuous than its counterpart movements in North America and Western Europe, it is remarkably effective. A decade ago, for example, green groups won the battle to relocate a Voice of America relay station, planned in the Negev, elsewhere in the Middle East for fear that the radio waves would disturb the millions of birds migrating between Europe and Africa.
The opposition groups have proposed an alternative to the highway. "We must construct an efficient train system," explains Zoltan. "This highway will not solve any problems because it will simply lead into the grid-locked approaches to Tel Aviv. People will just reach the traffic jams faster."
Shabtai points out that the railway system is also undergoing major development. Moreover, he stresses, no major highway currently by-passes Greater Tel Aviv, compelling many north-south travelers to pass through the city unnecessarily.
With an annual growth of 2.5%, the population of Israel is predicted to reach 10 million in just 16 years, giving it little choice but to plan for major infrastructure expansion. Green movements may be a thorn in the side of developers, but they also play an invaluable role in minimizing some of the environmental damage.