CHAPTER 5: THE EMERGENCE OF AN ISRAELI ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT
1. Interview with Danny Rabinowitz, Maoz Aviv, September 30, 1997. [BACK]
2. Azariah Alon, “Position Paper of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel Regarding ‘Nesher's’ Demand to Establish a Quarry In the Heart of Carmel National Park,”Biosphera 73, no. 2 (1972): 1. [BACK]
3. Azariah Alon, “Nature Protection in Israel: Activities and Campaigns of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel,” unpublished manuscript, on file with author, 1997. [BACK]
4. Environmental Protection Service, “Conditions for a Quarrying Permit in Tamra-Kabul,”Environmental Quality (Jerusalem: Ministry of the Interior, 1977), p. 192. [BACK]
5. Yosef Lapid, “The Pelican Survey,”Maariv, August 20, 1992, Yoman Ma'ariv section. [BACK]
6. Eitan Gidalizon, personal communication, April 27, 2000; also Israel State Comptroller, “The Society for the Protection of Nature: Field Schools,” in “Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport,”The 47th Report of Israel's State Comptroller, 1997, p. 415. [BACK]
7. Shoshana Gabbay,The Environment in Israel (Jerusalem: Ministry of the Environment, 1995), p. 240. [BACK]
8. Brock Evans, personal communication, May 23, 1998. [BACK]
9. Ofer Regev,Forty Years of Blossoming (Tel Aviv: Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, 1993), p. 23. [BACK]
10. Interview with Uzi Paz, Ramat Efal, September 14, 1997. [BACK]
11. Interview with Amotz Zahavi, Tel Aviv University, December 18, 1997. [BACK]
12. Yosef Weitz, “The Redemption and Settlement of the Huleh Valley,” in The Huleh: An Anthology (Jerusalem: World Zionist Organization, 1954), pp. 114, 119. [BACK]
13. A. Zigelman and M. Gershuni, “The Flora and Fauna of the Huleh Valley,” in The Huleh: An Anthology (Jerusalem: World Zionist Organization, 1954), pp. 62–63. [BACK]
14. Ibid., pp. 62–99. [BACK]
15. Interview with Amotz Zahavi, Tel Aviv University, December 18, 1997. [BACK]
16. Regev,op. cit., p. 18. [BACK]
17. Interview with Uzi Paz, Ramat Efal, September 14, 1997. [BACK]
18. Interview with Heinrich Mendelssohn, Tel Aviv University, August 27, 1997. [BACK]
19. Haim Finkel, “The Hula Lake Project,”Jerusalem Post, June 1993. [BACK]
20. Regev,op. cit., p. 18. [BACK]
21. Alon,op. cit. [BACK]
22. In his memoirs, Simcha Blass claims that it was Pinhas Lavon, who served briefly as Minister of Agriculture, who made the fateful decision to go ahead with the project, explaining, “There's no way to leave the swamp when it's in our hands.” Simcha Blass,Water in Strife and Action (Givataim: Masada, 1973), p. 161. [BACK]
23. Interview with Heinrich Mendelssohn, Tel Aviv University, August 27, 1997. [BACK]
24. Ibid. [BACK]
25. See, for example, Boomi Toran's account of the February 25, 1953, meeting in Linda Zach,Boomi: To Collect Golden Moments, Publication of Kibbutz Mabarot, 1997, pp. 173–174. [BACK]
26. Alon,op. cit. [BACK]
27. Ibid. [BACK]
28. Interview with Amotz Zahavi, Tel Aviv University, December 18, 1997. [BACK]
29. Ibid. [BACK]
30. Regev,op. cit., p. 24. [BACK]
31. Ibid.; interview with Amotz Zahavi, Tel Aviv University, December 18, 1997. A decade later, after it joined forces with the natural history journal Teva V'Aretz, the number reached fifteen thousand. [BACK]
32. Zach,op. cit., pp. 173–174. [BACK]
33. Interview with Yoav Sagi, Tel Aviv, November 19, 1998. [BACK]
34. Regev,op. cit., p. 27. [BACK]
35. Uzi Paz,Eretz ha-Tsvi v'ha-Yael (Land of the Gazelle and the Ibex),I (Givataim: Masada, 1981), p. 42. [BACK]
36. Regev,op. cit., p. 27. [BACK]
37. Paz,op. cit., p. 42. [BACK]
38. Interview with Uriel Safriel, Sdeh Boqer, January 6, 1998. [BACK]
39. Ibid. [BACK]
40. Ibid. [BACK]
41. Interview with Azariah Alon, Kibbutz Beit ha-Shita, September 15, 1997. [BACK]
42. Interview with Uzi Paz, Ramat Efal, September 14, 1997. [BACK]
43. Interview with Amotz Zahavi, Tel Aviv University, December 18, 1997. [BACK]
44. Regev,op. cit., pp. 29–30. [BACK]
45. Shmuel Amir and Reuven Stern, “Involvement of Citizen Groups in Environmental Quality Protection,”Biosphera (1975): 8–12. [BACK]
46. Regev,op. cit., p. 31. [BACK]
47. Interview with Adir Shapira, Ramat Gan, December 18, 1997. [BACK]
48. Yizhar Smilansky,Divrei ha-Knesset, December 11, 1962, p. 419. [BACK]
49. Support is delivered mainly in the form of direct Ministry of Education payments to field school staff for educational trips. The figure is actually an understatement and does not include indirect subsidies, such as those arising from the use of the schools themselves by the SPNI. Israel State Comptroller, op. cit., p. 413. [BACK]
50. Interview with Benny Shalmon, Kibbutz Ketura, January 14, 1997. [BACK]
51. Ibid. [BACK]
52. Ibid. [BACK]
53. Interview with Uzi Paz, Ramat Efal, September 14, 1997. [BACK]
54. Interview with Azariah Alon, Kibbutz Beit ha-Shita, September 15, 1997. [BACK]
55. Alon,op. cit. [BACK]
56. Zach,op. cit., pp. 173–174. [BACK]
57. In a 1962 Knesset debate Ben-Gurion proclaimed: “We only have one Carmel in this land. It is necessary, in may opinion, to use the Knesset's au-thority to do for the Carmel what we must to safeguard the character of the land.”Divrei ha-Knesset, December 11, 1962, p. 474. [BACK]
58. Areas traditionally owned by neighboring Druze villages of Daliat al-Karmel and Usifiyah lay outside of the Park's boundaries, as were the lands of Kibbutz Beit Oren, a small sanitarium, military bases, and even a quarry run by the Nesher Cement plant. But the remaining 75 percent of the area in ques-tion was protected. [BACK]
59. Yoav Sagi, personal communication, January 7, 1999. [BACK]
60. Interview with Yoav Sagi, Tel Aviv, November 19, 1998. [BACK]
61. “Environmental Prize to Yoav Sagi,”Israel Environmental Bulletin 13, no. 3 (1990): 2–3. [BACK]
62. Interview with Danny Rabinowitz, Maoz Aviv, September 30, 1997. [BACK]
63. “Activities of the Society for the Protection of Nature Regarding the Power Station on the Sharon Coast,”Biosphera 72, no. 8 (1972): 15–17. [BACK]
64. Interview with Danny Morganstern, Tel Aviv, March 31, 1996. [BACK]
65. “Power Station, Nahal Taninim or Hadera,”Biosphera 72, no. 7 (1972): 5. [BACK]
66. Interview with Yoav Sagi, Tel Aviv, November 19, 1998. [BACK]
67. Ibid. [BACK]
68. Ibid. [BACK]
69. Regev,op. cit., p. 69. [BACK]
70. Interview with Adir Shapira, Ramat Gan, December 18, 1997. [BACK]
71. Danny Rabinowitz, “The Bird Man Flies Again,”Ha-Aretz, October 11, 1991, p. B-4. [BACK]
72. Orit Nevo, “Nature Knows No Borders,”Eretz v'Teva (May 1994): 8. [BACK]
73. Yossi Leshem, “Birds without Borders,”Teva ha-Dvarim 24 (October 1997): 40–68. [BACK]
74. Paz,op. cit., II p. 282. [BACK]
75. Regev,op. cit., p. 89. [BACK]
76. Interview with Yossi Leshem, London, September 21, 1997. [BACK]
77. Regev,op. cit., p. 90. [BACK]
78. Interview with Yossi Leshem, London, September 21, 1997. [BACK]
79. Regev,op. cit., p. 90. [BACK]
80. Interview with Yoav Sagi, Tel Aviv, November 19, 1998. [BACK]
81. Meron Benvenisti,Moment Magazine, February 1986, p. 24. [BACK]
82. Nahum Barnea, “The Fall of the Giants,”Yediot Ahronot, special sec-tion, “A New Land,” Independence Day edition, 1998, p. 10. It was only be-cause of his personal distaste for many of the Greater Israel movement's leadership (born of historical political rivalries) that Alon did not become more deeply involved. [BACK]
83. Interview with Yossi Leshem, London, September 21, 1997. [BACK]
84. Avner De-Shalit, “Where Environmentalists Hide,” in Our Shared Environment—The Conference 1994, ed. Robin Twite and Robin Menczel (Jerusalem: Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information, 1995), p. 273. [BACK]
85. Yoav Sagi, “Militevah,”Teva v'Aretz (May 1992): p. 30. [BACK]
86. Interview with Danny Rabinowitz, Maoz Aviv, September 30, 1997. [BACK]
87. Interview with Amotz Zahavi, Tel Aviv University, December 18, 1997. [BACK]
88. SPNI Director General's Office,Summary of Activities in the Society for the Protection of Nature,1997 (Tel Aviv: SPNI, 1998). [BACK]
89. Amit Shapira, personal communication, May 28, 1998. [BACK]
90. Yoav Sagi, personal communication, January 13, 1999. [BACK]
91. Gabbay,op. cit., p. 240. [BACK]
92. Regev,op. cit., p. 108. [BACK]
93. Interview with Lynn Golumbic, Haifa, November 24, 1997. [BACK]
94. Interview with Azariah Alon, Kibbutz Beit ha-Shita, September 15, 1997. [BACK]
95. Yoav Sagi, keynote address at the International Conference on the Role of Nongovernmental Organizations in Protecting the Environment, Eilat, Israel, March 21, 1994. [BACK]
96. SPNI Director General's Office,op. cit., p. 13. [BACK]
97. Interview with Lev Fishelson, Tel Aviv, September 28, 1997. [BACK]
98. Interview with Uriel Safriel, Sdeh Boqer, January 6, 1998. [BACK]
99. Yisrael Caspi, personal communication, December 13, 1997. [BACK]
100. Mickey Lipshitz, oral presentation, Law School Class, Tel Aviv University, December 11,1997. [BACK]
101. Ariella Ringle-Hoffman, Mordechai Gilat, and Meli Kritz, “They Don't Stop on Green,”Yediot Ahronot, December 12, 1997, Musaf Shabbat, pp. 12–15; Ariella Ringle-Hoffman, “Recorded Evidence: This Is How They Will Take Over the Society for the Protection of Nature,”Yediot Ahronot, December 26, 1997, pp. 1, 6; “Hostile Takeover Threat,”Ha-Aretz, December 15, 1997. [BACK]
102. Yisrael Caspi, personal communication, December 13, 1997. [BACK]
103. Emily Silverman, personal communication, May 28, 1998. [BACK]
104. Interview with Emily Silverman, Tel Aviv, September 14, 1997. [BACK]
105. Ibid. [BACK]
106. Ibid. [BACK]
107. CRB Foundation,Catalogue of Environmental Organizations in Israel (Tel Aviv: Adam Teva V'din, 1997), pp. 19–20. [BACK]
108. Eitan Gidalizon, personal communication, April 27, 2000. [BACK]
109. Eitan Gidalizon, personal communication, December 10, 1998. [BACK]
110. Orit Nevo, “170 Men and Women Guides in the Society for the Protection of Nature,”Teva v'Aretz 262 (1993): 12. [BACK]
111. Israel State Comptroller,op. cit., p. 423. [BACK]
112. Ibid. On average, SPNI guides were underemployed, idle 25 percent of the time, even though they were never expected to work more than 160 days a year. Field schools were often deserted on weekends. [BACK]
113. Part of the financial problem stems from the SPNI's substantive integrity. Schools prefer a lighter, more attraction-packed experience. The SPNI policy of two guides per bus rather than one is pedagogically sound, but twice as expensive. [BACK]
114. Israel State Comptroller,op. cit., p. 414. [BACK]
115. Eitan Gidalizon, personal communication, April 27, 2000; see also Israel State Comptroller,op. cit., p. 415. [BACK]
116. Ibid., p. 415. [BACK]
117. Interview with Lev Fishelson, Tel Aviv, September 28, 1997. [BACK]
118. Israel State Comptroller,op. cit., p. 413. [BACK]
119. Eitan Gidalizon, personal communication, April 1997. [BACK]
120. Corri Gottesman,Case Study of the Carmiel-Tefen Road: Management of an Environmental Conflict (Jerusalem: Environmental Protection Service, 1988). [BACK]
121. Interview with Valerie Brachya, Jerusalem, February 17, 1999. [BACK]
122. Tal Setzmeski, “The Voice of America Station in the Arava: Summary of Events,” unpublished paper, for the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, January 1997. [BACK]
123. Avner De-Shalit and Moti Talias, “Green or Blue and White? Environmental Controversies in Israel,”Environmental Politics 3 (Summer 1994): 274. [BACK]
124. Reuven Yosef, “Clues to the Migratory Routes of the Eastern Flyway of the Western Palearctics: Ringing Recoveries at Eilat, Israel,”Die Vogelwarte 39 (1997): 131–140. [BACK]
125. Letter from Yoav Sagi to Shimon Peres, May 13, 1985, on file with Yoav Sagi, Tel Aviv. [BACK]
126. Interview with Uriel Safriel, Sdeh Boqer, January 6, 1998. [BACK]
127. Yaakov Skolnik, “Save the Ashdod Sands,”Eretz Magazine, Winter 1991, pp. 10–12. [BACK]
128. Interview with Bilha Givon, Tel Aviv, November 25, 1997. [BACK]
129. The Central Arava Regional Council et al. v. the National Planning Board and the Tomer Project Council, Piskei Din, vol. 47, section 1 (1990), pp. 610–618. [BACK]
130. Interview with Bilha Givon, Tel Aviv, November 25, 1997. [BACK]
131. Azariah Alon and Yoav Sagi, “Cancel the Voice of America in the Arava,” SPNI flyer, January 1990. [BACK]
132. Yosef Lapid, “The Pelican Survey,”Maariv, August 2, 1992. [BACK]
133. The Central Arava Regional Council et al. v. the National Planning Board and the Tomer Project Council, Piskei Din, vol. 47, section 1 (1990), pp. 610–618. [BACK]
134. Interview with Valerie Brachya, Jerusalem, February 17, 1999. [BACK]
135. Interview with Yoav Sagi, Tel Aviv, November 19, 1998. [BACK]
136. “After reviewing the written materials that were submitted to us and the arguments of the attorneys of the [two] sides, we are convinced that the fol-lowing subjects were not checked in a sufficiently serious fashion by the National Planning Board: A) The dangers facing the birds from the nets of the Voice of America Transmission Station of the Arava… B) The change in the lo-cation of the IDF's firing zones… C) The possible noise and explosions from the location of the IDF firing zone.” Bagatz 3476/90, May 20, 1991, pp. 1–2. [BACK]
137. Berry Pinshow, personal communication, June 16, 1998. [BACK]
138. Idit Vitman, “Green Birds in the World,”Globes, September 4, 1992. [BACK]
139. Berry Pinshow and Ron Frumkin,Bird Migration Survey, Spring 1992, Ground Survey Report, Mitrani Center for Desert Ecology, Ben-Gurion University, Sdeh Boqer Campus, 1992. [BACK]
140. Elli Elad, “Migrating Bird Survey in the Negev Determines That Only a Few Individuals Will Be Injured by the Voice of America,”Ha-Aretz, August 16, 1992. [BACK]
141. Ben Caspit, “Forbes Is Coming to the Arava,”Maariv, October 27, 1992. [BACK]
142. “They Demonstrated in Jerusalem Against the Voice of America: The Land of Israel is Blossoming, We Won't Let It Go Bald,” Davar, August 25, 1992; “The Air Force Is Liable to Accidentally Bomb Arava Elementary Schools,”El ha-Mishmar, November 11, 1992. [BACK]
143. Elli Elad, “Protection of Nature: The Tomer Council Forged a Report About the Voice of America,”Ha-Aretz, October 16, 1992. [BACK]
144. “Namir: In the Question of the Voice of America, the Matter of Employment Can't Be Ignored,”Yediot Ahronot, August 19, 1992. [BACK]
145. Amir Rosenblit, “The Society for the Protection of Nature to Rabin: Don't Ignore the Supreme Court's Decisions,”Davar, December 29, 1992. [BACK]
146. “The Senate and Congress: To Freeze the Funds for the Voice of America,”Maariv, October 1, 1992. [BACK]
147. Interview with Bilha Givon, Tel Aviv, November 25, 1997. [BACK]
148. SPNI press release, May 3, 1993. [BACK]
149. Interview with Danny Morganstern, Tel Aviv, March 31, 1996. [BACK]
150. “Last Hope for the Jordan,”World Rivers (September/October 1991): pp. 13–14. [BACK]
151. Eran Solamon and Yoram Gabizon, “A Money Station at K'far ha-Nasi,”Ha-Aretz, June 3, 1992, p. C-1. [BACK]
152. De-Shalit and Talias,op. cit., p. 274. [BACK]
153. Yoav Sagi, personal communication, January 12, 1999. [BACK]
154. The Movement for Quality Government in Israel and Others v. the National Planning and Building Council and Others, Piskei Din, vol. 45 III, 1991, pp. 680–689. [BACK]
155. Ibid., pp. 680–689. [BACK]
156. De-Shalit and Talias,op. cit., p. 274. [BACK]
157. Interview with Danny Rabinowitz, Maoz Aviv, September 30, 1997. [BACK]
158. Interview with Mickey Lipshitz, Tel Aviv, January 8, 1998. [BACK]
159. Interview with Yoav Sagi, Tel Aviv, November 19, 1998. [BACK]
160. The Movement for Quality Government in Israel and Others v. the National Planning and Building Council and Others, Piskei Din, vol. 45 III, 1991, p. 688. [BACK]
161. David Rudge, “Electric Plant Inauguration Sparks Protest,”The Jerusalem Post, May 21, 1992. [BACK]
162. De-Shalit and Talias,op. cit., pp. 281–282. [BACK]
163. Zur Sheyzaf, “The River against the World,”Ha-Aretz, May 31, 1991. [BACK]
164. Elisha Efrat, personal communication, March 1994. [BACK]
165. Trans-Israel Highway Company, “1993 Was an Important Year for Drivers,” promotional material, 1999. [BACK]
166. Daniel Morganstern, “Don't Want Trans-Israel Highway,”Green, Blue and White (August 1999): p. 11. [BACK]
167. Adam Teva V'din, “Cross-Israel Highway or Cross-Israel Railway,” 1995. [BACK]
168. Yossi Brachman, Ilan Salomon, Eran Feitelson, and Danny Shefer,The Place of the Train in the Transportation System in Israel (Jerusalem: Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, 1993); see also Ilan Salomon and Eran Feitelson, “Israel: Transport on a Small Turbulent ‘Island State,’”A Billion Trips a Day, ed. I. Salomon, I. P. Bovy, and J. Orfeuil (Kluwer: Academic Publishers, The Hague, 1993). [BACK]
169. “Do We Need the Trans-Israel Highway?” debate between Alon Tal and Ilan Salomon,The Jerusalem Report, January 3, 2000, p. 56. [BACK]
170. Letter from Yoav Sagi to Alon Tal, July 1, 1993. [BACK]
171. DESHE Transportation Team,Summary of the Staff Position Regarding the Trans-Israel Highway (Highway 6), Revised and shortened version approved by DESHE Transportation Committee, June 1993. [BACK]
172. Initially,Adam Teva V'din and Others v. The National Planning Commission and Others, Bagatz 2920/94 Piskei Din 50(III)446; in 1999,
173. Amit Ashkenazi, “How to Direct Traffic to a Highway and Still Get Stuck,”Telegraph, October, 7, 1994, Dividend Supplement, p. 1. [BACK]
174. Interview with Yossi Sarid, Jerusalem, December 30, 1997. [BACK]
175. Orit Nevo, “More against Trans-Israel Highway,”Eretz v'Teva 47 (1997): 17. [BACK]
176. SPNI Director General's Office,op. cit. [BACK]
177. Ruth Sinai, “With a Tie and a Hat Against the Bulldozers,”Ha-Aretz, December 5, 1999, p. B-3. [BACK]
178. Bilha Givon, “A Law unto Itself,”Eretz Magazine (Winter 1993): p. 70; Seffi Ben Yosef, “Improvisers Out: The Dead Sea Yet Lives,”Teva v'Aretz 255 (1993), pp. 6–9. [BACK]
179. Yehudit Goren and Rinat Klein, “Severe Pollution in the Golan Streams,” Maariv, August 10, 1993; see also Alon Tal, “Pollution Prevention in the Kinneret Watershed through the Regulation of Animal Feedlots,” Proceedings from Pollution Prevention NGO Conference in Sfax, Tunisia, September 1994. [BACK]
180. Orit Nevo, “Down by the Seaside, Sifting Sand,”Eretz Magazine (Autumn 1963): p. 70; see also “Beach Clean Up Campaign,”Biosphera 22 no. 8–9 (1993): 31. [BACK]
181. Orit Nevo, “The Forum to Promote Trash Recycling,”Teva v'Aretz 256 (1993): 9. [BACK]
182. Avi Goren, “Hands off the Forest,”Green, Blue and White 3 (March 1995): 34–36. [BACK]
183. SPNI Director General's Office,op. cit., p. 7. [BACK]
184. “The Society for Preservation of Nature to the Supreme Court: The Water Commissioner Is Endangering the Kinneret,”Shomrei ha-Sviva 27 (October 2001): 4. [BACK]
185. Interview with Emily Silverman, Tel Aviv, September 14, 1997. [BACK]
186. Yoav Sagi offers a somewhat different perspective on the strategic ap-proach of SPNI during the 1980s and 1990s in his article “Militevah,”Teva v'Aretz (May 1992): 28–32. [BACK]
187. Interview with Amotz Zahavi, Tel Aviv University, December 18, 1997. [BACK]