The debate over the 22-year old Achziv Beach development project continued to rage on at the Knesset last Tuesday, February 14. The Knesset’s Interior and Environmental Protection Committee met in the hopes of getting the project rejected, or at least reformulated.

MK Khenin: “I’m also for saving the Achziv Beach.” (Photo: Citizens Committee for Save the Achziv Beach)

The original plan, approved in 1994, called for hotels and 1,600 single-unit homes to be built on a 30-hectare plot of land adjoining Achziv Beach near Nahariya, northern Israel. Most of the planned units border the beach, and some are only 100 meters away from the shoreline of the Mediterranean Sea. Furthermore, part of the development would be only 300 meters away from an asbestos factory. Thus in 2014 the Haifa District Court called for planners and local authorities to reconsider the project.

Joint List MK Dov Khenin (Hadash) said the Achziv plan contradicts the country’s coastal protection laws, as well as the National Master Plan, known as Tama 35, that is meant to guide the country’s spatial development for the next two decades.

Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel representative Liran Shapira told the committee that the Achziv Beach plan must be frozen until it can be reformulated. “It is a very old plan and no longer suits today’s reality,” he said. He stressed the importance of protecting every centimeter of the northern coast. “This plan, as is, would harm every effort to protect this extremely unique natural resource.” Eli Ben Ari, a legal adviser for Adam Teva V’Din – Israel Union for Environmental Defense, called the beachfront construction plan absurd. “It is in the national interest for this project to not be carried out,” he urged.