The Interior Ministry has decided to terminate their long-established representation in the country’s foremost planning commission forums. Petitions to the High Court of Justice against this are already in the pipeline.
The environmental organizations contend that their absence would inevitably deny ordinary Israelis a voice on what might be constructed in their vicinity and that the needs of nature would be subordinated to the interests of tycoons and shortsighted urban expansion.

MK Dov Khenin during an environmental meeting at the Tel-Aviv’s coast, May 12, 2014 (Photo: Zalul)

But their presence on the planning commission is still of vital interest to the citizens. MK Dov Khenin (Hadash), the head of the parliamentarian environmental coalition, has warned that the streamlining of the planning forums will not be allowed because “we will go to court to stop plans to which we object. Procedures will hence take far longer rather than be shortened.”