Existing building plans for beachside construction will now be subject to reexamination, after the Ministerial Committee on Legislative Affairs approved an amendment to the 2004 Law for the Protection of the Coastal Environment on Sunday. Submitted by MK Dov Khenin (Hadash) and signed by 17 additional lawmakers, the text of the amendment was drafted by environmental advocacy group Adam Teva V’Din – Union for Environmental Defense and the legal clinic at Bar-Ilan University.
MK Khenin called the approval a significant step in protecting the coast of Israel, thanking his partners from the Beaches Forum and Adam Teva V’Din, as well as other environmental organizations and the general public, for the recent surge in support for the bill. “The passage of the coastal protection law is a significant step in protecting Israel’s coasts from initiatives that threaten to erode the few beaches we have left,” said Khenin, who is the chairman of the Knesset’s Joint Committee for Health and Environment. “Instead of struggling each time separately – in Palmahim, in Betzet, in Nahsholim, in Dor, in Nitzanim and in many other cases – the law will produce a widespread, professional and just solution.”
The amendment corrects a loophole in the original law, calling for a reexamination of beach-building plans approved before the law but still not yet executed. If the Committee to Save the Coastal Environmental (the ValHof) – also established in 2004 alongside the law – determines that the site of the scheduled plans constitutes a natural resource, the developer will need to move the project to a location slightly farther from the seashore, according to the new amendment. Last Tuesday, environmental activists had staged an emergency march from Tel Aviv City Hall to Bograshov Beach, in support of the amendment’s passage.
Related:
