After Herzliya explosion: Calls to halt housing plans

The massive explosion that occurred at the weekend near the coast in Herzliya alarmed tens of thousands of people who heard the explosion and felt the powerful shock waves.

But there are those for whom the eruption did not come as a surprise: those who for years warned of massive construction in this Don area by clearing and clearing the land. In their eyes, the explosion is another good reason why construction plans on the site were not carried out, and not only for that. There are already calls to delay other massive plans to build on polluted land.

The explosion occurred on Friday at what was the Israel Military Industries (IMI) site in Nof Yam. The cause of the explosion is still being investigated, but a more recent theory is that it was an underground build-up of gases, the result of various processes at the IMI plant when it was active at the site. Other reviews speak of large quantities of old gunpowder that, for some reason, caught fire.

The factory was on land that is part of the Apollonia plan site in Herzliya for the construction of 3,000 housing units. The plan began to be promoted in the 2000s and began to be implemented, but after another appeal by the Herzliya municipality, Adam Teva Din (Israel Federation for the Defense of the Environment) and others, the matter was heard again in the High Court of Justice which ordered the plan halted.

Adam Teva Dean said: “The state pledged to complete the land clearing by 2019, but the pledge was not fulfilled, and in the meantime a plan was promoted to build thousands of homes, as residents could have been exposed to risks such as the explosion that occurred over the weekend and it was from It is possible to avoid that explosion if the state fulfills its obligations.”

The Apollonia plan is not the only one in which thousands of housing units are to be built on contaminated land. IMI Hasharon is the largest in the center of the country: more than 35,000 units are planned to be built on the site of a former IMI factory. In Tel Aviv, near the Azrieli Towers, is the site of the former IMI Magen, where 1,100 housing units are planned; At Tel Hashomer, more than 10,000 units are planned on heavily polluted land; And in Haifa Bay, there is a massive plan for some 130,000 housing units in one of the most polluted areas in the country.

Now voices are rising again calling for stopping these plans. In the aftermath of Friday’s blast, Herzliya Mayor Moshe Fadlon, a leading opponent of the Apollonia project, warned of a “ticking time bomb” at the site, and Ramat Hasharon Mayor Avi Gruber called, not for the first time, for it to stop. Hasharon’s plan for IMI because of irresponsible and dangerous planning, as he put it, being “over the barrels of explosives.”

‘We’ve destroyed enough’

Any objection or legal action could delay construction plans for these sites for many years.

Clearing such heavily polluted land isn’t cheap—clearing the IMI Hasharon site is estimated to cost about NIS 2.3 billion—or fast. “Even the simplest rehabilitation would take decades,” says Ronnie Brill, a real estate appraiser and environmental consultant. “The brave people who demanded and obtained another hearing in the High Court of Justice on Plan Apollonia undoubtedly saved lives. In my opinion, sites like Apollonia and IMI Hasharon should not be appropriated.” For housing, or even for commerce or offices. They must remain open areas, at a much less dense level. There is no reason to touch these areas; we have destroyed them enough.”

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on June 25, 2023.

© Copyright Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2023.