March 2007

 

Plans to build an international airport a quarter mile offshore from north Tel Aviv are currently being discussed by an inter-ministerial committee. The proposed airport-island is envisaged as the first in a series of five artificial islands along the central Israel coast between Bat Yam and Netanya.

 

At stake: The future of Israel's tranquil Mediterranean waters and sandy beaches. Yet this major project is proceeding with virtually no public discussion or input.

 

Before the airport-island scheme gains irreversible momentum, IUED is urging full exploration of terrestrial alternatives, including direct development costs, environmental impacts, and feasibility of rail transport links to population centers.

  

Misplaced zeal

 

The proposed island airport will lie just offshore from residential neighborhoods in North Tel Aviv. Construction costs are estimated at $3 billion. The island would release land at the nearby Sde Dov domestic airport for real estate development and serve as Israel’s second international airport.

 

 

A locus of concrete, noise and congestion

 

The airport island will not only deprive the public of scarce open beachfront, but will also spoil the Mediterranean vista for miles with the incessant spectacle – and noise – of large aircraft swooping in and out of a massive concrete edifice adjacent to neighborhoods, commercial areas, and cultural centers.

 

Complementary feeder highways, interchanges and parking lots onshore will only add to the discomfort, environmental degradation, and visual blight, as well as compound air pollution in an area already afflicted by health-threatening emissions from dense traffic and a major power plant.

 

Offshore construction means forfeiting a dream

 

Israel’s 120 miles of Mediterranean shore are a national treasure that cannot be quantified in market terms. Much of that shore is sandy beach that regularly attracts 70 percent of Israel’s population for weekend relaxation.

 

These beaches depend for their continuing renewal on Nile Delta sand washed up by natural currents. Sedimentologists warn that artificial islands will block this flow, and that huge quantities of sand will have to be brought in by trucks or barges to compensate.

 

Herzliya, just north of Tel Aviv, has already seen its beaches dwindle by 30 percent since the construction of a marina a decade ago. Deprived of its migratory sand, the shoreline north of Tel Aviv will suffer a similar fate, to be followed by erosion of the dramatic sandstone cliffs that stretch along the coast.

 

Most Mediterranean countries value their seashores for their beauty and as a draw for domestic and international tourism. Building artificial islands will gravely damage Israel’s realization of this dream.

 

 

 

Waking up the public - IUED's professional study

 

Though the government has budgeted millions of dollars for feasibility studies on artificial islands, there has been no public debate. Feasibility studies are continuing and planning proceeds towards construction of the first island.

 

Because the public has a right to voice informed opinion, IUED published a 48-page professional study (in Hebrew), which was distributed to the public, Knesset Members, relevant local authorities and planning bodies, and other stakeholders.  We also distributed over 20,000 information leaflets to households in North Tel Aviv and Herzliya.

 

The study details the potential for environmental damage to teh coastline, and calls for public debate of the overall quality of life impact the islands would pose.

·         The airport island opposite Tel Aviv is only the first; four upscale residential islands – a private developers’ pot of gold – are next in line.

·         Other possible sites to supplement Ben-Gurion International Airport, including an existing airport at Haifa and a new site in the northern Negev, have yet to be fully explored.

·         No provision for artificial islands and related construction has been made in the 2020 Master Plan, the strategy guiding Israel’s development over the next two decades.

·         Nowhere else do man-made islands exist in open-sea conditions. A similar attempt to construct an airport island off the coast of France was abandoned.

·         Depending on its size, 4-10 million truckloads of fill material will be dredged from the seabed to create the first island, destroying extensive marine habitats.

·         The continued natural flow of Nile Delta sands is essential to the survival of Israel’s Mediterranean beaches.

·         The plan goes against transport trends in Europe and the U.S., where major airports are now built well away from cities, with direct high-speed rail links to population centers.