by Pincas Jawetz (PJ@SustainabiliTank.info)
Tel Aviv, Israel, December 19, 2005

In Israel, like in many other enlightened States, it seems that the citizenry, as represented by local governments, is miles ahead of the country government when it comes to environmental issues.

Peer Visner, Israeli Green Party Chairman, and Tel Aviv Deputy Mayor In Charge of Environmental Projects Development, has managed to cobble together a pact to decrease air pollution that includes twelve municipalities and one one rural Regional Commission of the Metropolitan Tel Aviv area. I participated today at the signing ceremony of above pact. It was held in an area attached to the Tel Aviv City-Hall.

At the top of the document space was left for the signature of the present caretaking Environment Minister who is Israel’s Prime Minister. He is now in a hospital for a mild stroke and Mr. Visner promissed to go over and get his signature. Eleven of the thirteen heads of local government were present, so was present the Director General of the Environment Ministry.

The highschool age scouts sang about peace and that there shall be no more war, Mr. Visner likened problems of the environment to terrorism, and Ron Hulday, the Mayor of Tel Aviv, said that when he talks about the environment he thinks about his one and a half year old grand-daughter - “there is a natural right to breeze clean air - it is important that people get up and say we must act.” On water treatment the Metropolitan Tel Aviv area is spending now 1.5 billion Sheckel, which is about $330 million. For the new pact on air pollution, the initial budget to further the Pact was set at a yearly $1 million to be apportioned between the municipalities.

Among the many points of the Pact, I am mentioning the acknowledgement that air pollution does not recognize municipal borders, and that definitive and clear goals will be set in order to decrese air pollution to a recognized standard in ten years. There will be a clear preference given to “green” public transportation over private vehicles in the Metropolitan area - a future efficient and integrative system.
There will be a safe possibility to use bicycles, and there will be given assistance to switch to clean fuels, and technologies that do not pollute in transportation and in business.

The signing event followed a full day of technical presentations of which I attended only the presentation by the Deputy Head of the Air Quality Office at the Ministry of Environment who showed among other things an astonishing statistics - 1100 last year, in the Tel Aviv region, of cases of death blamed on air pollution.

The Israel Union for Environmental Defense (IUED) can be reached at www.Yarok.org.il

Peer Visner can be reached at visner_p@mail.tel-aviv.gov.il