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Reporter: NGOs blast Sharonï¿½s new plans for building in the Galilee and Negev
Ina Friedman

Israeli planning and environmental NGOs are slamming the government's design to build up to 30 new towns, villages and private farms, mostly in the rural Galilee and Negev. The Prime Minister's Office says the plan, reported in mid-July, is aimed at strengthening Israel's hinterland, but the critics score it as detrimental to the nation's economy, social needs and environment -- and as a blatant violation of the government's declared planning policy.

"The plan to build these settlements reflects the government's outrageous order of priorities," says Shuly Hartman of Bimkom -- Planners for Planning Rights, a watchdog professional association. "The Treasury is crying that its coffers are bare and it cannot meet the needs of public hospitals or welfare recipients. Our cities are steadily losing their middle-class tax base to the suburbs. The Interior Ministry is trying to cut costs and streamline services by merging local town authorities," she argues, "Yet the Prime Minister's Office is choosing to aggravate all these problems by pouring funds into new communities that will serve relatively few citizens -- and essentially those who are better off -- at the expense of our weaker populations, urban-renewal projects, badly needed mass-transportation facilities, and Israel's open spaces."

Even if such new communities were to woo West Bank and Gaza settlers back over the Green Line, say critics, their drawbacks would far outweigh their benefits. Yet the government does not claim that this is the aim of the plan. "Housing Minister Effi Eitam has made it clear that its purpose -- including fencing off large tracts of land for individual farms -- is primarily to prevent Israeli Arabs, especially Beduin, from encroaching on state lands," says Hartman. "If there's a problem in this regard, the solution is to approach the needs of the Arab population in a rational way -- by finally drawing up zoning plans that will address their present and future needs -- not to build fences."

The strongest objection to the plan, made by both planners and environmentalists, however, is that it contradicts the principles established in the National Zoning Plan of 1993 -- reiterated in the Israel 2020 Master Plan -- which call for concentrating, rather than dispersing, Israelï¿½s population to maintain land reserves for future growth and protect Israelï¿½s open spaces. A position paper on new settlements recently issued by the Society for the Protection of Nature (SPNI) stresses that these master plans require the "rehabilitation, saturation and rebuilding of existing urban areas, along with the bolstering of mass-transportation systems." Even if extended construction proves necessary, it should be done "directly alongside existing built-up areas, rather than creating new points of development in the heart of open areas."

Beyond adding to traffic congestion, air pollution and even the contamination of the country's ground water, the SPNI paper asserts, small communities continue to be a drain on economic resources after their initial development costs. SPNI cites a Treasury study showing that the state spends almost twice as much per capita on citizens living in communities of less than 3,000 residents (6,300 shekels a year) as it does on urban residents (3,500 shekels).

Reporter