Hi... it's just me.
N. BENAMI/MEDIA
Yes, but you didn't
tell me why.
Remember
September 13th?
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I really shouldn't say
anything, but... it's
THE PARTY!
Part of the highway system In Israel.
Making Elbowroom
milimimminimmummiummiimmimmimmummiummti
Route 6 is Israel's environmental issue of the
moment — and for some time to come.
Soon, I promise.
Don't keep me
waiting too long!
Bye.
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DETROIT CHAPTER
AMERICAN TECHNION SOCIETY - ISRAEL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
29645 W. FOURTEEN MILE HORD • FFITIMIFIGTOH HILLS, MI • 810 737-1990
THE DETROI T J EWISH NEWS
JAMES R. SARAN, President
LAWRENCE A. BERRY, Chairman of the Board
ISAAC LAKRITZ. Executiue Director
22
LARRY DERFNER ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT
A
lthough one might not
know it from afar, terrible
dilemmas and controver-
sies face Israel that, at
least today, have nothing to do
with Arabs or high politics:
Bread-and-butter, quality-of-life
issues, the kind that the country
face even after (or, maybe, espe-
cially after), the peace process-
finally is settled.
By the year 2010, Israel will be
a tiny country — possibly a bit
smaller than it is now — with a
population of about 7 million-plus
— 2 million more than it cur-
rently has. It will have not the
present 1.3 million vehicles on
the roads — which already are
the most crowded of any country's
in the world — but maybe dou-
ble that number. How will Is-
raelis live without paving over
the little greenery that remains
without suburbanizing the few,
modest getaway spots remaining
in this claustrophobic hotbox of
a country?
That is where the Trans-Israel
Highway — Route 6 — comes in.
The highway is planned to
stretch 180 miles down the spine
of the country. It will run from
near the Lebanese border in the
north all the way past Beershe-
ba in the Negev Desert. If com-
pleted, it will likely be the largest
infrastructure project in Israel's
history.
Construction of the critical cen-
tral stretch could start in a few
months. Or near the beginning
of next year. Or it could stall due
to bureaucratic pile-ups and legal
challenges. But Route 6 is ap-
proaching in the near distance.
And it's Israel's environmental
issue of the moment, and for
some time to come.
The Society for the Protection
of Nature in Israel, the country's
largest and strongest environ-
mental organization, would like
to stop the highway from being
built.
"Even if it looks like a lost
cause, we're not giving up," said
SPNI's Amit Shapira.
As a fall-back position, SPNI
and other environmental groups
are trying to keep Route 6 shorter
and narrower, to prevent it from
eating up open land, to divert it
from forests, nature reserves,
hills and farms.
It's not only the highway that
scares the environmentalists. It's
also the prospect of seeing land
alongside Route 6 bulldozed for
minimarts, gas stations and
housing projects.
`The Trans-Israel Highway, in
its present design, would turn Is-
rael into one sprawling urban
and suburban bloc," Mr. Shapira
said.
The government is steadily
appropriating farmland from
kibbutzim, moshavim and agri-
cultural villages to make way for
Route 6, and fanners are protest-
ing. Recently, members of one
moshav ran government survey-
ors off their land.
But the farmers don't want to
stop the highway: They're just
afraid they won't get good enough
compensation, either in money or
development rights on the prop-
erty to build gas stations and
minimarts themselves. Agricul-
ture is a losing business, and
farmers and kibbutzniks, many
with huge debts, aren't especial-
ly sentimental anymore about the
old, hard soil.
Proponents of Route 6, who in-
clude virtually all the decision-
makers in Israel, insist the
highway will hardly touch forests
and nature parks. It is being
built, they say, to ease the cata-
strophic traffic congestion in the
central Dan Region surrounding