"The Israeli government has declared war on a third of the people of this country," said Haifa mayor Yona Yahav this morning in response to a report released last week on the high incidence of cancer attributable to air pollution in the Haifa Bay area "All the entrances to the petrochemicals works have been blocked," Yahav said, adding "We are issuing revocations of licenses to all the plants, and we shall halt the supply of fuels and ammonia in Israel. As far as I'm concerned, when there's a doubt, then there's no doubt. We are on the side of the children, and we demand to know the true figures. This is a war, and all's fair in war."
Yahav added that an emergency team had been set up at the Haifa municipality. "The State of Israel cannot abandon the health of the residents of Israel," he said, "We have made a drastic decision, and we are taking matters into our own hands and not waiting for the government. Our children are not hostages. We will take any action necessary. Someone in the Ministry of Health published a terrible document. We do not have the tools to carry out research and we do not run the country's health system, but the figures oblige us to take this action."
Environmental activist Hanna Kuperman said in response to Yahav's statement, "The mayor is a media wizard. This is game for disseminating untrue information. It's media spin. If he really wanted to stop what's happening, he should have gone to the National Planning Council and stopped the plans to expand Oil Refineries, and other plans."
About a hundred environmental activists and Haifa residents held a protest meeting yesterday, under the banner "A memorial rally and torch lighting in memory of the victims of air pollution in Haifa Bay", in reference to Israel's Holocaust Day and Memorial Day that fall at this time.
The demonstrators wore masks representing those they claimed were responsible for the air pollution in Haifa, and called for a halt to the plans to expand petrochemical plants in the Haifa Bay area. They held a minute's silence for patients ill from air pollution, and called on the prime minister to take immediate action. They also called on Yahav to resign as mayor, and said that this was the first step in a renewed public campaign and that further demonstrations would be held in the coming weeks, alongside greater activity in planning committees and in the Knesset.
Inbar Shaked-Daliot, spokesperson for the Green Course environmental organization, said today, "Public awareness is growing, but the authorities the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of the Environment, and the Haifa municipality - still fail to take responsibility, and the health of the residents of metropolitan Haifa is at risk. For a change, instead of just publishing reports, let them apply the lessons on the ground, remove the environmental hazard known as Oil Refineries from Haifa, and stop the expansion plans and the construction of the new fuels port."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 19, 2015
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