Today, the Central District Court rejected the petition by Maoz Daniel Ltd. to allow the plan for the construction of a vacation village on Palmachim Beach to go ahead. The beach is about twelve kilometers south of Tel Aviv.
The plan aroused widespread opposition from environmental organizations and other groups, and the government itself decided to review the matter.
Judge Jacob Sheinman ruled that although the company, which in 2004 won a public tender for constructing a vacation village at Palmachim, had suffered from the unreasonably drawn out approval process for the plan and had sustained financial damage in the tens or even hundreds of millions of shekels, nevertheless, "acceding to the petitioners' request would be liable to be a source of regret for generations to come and a cause of irreparable damage."
"There is no doubt that all the respondent who oppose approval of the plan and the construction of a vacation village in the current format and at the current location do so out of important, weighty and relevant considerations, and among other things because they believe that the State of Israel is poor in beaches, and that the Palmachim Beach is one of the last in Israel that remains in its natural state, hence the importance of preserving it as open space for the benefit of the public and of future generations," the judge said.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 8, 2014
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