The cabinet on Sunday established an inter-ministerial committee to consider the
practicality of expanding the country not through annexing the West Bank, but
rather through building artificial islands off the coast.
“Our state is
small and crowded,” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the
cabinet. “Therefore, the idea of artificial islands has spatial, economic
and security logic for us. It is also of value regarding environmental
protection. There is no doubt that this entails many opportunities for the State
of Israel.”
The idea of building artificial islands to house major
infrastructure projects, such as power plants, desalination plants, recycling
stations, wind energy farms, an airport or a military testing facility, has been
bandied about for years. But now a steering committee has been
established to conduct thorough evaluations of both the feasibility and
environmental impacts of the idea.
After conducting evaluations, the
committee must present its recommendations to the prime minister within a
year.
“The construction of artificial islands can solve the land shortage
problem for the establishment of large infrastructural facilities,” said Science
and Technology Minister Daniel Hershkowitz, who initially proposed the
idea.
“The solution of artificial islands provides an answer for the
establishment of large infrastructural facilities that otherwise would be
erected on a beach and take up valuable space and thereby harm the environment.
We will examine experience accumulated in various countries and thusly new and
original technologies.”
The committee, to be chaired by Science and
Technology Ministry Director-General Menachem Greenblum, will include
representatives from the Prime Minister's Office, the security establishment, as
well as from the national infrastructures, finance, environmental protection,
interior and transportation ministries. In addition to governmental
participants, the committee will also include representatives from environmental
organizations, as well as hydrologists and other field experts, according to the
ministry.
The committee will be examining a number of different
engineering options for such islands, such as creating a floating island versus
an island on stilts, and will generate an environmental impact assessment for
each solution. To accomplish its tasks, the committee has a budget of NIS 3
million, and the total construction cost of a 200-hectare island is estimated to
be approximately $1.5 billion, the ministry said.
While new to Israel,
the plan to build in the sea is not completely revolutionary, as other such
projects do exist elsewhere in the world. For instance, Japan has built floating
airports, including Kansai International Airport in Osaka Bay, built on a
four-kilometer long artificial island linked to the mainland by a
three-kilometer bridge.
Last year, the security cabinet discussed a plan
to build a 2-kilometer- by-4-kilometer artificial island 4.5 kilometers off the
coast of Gaza, where the territory’s exports and imports would be processed.
This island would include a port and an airport. Israel has adamantly opposed
opening a harbor or airport in Gaza because of security concerns.
In
response to the government’s interest in artificial islands, Adam Teva V'Din
(Israel Union for Environmental Defense) warned that these would not be islands
with beautiful palm trees and sunny shores. Rather, they would contain
industrial platforms that block ocean waves and create a nuisance to the
landscape, meanwhile causing permanent damage to the Israeli coast. Adam Teva
V'Din representatives had been part of the initial government team that had
examined the issue of artificial islands several years ago, the organization
said.
“For building an island like the intended one in Israel, there is
no precedent in the world,” said Yael Dori, head of planning at Adam Teva
V'Din.
“The chief source of uncertainty about the planned island is
establishing it against the coast of Israel, an operation that would be a first
case in the world known to us, of planning to build an artificial island in an
open and stormy sea.”
Most artificial islands around the world,
particularly those in Japan, serve for aviation and other purposes but are
strategically placed within bay areas that are protected from outside
environments, Dori explained. Both in Japan and in Holland, centers of expertise
on artificial islands, the governments has not allowed islands to be built on
the open seas, according to Dori.
That being said, Adam Teva V'Din has no
problem with the issue being examined again, as long a real, thorough
examination of all the environmental implications of such a plan occurs, a
spokeswoman from organization said. The government’s previous survey on the idea
failed to conduct a comprehensive investigation of such
consequences.
“The dangers ambushing the marine environment of Israel,
like artificial islands and like gas and oil drilling in ocean environments,
require the establishment of a national authority for sea management,” said Adam
Teva V'Din executive director, Amit Bracha, prior to the cabinet vote on
Sunday.
Such an authority, in Bracha's eyes, “would examine, supervise
and make decisions regarding the existence of marine infrastructure, and the
only interests that would guide it would be the environmental and public
interests.”
|