‘Golan Druse citizenship applications increasing’As civil war rages and intensifies in Syria, raising doubts about the future of President Bashar Assad, data from the Population, Immigration and Borders Authority is showing a dramatic increase in the number of Druse residents of the Golan Heights applying for Israeli citizenship, the NRG website reported last week.Among the approximately 20,000 Golan Druse residents, centered in Majdal Shams, only several hundred accepted citizenship after Israel annexed the mountain region in 1982. The remainder retain Syrian citizenship.Residents whom NRG interviewed speculated that the increase in applications was a result of Assad’s unknown fate. Many Druse in the Golan are supporters of the embattled Syrian president, who has long supported them.Whereas only a handful of applications for citizenship have been filed in recent years, PIBA said dozens had been filed in recent months, according to the report. When Golan Druse first received an offer of citizenship in 1982, local community leaders threatened to ostracize those who accepted it.The recent uptick, one resident told NRG, is taking place mostly among young residents. “People are reaching the conclusion that Israeli citizenship is better than citizenship of Syria, a country that kills its own citizens.”CENTER TA in the running for Most Innovative CityTel Aviv-Jaffa was nominated in a competition by the Wall Street Journal and CitiBank for the world’s Most Innovative City. Tel Aviv was one of 25 worldclass cities nominated, including New York, London, Berlin, Chicago, Singapore, Hong Kong, Sao Paulo, Toronto, Vienna and Copenhagen.Voting concluded on October 5. The three finalists, selected 50 percent by public voting and 50% by the Urban Land Institute, will be announced October 25 in the November issue of the Wall Street Journal Magazine. The final selection, which will be entirely by public voting, will be announced in late January 2013. Voting is taking place on the Wall Street Journal’s website.
SPNI files objection to Holon sand-dune project The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel filed an objection against the Holon Municipality’s plans to build residential, commercial and industrial projects on a plot of sand dunes in the city, the Local website reported. The project would see some 12,900 housing units and 930,000 square meters of industrial space built.The SPNI said it did not oppose the plan, according to the report, but cited an ecological review by Dr. Oded Cohen that said “the section that will be preserved as a natural sand-dune park will not be enough to sustain the unique natural biological ecosystem at the location.” Therefore, the ecological review suggested, the size of the nature reserve planned at the location should be doubled from 40 hectares to 80 hectares for the benefit of local residents and wildlife.Describing the sand dunes as one of the last and largest of their kind in the Tel Aviv area, the SPNI wrote to the Central Planning Committee, “The sand-dune area is on the land covered by the plan and is a natural resource that is rare at a national level and is of great importance at the local level,” according to Local. The trend of development in the Tel Aviv area and in the center of the country “endangers the ecosystems and habitats with rich populations of plants and animals, some of which are endangered.”The SPNI asked the committee to find a way to increase the size of the sand-dune reserve, including reducing the size of the planned development.
Petah Tikva hotel explosion wounds oneAn explosion in a Petah Tikva hotel lobby moderately to critically wounded a 30-year-old man overnight Saturday.Firefighters and MDA workers were called to the scene, and the man was taken to the city’s Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus. Police investigating the incident suspect the explosion’s cause was a grenade or bomb as a revenge attack by local criminal elements. The investigation was ongoing.
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Police crack down on off-roaders in AshkelonSpecial police units conducted a large-scale operation against dangerous all-terrain vehicles and off-road motorists in Ashkelon last week, targeting what they described as dangerous activities, the Local website reported. The operation focused on a path in the city, adjacent to a quarry, which is often used as a motocross course.Officers examined dozens of ATVs and other off-road vehicles.Six ATVs were taken off the road and their drivers summoned to court, according to the report. The Israel Nature and Parks Authority issued fines for motorcycles and sports utility vehicles found driving along the beach.Police said officers would continue their operations against reckless driving and the operation of ATVs in spaces where they were not legally permitted, as part of efforts to maintain road safety for beach-goers and vacationers.
Panels to hear objections to hotel on Eilat beachLocal planning committees will discuss a petition next week that the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel filed against a planned 10-floor hotel and shopping center on Eilat’s Coral Beach, in order to reach a decision on the issue, the Local website reported. The SPNI filed the petition along with letters from 3,000 people, objecting to the 1.2-hectare project.In its petition, the SPNI filed the written opinion of marine biologist and coral reef expert Dr. Jacob Dafni, who wrote that “the Eilat coral reef is a natural habitat, a natural resource of utmost importance (as the northernmost coral reef in the world), and a national resource for tourism, recreation and entertainment,” Local reported.“Adding the planned hotel, 10 stories high, and only 150 meters away, is likely to cause several types of pollution,” the report quoted him as saying. “There is no justification for any further damage, and therefore, caution should be exercised and the plan should be rejected.” According to the report, the SPNI wrote that “Eilat’s beaches are a national asset and we should treat them as such. Approving the plan will introduce superfluous development to the southern beach. The SPNI believes that hotel development should be concentrated in the northern part of the city, and should leave the southern beaches [in their natural state] as much as possible.”
Woman killed, 9 injured in traffic accidentA 38-year-old woman was killed and nine others moderately to lightly injured in a traffic accident on Route 31, south of Neveh Zohar, over the Simhat Torah weekend. Four children were among the casualties.Magen David Adom was called to the scene of the accident, where the paramedics pronounced the woman dead and evacuated the injured to Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba. The circumstances of the accident were being investigated.