Last update - 00:00 08/11/2007
Green groups question location of future IDF training 'city'
By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondent
A top Defense Ministry official Wednesday met with representative of
environmental advocacy groups to explain actions taken to date in a Negev
industrial zone ahead of the construction of a huge military training camp in the area.
In a meeting at his Tel Aviv office, director-general Pinchas Buchris called on the green groups to send a representative to the Defense Ministry committee planning the transfer of all Israel Defense Forces training bases to the Ramat Hovav region. Buchris stated categorically, "We will not send a single soldier into that field until he is completely safe."
Green groups continue to express concern about the location, just 10
kilometers from the industrial zone. However, the defense establishment argues that increased regulation by the health and environment ministries has drastically improved air quality in the area and reduced pollution levels.
Representatives from Green Course (Megama Yeruka), the Society for the
Protection of Nature in Israel (Hahevra Lehaganat Hateva), Sustainable
Development for the Negev (Negev Bar-Kayyama) and the Israel Union for
Environmental Defense (Adam Teva V'Din) attended the meeting and SDN director Bilha Givon said afterward, "Everyone is talking about the training camp, but what is really important is the population of Be'er Sheva and the Negev.
Serious progress has been made at Ramat Hovav and factories are meeting the environmental requirements."
However, Green Party chair and Tel Aviv city council member Peer Visner said Wednesday, "The defense establishment is investing billions of shekels in a training city that will eventually become a ghost town. No training camp should be built at the Negev Junction that would endanger thousands of soldiers.