Last update - 00:00 15/11/2007
Comptroller to tour planned site of controversial IDF base
By Mijal Grinberg and Shahar Ilan, Haaretz Correspondents
Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss will tour the Negev this week as part of his office's investigation into the controversial construction of an Israel Defense Forces mega-base near Ramat Hovav. During the tour, Lindenstrauss will meet Health Ministry officials from the area as well.
Environmental groups are complaining that the pollution at the Ramat Hovav industrial site has undergone insufficient treatment to allow the construction of a base that would house thousands in a location less than 10 kilometers away.
Construction at the site was not allowed to begin as scheduled Wednesday, following a Be'er Sheva District Court order to freeze all work.
Meretz Chair MK Yossi Beilin, head of the Knesset team examining the issue, said on Wednesday that the attempt to begin construction was a "an immoral move that endangers the lives of IDF soldiers."
"Due to outside considerations, the government decided to build the base in the most unsuitable location they could find. Something there stinks - in more ways than one," Beilin said at a press conference he held Wednesday. He also added that in dozens of talks that he held on the base, he did not discover any advantages in the current location.
Beilin demanded that the government delay construction until the release of a report examining the dangers of the chosen location. Belien also said that other locations in the Negev, such as Arad or Sde Boker, would have been much more fitting.
Among the outside considerations that Beilin mentioned was the plan to forcefully improve the area of Ramat Hovav and earn tax benefits.
Head of the Negev lobby MK Shai Harmesh said that torpedoing the plans for the base would thwart the possible blooming and rehabilitation of the Negev. According to Harmesh, the green groups never protested the pollution in Ramat Hovav when the victims were 200 thousand Be'er Sheba residents.
Court halts construction at controversial IDF base
The bulldozers that arrived at the Negev Junction in order to begin preparing the ground for construction of the massive training base were met by officials with the court order Wednesday, and protesters from Green Course, an environmentalist organization opposed to the project. Advertisement
The Israel Union for Environmental Defense, known in Hebrew as Adam Teva V'Din, had filed against the project in court, and welcomed its decision to intervene.
The greens took the matter to court, arguing that the planning and permit process must be transparent and open to the public, and charged that the Defense Ministry internal committees rushed the process without sufficient public involvement.