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Who stole my beach? By Zafrir Rinat Tags: Moshav Beit Oved, Adi Lustig  For Adi Lustig, a resident of Moshav Beit Oved, nearby Palmachim Beach was the place to forget about everything and connect with nature. But concern for the beach's fate has caused this young woman of 18 to become deeply involved in the struggle to save it. In recent weeks she has gotten to know concepts such as tendering for the sale of land and the law on the preservation of the shore environment. Last month Lustig discovered that a large area of the beach had been surrounded by a fence before the construction of a new vacation village. Until then she had been busy studying for her matriculation exams, but the discovery of the fence turned her priorities upside down. "The beach is one of the most important things in my life," she says. "I'd been going there recently every day to watch the sunset." With the help of her friend Hanni Amos, Lustig set out to strengthen and widen the opposition to the construction plan. About a month ago Lustig, Amos and a group of environmental activists pitched protest tents near the fence to prevent further construction work. The two young women stay there night and day. They say the contractors do not yet have the final permits to build the village, but the work they have done has already seriously damaged the beach and more fencing will cause more damage. Advertisement The activists have established the Committee for the Rescue of Palmachim Beach and have organized protests that have grabbed the attention of planning officials and Knesset members. The Knesset Interior and Environment Committee, headed by Labor MK Ophir Pines-Paz, toured the beach this month and held a discussion on the matter last week. The committee has asked the Interior Ministry to consider moving the vacation village to a different site. The Palmachim activists' relative success is surprising because they are acting almost alone: Neither the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) nor the Environmental Protection Ministry has objected to the plan because they believe it helps promote tourism. But at least the girls have Green Course on their side - the group started the first wave of activism in Israel about a decade ago, winning support against plans such as the Sea and Sun project in Tel Aviv and the Trans-Israel Highway. The beach and adjacent cliffs are among the few remaining between Ashdod and Herzliya. All the other beaches have long been sites of residential neighborhoods, hotels, and prestigious homes for the wealthy. At other beaches, promenades cover the approach to the water in concrete and asphalt. In the Palmachim area, too, the area for the public is shrinking. North of Kibbutz Palmachim, equipment for producing concrete has been put up, and a desalinization plant stands next to the beach. To the north and east, large areas are taken up by the Israel Defense Forces. And more tourism projects are planned for the area. Despite the young people's efforts, the chances for canceling the building plan look faint because the plan has already been approved (before the law on the preservation of the shore environment went into effect). Amos and Lustig promise, however, that they will remain at the site until the plan is called off. "We are trying to raise donations and find legal bodies that will try to examine the entire process of decision-making that led to the plan's approval," says Lustig. "We will try to act in every possible way, whether though demonstrations or disseminating information. We want people to stop being like a herd that is told that the beach is being taken from them - and they agree." Lustig also notes that they have decided to join Green Course to continue the struggle. "It's hard for us to see what they have done to nature here in the wake of the fencing work," says Amos. "At night we see the jackals and the foxes that don't understand what has happened to the area near the shore, which is their home." She says she cannot understand "who agreed to approve a building plan in a place where there is supposed to be a national park, where there is a wealth of animals and wild plants and also archaeological sites." Scare campaign Pini Malka is one of the two entrepreneurs who won the Israel Lands Administration tender for the land where the vacation village will be built. "We are planning a vacation village in the style of old Acre," he says. "We will leave access to the beach open, and also to the village itself." Malka says he was recently subjected to a "scare and threat campaign" by the activists against the building plan: "They have called me and my partner 'corrupt' and 'people from the underworld.' We have received threats, and a stink bomb was thrown into the yard of my home." Lustig says in response that "we aren't doing anything illegal. When tractors were working here to put up the fences, we didn't block them - we talked to the drivers and they stopped the work." Malka believes that the environmental activists represent mainly themselves. "I am certain that if they asked the public, the vast majority of people will say that they are in favor of the vacation village, which will take up only a tiny part of the beach," he says. Even so, Tal Dieri, a 30-year-old from Rishon Letzion who belongs to the group of activists, stresses: "This village will make it possible for only a small group of people to enjoy almost the last beach that remains natural." Bookmark to del.icio.us   My three homelands French Vogue chose Lizzie Doron as one of Israel's influential authors. President Barghouti Jailed Tanzim leader says he's considering running in next PA presidential elections.   1.   Palmachime "Holiday Village/private mint" 17:01  |  Mel (M) 18/03/08   2.   Enough with stealing our beaches: Look at Eilat 19:15  |  AA 18/03/08

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