Erasure deemed unlawful by Knesset committee legal adviser

Environmental activists threaten High Court petition over data wipe

Environmental Protection Ministry pulled all pollution permits data from website due to emergency request citing Iran’s efforts to target industrial sites

Environmental activists are threatening to petition the High Court of Justice against the Environmental Protection Ministry following its decision, made during the recent war with Iran, to erase tens of thousands of documents from its website regarding the polluting emissions of hundreds of factories.

The ministry said the state’s National Emergency Authority (RAHEL, by its Hebrew acronym) requested the deletion of specific details that could prove useful to an enemy. Netta Drori, the ministry’s legal adviser, informed the Knesset Internal Affairs and Environment Committee on April 19 that the request arrived just before and during the Passover holiday.

She explained that the ministry removed “hundreds of thousands” of data points for a “short period” because it lacked the technological capacity to extract only the information deemed a security risk.

The Israel Manufacturers’ Association had originally appealed to RAHEL to redact details about the precise locations of toxic substances such as benzene and ammonia. The appeal followed Iran’s targeting of industrial sites such as the Bazan oil refineries in Haifa — attacked four times over the past year — and the Neot Hovav industrial park in the south, which was hit three times.

In a statement, the association argued, “The fact that this information was exposed in the past is an omission we have long warned about; now, it is the state’s duty to minimize damage and ‘harden the target.'”

An Environmental Protection Ministry spokesman told The Times of Israel on Thursday that officials are seeking an AI program to help them sift through and re-upload the data.

He stressed that “the ministry sees great importance in publishing the information transparently to the public and is working to complete the required checks as soon as possible and re-upload the information, in accordance with the provisions of the law and the determination of the head of the National Emergency Authority — the senior security official recently authorized by the law.”

The ministry said the period for public comment on new or revised emissions permits will be extended.

However, the legal adviser to the Knesset Internal Affairs and Environment Committee has already confirmed that by erasing all permit information, the ministry was in violation of the Clean Air Act.

The environmental advocacy group Adam Teva V’Din echoed that assertion, accusing the ministry of violating the Clean Air Act’s emphasis on freedom of information. The organization argued that the ministry should have concealed only the truly sensitive data rather than removing everything in one fell swoop, claiming that there has been ample time to restore non-risky information.

“Emission permits determine the quantities a factory is allowed to emit into the air and the conditions for its operation,” Adam Teva V’Din said in a statement. The organization warned that with these permits hidden, “the public has lost access to thousands of documents intended to increase transparency and help residents fight pollution.”

Last week, MK Yorai Lahav Hertzanu (Yesh Atid) called on the state comptroller to investigate, slamming the ministry for taking an “extreme step without a sufficient factual foundation, without proper legal reasoning, and in blatant disregard for the law.”

Bar Rozov, head of Adam Teva V’Din’s legal department, added, “At present, there is no way for parliament or the public to monitor issues of such critical importance to public health.”

The independent investigative site Shakuf (Transparent), which originally broke the story, notes that the documents can still be located via search engines, AI tools, and various civilian databases.