Over 20 civil society, green, health bodies call for changes to key budget bill

Organizations want removal of proposed planning changes with environmental, health implications from catch-all Economic Arrangements Bill that limits public discussion

More than 20 environmental, health, and civil society groups wrote to Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, asking for a list of items to be removed from the Economic Arrangements Bill that accompanies the state budget.

Intended to speed up decisions and cut bureaucracy, the arrangements bill has long been criticized for combining dozens of legislative changes that lawmakers vote on without time for proper examination.

The letter sent on Thursday seeks the removal of the following items from the bill, so that they can be discussed fully.

• Extending the fast-track Committee for Preferred Housing sites established in 2014 until 2028. This approves large-scale residential construction. The committee has wide powers to overrule other plans and allow farmland and natural open space to be zoned for building. It restricts the public’s ability to object or appeal. The letter notes that over a million housing units have already been approved and are awaiting construction, charging that the “apparent urgency” of the committee’s extension is no longer justified.
• Weakening the powers of the National Committee for the Protection of Coastal Environments by removing their authority to examine national and district outline plans, which determine how vast tracts of land are to be used. The letter says this is a professional committee with an understanding of and sensitivity to the coastal environment, which should be strengthened, given the challenges of climate change and development, and the need to protect the environment and public health.
• Diluting the authority of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority to stop large infrastructure projects from passing through national parks and nature reserves, for which the authority is responsible. The Economic Arrangements Bill proposal gives the developer the right to appeal to a special committee if the authority refuses to implement a plan or imposes conditions that could stop or delay its implementation.
• Reducing the rights of the Agriculture Ministry’s Forestry Commissioner to deny tree felling permits for national infrastructure projects.  If passed into law, the Economic Arrangements Bill will compel the commissioner to consider economic factors in a request to fell trees. Furthermore, the commissioner’s decisions would be subject to approval by a committee whose representatives lean toward infrastructure development.
• Eliminating a clause in the Clean Air Act that currently allows for a plan’s environmental and health implications to be discussed at an early stage. The letter says that the value of such early consideration was proven in May, when the Jerusalem District Court canceled an Environmental Protection Ministry emissions permit for a gas-powered power station at a desalination facility. Two local councils and two green organizations successfully argued that the technology would cause massive increases in carcinogenic formaldehyde emissions. According to the letter to Ohana, the district court emphasized that an early discussion under Section 23 could have averted mistaken planning and the need to cancel the emissions retroactively.

The letter ends with objections to the Economic Arrangements Bill itself, saying that the mechanism should be used sparingly because it harms decision-makers’ ability to formulate well-founded positions on each issue.

The Environmental Protection Ministry submitted its objections last month.