Israel's Urban Environment

Israel's Urban Environment,

1948-1988

As part of its obligations to the United Nations after the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, Israel's Parliament held an open plenary session about the country's environmental situation. The summer recess of 1973 was rapidly approaching. It was the end of a golden era for Israel. The trauma of the Yom Kippur War was only a few months away but completely unimaginable. Most of the nation was still intoxicated by the 1967 six-day military triumph and the stunning territorial acquisitions it delivered. Israel's economy continued to soar. Morale was high. Yet at least one government leader was deeply concerned.

Yigael Alon was one of the most eminent heroes of Israel's War of Independence. When Prime Minister Levi Eshkol died of a heart attack in 1969, Alon and Moshe Dayan were the front runners to replace him. (Even though only 3 percent of voters surveyed supported Golda Meir relative to Dayan and Alon, to avoid a power struggle she ultimately became Mapai's consensus compromise candidate for prime minister.) But Yigael Alon remained a formidable figure in the government and was generally considered among the country's most erudite Sabra leaders. Having atended Oxford and Harvard, Alon managed to stay abreast of global trends, despite his immersion in parochial Israeli politics. This included an abiding interest in the environment. His early attitude toward development was representative of the 1950s and 1960s: Build everywhere and preferably horizontally.By 1973, though, he was deeply concerned about pollution and had taken the time to learn about the subject.

As Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Alon had almost single-handedly pushed the government to confront the pollution problem. It was only natural that he offer the official government view of the country's environmental situation. His presentation to the Knesset was remarkable for its thoroughness and thoughtfulness. The laundry list of environmental hazards presented in his speech reflected the scope and severity of Israel's environmental problems at the time:

During the two previous decades, Israel's population grew five times and its GNP increased by 11 percent per year, which was the largest relative increase in the world. The population density rose from 43 people per kilometer to 152 people per kilometer.

Most of the nonperennial rivers in Israel, in particular those near the coast, were polluted by sewage.

Large quantities of wastes were flowing each year to the Kinneret, including industrial effluents and agricultural runoff from the Galilee's settlements.

Forty percent of the world's oil was transported across the Mediterranean despite its small size, leading to massive destruction.

During the preceding decade, chemical production grew by 160