A black tide, pushed hard by high waves, has reached the Mediterranean coasts of Israel in recent days causing what according to the press is the worst ecological disaster in decades. Traces of pollution have been detected in stretches of beach along the coast from the border with Lebanon to that with Gaza, for a total of 180 kilometers. After an inspection by Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, the government has proclaimed the closure of the entire coast of Israel until further notice. Bathing is prohibited, camping and sports are also prohibited. Thousands of volunteers have mobilized to at least clean the beaches of quantities of tar. But they only addressed part of the problem.
Great concern is the fate of the seabed, of the fish and organisms found there. According to a researcher at the University of Haifa, Ilana Berman, the experience of Mexico shows that after accidents of this magnitude, even many years of effort are not enough to restore the natural environment to its original condition. Furthermore, Israel must consider the impact on water quality. In fact, the story necessarily involves the desalination plants at sea which guarantee the country 70 percent of its needs. According to the environment ministry, dozens of tons of crude oil spilled about a week ago from a ship that was beyond Israel’s territorial waters.
At least a dozen oil tankers were present in the area and the perpetrator has not yet been identified. The story, as it was inevitable, reopened a permanent conflict between environmentalists and the government. The former denounced last year the installation near the coast of a large ramp for the extraction of natural gas (which also represents a danger to the environment) and last month they protested against the signing of a contract with the Emirates Arabs related to the transit of very large quantities of oil in the ‘Europe-Asia Pipeline’ (‘Katza’a’, in Hebrew) between Eilat, on the Red Sea, and Ashkelon, on the Mediterranean.
This is an eight-year project worth $ 700 million for the annual transit of the contents of dozens of oil tankers. “Even a minor accident – warned 250 scientists in a petition that went unheeded – risks causing irreparable damage to the Eilat coral reef”. In 2014, a leak of crude from the ‘Katza’a’ pipeline (then under another management) caused an environmental disaster in a Negev nature reserve that has not yet been overcome. In light of the traumatic closure of all of Israel’s Mediterranean coasts, environmentalists say, at least the agreement with the Emirates must be canceled.
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