The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Expiring and profiting: this is how an agricultural area became a luxury campsite Israel today

2022-08-04T04:23:55.291Z


The Upper Galilee Regional Council established a glamping complex and diverted water from the Jordan into a private stream, without appropriate permits • The Council's economic company: "We buy the water" • The Israel Lands Authority: "There will be an inspection of what actually exists and its compliance with the permits"


The Upper Galilee Regional Council qualified a luxury resort and diverted water from the Jordan to it, while blocking the passage to the stream.

A glamping site (luxury camping) was recently inaugurated on an agricultural area of ​​36 dunams, which blocks vehicular access to the Jordan and prevents the public from enjoying the flowing water of the river.

And what's more: in the center of the site flows a stream whose waters are pumped from the Jordan - and all this without any approval from the authorities.

Paradoxically, the body behind the site is also the one that oversees the approvals for it: the Upper Galilee Regional Council.

In Kiryat Shmona, they were amazed to see how the purpose of agricultural land is changing again in the neighborhood kibbutzim, who are expropriating a public resource for their own benefit and extracting a financial profit from it.

However, Israel Hayom's investigation reveals that the council did not receive appropriate permits at all, and while the Israel Land Authority approved in the lease contract for the council's economic company, which established and operates the site, to use the land for a public park - it uses it for private purposes.

"The Sin of Hubris"

Avihai Stern, mayor of Kiryat Shmona, is angry.

"The sin of hubris", that's what he calls the move.

"This land is not used for agriculture, so they need to return it to the state. The High Court ruled that land not used for agriculture will be marketed in an equitable manner, but this is not happening, and once again the access to the river is being closed.

The authorities in the country do not check, and even allow it.

"That's true when it comes to kibbutz members who were privileged to live by the river, but it's not in the kibbutz territory at all. They're appropriating a public resource in a blatant way, to a very specific population. A small portion of the population received a large portion of the area. If we don't change the priorities, the gaps will deepen."

900 shekels per night

The Plantation Campground, which was inaugurated a week ago on the banks of the Jordan, includes 37 equipped glamping tents and additional space for setting up private tents and camping tents.

The reservation center offers a glamping tent for five people for NIS 900 per night, and as of August 15, payment will be required for private tents (now set up is free).

The Jordan River, photo: Avi Arish

The sales representative promises that in the winter, instead of the Jordan waters flowing into the stream in the center of the site, hot water from Shamir's wells will flow into it.

According to him, there is no music and there are no disturbances for the general public vacationing on the Jordan Bank, because "this is a private site. Although everyone can enter Jordan, we have increased supervision."

Who are the inspectors?

Of course, the inspectors of the Upper Galilee Regional Council.

The Water Authority, the only body responsible for issuing permits for pumping water from the Jordan and from any public resource, say that they were not asked to give a permit at all: "From a preliminary examination it appears that the received site plan did not refer to a canal. According to the developer, he received a permit for the canal from the Kinneret Drainage Authority. We will conduct an investigation on the matter."

However, the Kinneret Drainage Authority told us that "the legality of this type of project is the responsibility of the local planning and construction committee. Any pumping or discharge of water must be approved by the Water Authority and the water association within whose jurisdiction the project is carried out. The Kinneret Drainage and Streams Authority is only responsible for checking the nature of the discharge of water into the river The Jordan. In this project, the authority was asked to give guidance for the final solution of the project, in the connection and the flow of water to the river, even before the flow of water began."

The water association and the local committee for planning and construction, needless to say, belong to the Upper Galilee Regional Council.

Israel Lands Authority.

, photo: Uri Lentz

Regarding the use of the land, the Israel Land Authority (RAMI) stated that "the area in question was allocated to the Upper Galilee Regional Council for the purpose of a public park, in a lease contract from 2018 under which various uses of the area were allowed such as a cafeteria, an overnight parking lot including trailers, tent areas, parking lots and various facilities the public

We are not aware of any commercial activity beyond that allowed in the contract.

In light of the report, an examination of what actually exists and its compliance with the permissions will be conducted."

Meir Koshi Levy, chairman of the Upper Galilee Economic Society, responded: "We did not do anything illegal.

We acted in front of the bodies responsible for the water in the Upper Galilee and received all the approvals.

We buy water for all kinds of needs that are not drinking, and we do not pump water.

"The concept was to create a tourist center, because one is missing. In the lease contract we have permission to use 20% of the area for commercial activity. We will not take money for private tents - this is a mistake and I will update the reservation center. There is a day and night parking lot, and they will pay for parking, like In Kinneret. The council spends NIS 6-8 million a year on the maintenance of the streams. Not the state."

The council: "There are approvals"

The Upper Galilee Regional Council stated in response: "The economic company that established the parking lot was given permission from the Drainage Authority to flow a stream within the parking lot. As far as the commercial use of the land is concerned, in the approvals given by Rami for the construction of the parking lot, certain percentages were allocated for commercial use, and to the best of our understanding the council complies with them." .

were we wrong

We will fix it!

If you found an error in the article, we would appreciate it if you shared it with us

Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2022-08-04

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.