The Mitzpe Ramon Council published this week, among announcements about the construction of a Patanak field and dog parks - a strange announcement on its Facebook page.
"Dear residents, we would like to update regarding the tender for operating an amphitheater at the gypsum quarry.
When writing the tender documents, the local council placed the value of preserving nature as a central compass for how to operate the complex.
In light of this, the tender included many restrictions on the manner of holding the events, which harmed the economic viability for entrepreneurs to operate the complex - and it ended without bidders.
We will continue to work to develop and strengthen Mitzpe Ramon, in all its aspects, alongside preserving the values of nature.'
Why is it strange, you ask.
Well, what exactly are you reading here - an apology or an argument?
Excuses or accusations?
The answer to everything is yes and yes.
In the central region, where there is nothing left to fight over, any remaining piece of land will soon become real estate.
But in the south - the complete opposite.
Untamed wild landscapes, hundreds of thousands of empty dunams of nothing, obedience and desert to the edge of the horizon.
But the appearance is deceiving, since everything - seemingly.
Entrepreneurs seeking to blossom the wilderness economically understood the value of the silence of the desert, and in recent years have been turning it into big money.
how?
easy.
Escaping the wasteland.
Search Google for the location of the most expensive and sensational hotel in Israel, and you will find that it is in the middle of nowhere.
Soldiers who served in the area called it "hole", but today this "hole" offers "nomad meals" for the price of a camel and a nomad.
"To travel far to get close", entice the entrepreneurs, and promise "a blessed effect on the human soul."
Minimal impact on the environment.'
is that so?
The Mitzpe Ramon Council's announcement that no entrepreneur entered the tender for the construction of a concert hall in the heart of the Ramon Crater marks the end of another chapter in the ongoing saga of the fate of nature in Israel.
Who does the crater belong to?
Well, to you, the readers.
In other words, most of it is the territory of the State of Israel.
Part of a nature reserve.
Except that road 40 passes inside the crater, and various quarries have grown up and been abandoned over the years.
Municipally, most of the crater belongs to the Negev, but the road and the quarries belong to the Mitzpe Ramon Council.
"Two years ago, we found out that the Mitzpe Ramon Council, together with the Ministry of Tourism, are planning to develop an amphitheater in the abandoned gypsum quarry in Makhtesh, with a budget of 6.5 million shekels," says Azri Kider, CEO of the Keshet Association, "We contacted the Ministry of Tourism and the Nature and Parks Authority (RTG) To make it clear to them how ridiculous it is that they set up an amphitheatre in the heart of the crater.'
The association was established in 1999 by several Mitzvahs, to be an incubator for civil entrepreneurship and to create a united community for the development of the Negev Mountain as a prosperous and sustainable area.
And as such, the people of Keshet waged a stubborn struggle against the plan to establish an amphitheater for performances in the heart of the crater.
"'Lizard huggers,' that's what Roni Marom, the head of the council, called us, but it's really not true that we don't want to develop the southern area," says Kidar, referring to the feeling of the heads of the authorities in the south as if the "greens", as a general name for the multitude of environmental organizations, blocking the southern cities from developing.
"Thanks to our struggle against the Israel Land Administration, the council in Mitzpe Ramon received money to plan the restoration of the stone quarries north of Mitzpe Ramon.
In the plan we proposed, 92,000 square meters of commercial and tourism space were planned. We even proposed an alternative to erecting a large amphitheater that could host 50 events a year and not 15, as was planned in Makhtesh. And all of this is located between BHD 1 and Mitzpe Ramon. A place full of light pollution that will not destroy You're Maktesh Ramon.
"However, after that the council continued to eliminate this alternative, until Rami said there was a possibility of stone extraction, and they wanted to continue mining in the quarries. And so Mitzpe Ramon lost 92 thousand square meters of commercial space.
So to shelve such an option and say that we are against the development of the place?
We are not against development, we are in favor of sustainable development.'
If so, why does the council insist on building the amphitheatre inside the Ramon crater?
"Let everyone connect the dots.
'Selina' sets up glamping tents, etc. there, they define themselves as a hotel, and their area is adjacent to the same lot.
If you go to a concert at the amphi in Makhtesh, where will you sleep?
In one of the discussions it was revealed to them that they hoped to generate a profit or a turnover of NIS 2.5 million per year, and this was part of their business plan.
Understand, heads of councils - what are they interested in?
Not the livelihood of the residents or the place where they live, they are only interested in one thing - more property taxes.
We are fighting for Ramon Crater to remain a quiet and dark Genesis landscape, and that any development we make in it will maintain these rules, this is our ultimate goal.'
Many times the sustainability and environmental protection organizations in the south are accused of being, in fact, a whim of the expatriates of the central region.
People who came here and are in love with the quiet piece of God they found in the desert, and therefore block the possibility of developing the area, and this whole environmental struggle comes at the expense of the local residents who were born and raised there.
"There is a very large community of Mitzvah who understand that these initiatives are offensive, and do not change the conduct in the wider circle. Because Mitzpe Ramon and the crater are an international symbol, it cannot be said that this is a matter of three or four 'lizard huggers', Tel Avivians who do not want to be made noise . This is pathetic and insulting. As far as we are concerned, we are fighting for the house. And in general, what kind of development does hotel tourism do? It produces hourly and fluctuating garbage jobs. If you look at hotels and restaurants, the wages in them are 45 percent lower than the average wages in the economy, and these are jobs with very low stability ".
"And who are the people who work there? For some it is a preferred job, or students, migrant workers or refugees. In any case, these are people whose sense of belonging to the place where they live is zero. They don't care about anything, the education system, the garbage on the street, because it is not their home This is how you get a settlement where most of its residents do not see it as a home, and this is reflected in the community's resilience. Relying on hotels as a major economic industry in such volumes will cause damage to the Mitzvah community and not only to the environment. Even so, Maktesh Ramon suffers from over-tourism.
"We are deep in a situation of a global environmental crisis. We have to fight for every piece of nature that man has not violated. We have to protect this planet for ourselves and for the future. As Ezra Orion said, 'Humanity is my people and the earth is my home.'"
It is not clear if the announcement this week is a victory for the members of the Keshet association in preserving the character of the Ramon crater, or just a time-out before the transition to the next phase of development.
What is certain is that the struggle between the developers and the guards in the Negev is getting hotter towards a boiling point.
The economic success of the current ventures and the abundance of empty spaces, apparently, call entrepreneurs in a panic to turn sand into gold.
The coming years will be a significant test period for the ability of the residents of the south and the local leadership to balance the desire for development, which in many ways is the lifeblood of every locality, and the importance of preserving the empty spaces in their bare, primitive beauty as they are.
were we wrong
We will fix it!
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