Tar cleaning from Palmahim Beach, March 2022/Photo: Rani Amir, Ministry of Environmental Protection
Four days before the statute of limitations applies to claims for the "Tar in the Storm" disaster that occurred in February 2021, the State of Israel filed a lawsuit today (Tuesday) at the Maritime Court against the "International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage" operating from London.
The prosecutors on behalf of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Nature and Parks Authority are Einat Shterman and Ofer Gut from the Haifa District Attorney's Office.
The fund is financed by the countries that receive oil by sea, and operates by virtue of an international treaty that is about fifty years old.
Israel joined the League of Nations in 1992.
About half a year after the incident, the foundation's executive committee recognized Israel's right to receive compensation from it, and Israel forwarded payment demands to it for its expenses, but to date the foundation has paid only a partial payment.
The total expenses of the state and its authorities for the pollution of the state's beaches from oil in an event that has not yet been received from the compensation fund is estimated at approximately NIS 26 million, which the state is now claiming in court.
In Israel, at the time, Iran was accused of being responsible for the crude oil spill that resulted in the pollution of Israel's beaches with tar.
The Minister of Environmental Protection at the time pointed an accusing finger at the tanker ship MT-EMERALD as being responsible for the oil spill.
The fund, in its decision to compensate Israel, leaves those responsible for the pollution anonymous, and states that this Israeli conclusion is only circumstantial, and there is no evidence to establish that a specific tanker caused the pollution.
From the documents attached to the lawsuit it appears that in its appearance before the fund, the State of Israel denied the involvement of any other party as a possible source of the crude oil except for the tanker in question, but could not absolutely identify this ship as its source.
12 thousand volunteers then mobilized to help the authorities in the cleaning work on the beaches.
In Israel, the damage was estimated at about NIS 45 million.
According to the fund's decision from 2021 to recognize its obligation to compensate Israel, and this was before payment demands for compensation had been submitted, it appears that early estimates for the damage caused to the State of Israel were already at 55 million shekels, and that this amount was only preliminary and was expected to increase.
The lawsuit shows that the beach under the responsibility of the Nature and Parks Authority was damaged in an estimated amount of NIS 5.4 million.
Additional damage to RTAG was caused due to the need to carry out cleaning and restoration work on the beaches of Yap within its area of responsibility, managing and supervising the works, and all this throughout the entire period of performing the cleaning and restoration works, and all this in the amount of approximately 4 million shekels, and in total RTAG claims a total amounting to approx. -9.4 million shekels.
Among the local authorities most damaged by the disaster were the Carmel Beach Regional Council, which has one of the longest stretches of beach in the country.
The demand for payment transferred to the fund for the damage to the Carmel beach is about NIS 2.3 million.
Other municipalities that were badly damaged are in the Western Galilee where the damage is estimated at NIS 1.6 million to the Mata Asher Regional Council, whose coasts stretch from the head of the Nakra on the Lebanese border to Nahariya.
The municipality of Nahariya was left after the disaster with an estimated damage of NIS 1.4 million.
Netanya claims NIS 639,000, Tel Aviv NIS 475,000, Acre NIS 307,000, Kiryat Yam NIS 302,000.
Claims from three municipalities have not yet been transferred to the fund, including the Haifa Municipality, which suffered damage of approximately NIS 2 million, the Herzliya Municipality, NIS 704,000, and the Bat Yam Municipality, with damage of NIS 66,000.
The state asks the Maritime Court to charge the fund with expenses and attorneys' fees, plus interest and linkage differences, until the actual payment date.
A statement of defense has not yet been filed.
A judge has not yet been appointed to hear the lawsuit and a date for the first hearing has not yet been set.
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