Op-edWe could have reduced, if not prevented, this catastrophe
Israel’s coast is devastated by an oil spill. If only we’d had an emergency plan
A national response plan for marine oil pollution incidents was ordered in 2008; it was never implemented. Now the beaches are closed, seafood is banned, and further disasters loom
David Horovitz is the founding editor of The Times of Israel. He is the author of Still Life with Bombers (2004) and A Little Too Close to God (2000), and co-author of Shalom Friend: The Life and Legacy of Yitzhak Rabin (1996). He previously edited The Jerusalem Post (2004-2011) and The Jerusalem Report (1998-2004).
13.1K shares
An oil spill at sea that has dumped tons of tar almost all the way along Israel’s Mediterranean coast forced the authorities on Sunday to close all beaches from Rosh Hanikra in the north to Ashkelon in the south until further notice.
Gila Gamliel, the environmental protection minister, said she hopes the cleanup will end in time for beach season to open on March 20, but neither she nor anybody else can be certain yet of the damage wreaked by the disaster.
Described by a senior Environmental Protection Ministry official as the worst catastrophe he could recall to hit Israel’s coastal sands and rocks because of its wide geographical spread, the spill has killed sea turtles and fish and was possibly responsible for the death of a juvenile fin whale that washed up on Nitzanim beach in the south of the country on Thursday.