Sign the Clear Skies Petition!

Please sign the Clear Skies Hebrew petition (Click here). The following is a translation of the petition text:

We the residents of Modiin-Macabim-Reut, are vehemently opposed to the new planned changes in the landing paths for Ben Gurion airport which will result in the planes passing at a very low altitude over our city's airspace.  This proposed change will have a definite negative effect on the health and security to the citizens of our city, in addition to a negative impact on air pollution and the quality of the area.  This plan will immediately cause noise pollution and will damage our quality of life.  The plan, which  calls for multiple flights per day, passing over our roofs at a very low altitude will negatively impact our quality of life and our children's calm existence and therefore destroy  the attractiveness and special character of our city.  It  will put an end to the development plans for the city and cause a sharp decline in Real Estate values, thereby causing great financial damage to every resident in Modiin-Macabim-Reut.

Haim Bibas, our mayor, and his administration decided to act in a most aggressive manner against the proposed changes and have joined forces with the citizens' struggle against the office of transportation.  This petition is meant to represent all the city's residents.  We reserve the right to fight by any legal means in order to protect the quality of our lives and preserve the value of our real estate.  We intend to not allow Modiin, Macabim and Reut to become Israel's neglected back yard.

We are herewith launching a citizen's campaign to collectively express our adamant objection and rejection to having planes flying over our heads at very low altitudes on their landing approach to Ben Gurion Airport.

In order to sign the petition you have to enter:

your name, first and last  (in English or Hebrew)  on line 1

your city of residence on line 2

your email address on line 3

your phone number on line 4

your cell number on line 5

Then you click on the word CHATIMA which means signature and is printed in red and outlined in red.  This is what actually saves your signature onto the petition.

CLICK HERE to sign the petition.

Sign up for Clear Skies for Modiin

The Israeli supreme court announced on June 10th that it will not intervene in the process of determining the landing path to Ben Gurion Airport, that will be flying low over Modiin's residential areas for all parts of the day when they are Western winds (estimate is 60 flights per day over Modiin). Consequently the Modiin municipality withdrew its petition to Bagatz, in exchange for a 60 day extension until the new landing path goes into effect.

As of today there are only 50 days left until the new flight path goes into effect.

As the legal battle has failed, our only recourse is to exert public pressure on the Israeli government to change the decision. The public battle was launched last week in a meeting of the Knesset Economic committee, which endorsed the position of the Modiin municipality: Setting up an independent professional committee to examine alternatives to the proposed landing path. The Knesset members criticized the process led by the Airport Authority, which chose the landing path secretly, behind Modiin's back, without bringing into consideration the impact of the new path on the residents of the city. Unfortunately the Knesset committee decision has "no teeth" and it's a recommendation which the airport authority can and is ignoring. The protocol of the discussion of the committee is available here (in Hebrew):
http://www.knesset.gov.il/protocols/data/html/kalkala/2009-06-08.html

The new flight path will cause noise, pollution as well as well safety concerns (read the comments by Adv. Eyal Karni voiced in the above protocol) - which may impact the attractiveness of Modiin and consequently the value of our real estate.

To understand the safety issues involved with commercial jets in landing paths flying low over Modiin, read the following Haaretz article (in English) about a near crash with the ground of two jets just two weeks ago due to a malfunction in the automatic landing system (ILS) which is part of the new proposed landing paths over Modiin:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1093054.html

Mayor Haim Bibas is leading the campaign to lobby and exert pressure on the Israeli government, on the minister of Transportation in particular and the on airport authorities. In order for the public campaign to be effective it is imperative that the public - i.e. Modiin residents - become engaged at large.

We have formed a residents HQ "Clear Skies for Modiin" to assist the municipality in the public battle, and we received the municipality's blessings.

We call upon Modiin residents to sign up and volunteer in whatever capacity you can in order to lend a hand:

1. Participating in demonstrations and protests.
2. Preparing and putting up signboards.
3. Sending letters to government ministers, members of Knesset and to the press.
4. Writing talkbacks to Internet news articles and blogs.
5. Participating in radio talk shows.
6. Recruiting support of residents within your kindergarten, school and neighbors.
7. Manning campaign booths in shopping centers on Friday.
8. Disseminating campaign material to friends and relatives inside and outside Modiin.
9. Assistance to the campaign HQ (making phone calls, coordinating volunteers, etc.)
10. Financial contributions.
11. Logistics assistance (allocating office space, phones, transportation, photocopies, etc.)
12. Access to decision makers in government offices and airport authority.
13. Translation of campaign materials to English.
14. Other (please specify).

Please write us at planes@modiin.us and specify how you can assist in any of the above.

For phone enquiries call 054-6474026

We have setup a web site and mailing list to which you can sign up, which will be used to keep you up to date:
http://planes.modiin.us

English version of the web site: http://eplanes.modiin.us

Please pass on this information to friends and neighbors and ask them to join us in this important cause.

We are facing strong powers that be and only if we exhibit unity, resolve and determination we will be able to overturn this decision.

If we'll remain indifferent - we will all pay the price.

Sincerely,

The Clear Skies for Modiin campaign HQ