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/
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/
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
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