During the past week there were a couple of days with flights over Modiin that were quite noisy. These flights were using the old VOR landing path that has been used on occasion during poor weather conditions, when the alternate eastern runway 26 could not be used. The VOR landing path is being used recently more than before, because the alternate eastern landing path was shut down in the beginning of June for overhaul for a period that is planned to span a year and a half, leaving runway 12-30 as the only operating runway in Ben Gurion Airport during this period.
The new LDA landing path for runway 30 that goes over Modiin will go into effect only on July 1st, and it is estimated that it will be noisier than the VOR landing path, as its altitude over Modiin is 600-1,200 feet lower than that of the VOR landing path. The new LDA landing path instructs pilots to lower the landing gear only after the plane has cleared Modiin, a measure intended to reduce the noise to Modiin residents.
Modiin municipality has setup a committee headed by deputy mayor Hanan Bernstein, that will monitor the flights over Modiin, compare it to the 5-10 flights/day average forecast provided by the aviation authorities, and discuss any irregularities with the aviation authorities. You are welcome to report flights with landing gear down over Modiin, excessive noise levels, etc. to deputy mayor Hanan Bernstein at hanan_b@modiin.muni.il.
Last week we received a complaint from a Modiin resident who arrived per our invitation at the City Council meeting on June 2nd, to witness the discussion and the vote that took place on the Clear Skies initiative to appeal to Bagatz against the proposed landing path, and to use the Supreme Court to turn the so called “forecast” into a binding legal agreement that would include sanctions in case of violations (a proposal that was rejected by city council). It turns out that the Modiin Municipality locked the doors to the meeting immediately after it began, and refused to let residents in, under the pretext that the meeting room was full. Thus the resident left the place frustrated, like other residents who were not admitted to the meeting room.
The truth is that the meeting room was far from full and it had accommodated more than 20 additional people in previous meetings that I have attended there, such as this council meeting. In the 3 years that I have been attending city council meetings I have not seen a precedence to this behavior. Also, in the morning of the city council meeting we explicitly wrote the general manager of the municipality and asked that measures be taken to assure that every resident who wants to view the meeting will be able to do so. We suggested holding the meeting elsewhere if needed (for example, the first council meeting after the elections was held at the entrance to the municipality to accommodate the crowd). We filed a formal complaint to the Interior Ministry. The local news site mcity also wrote about this incident, stating that it should signal a red warning light regarding the municipality behavior.
Last week I was interviewed by the local newspaper “Hadashot Modiin”, in which the nature of the pressures applied on Clear Skies activists were revealed for the first time. For example, one clear skies activist (who is a most credible person) reported that he received a telephone call from Sharon Maoz (Haim Bibas’s protégé), who told the activist that Bibas is enraged at the Clear Skies email updates that were critical of the municipality, and that Bibas wants to shut down Clear Skies. Sharon Maoz proceeded to tell the activist that “this isn’t a threat, but” Bibas & him need to know if that activist is continuing with Clear Skies, because if there will be more emails from Clear Skies then the remaining activists will be sued. More of these nasty tactics are described in the post titled “The internet troll who wanted to be a city council member”.
The interview also contains an analysis of the schedule of the Ben Gurion runway overhaul project, and how this schedule perfectly coincides with the schedule for the municipal elections due for November 2013. This may provide rationale for the surprising turnaround of mayor Bibas regarding the struggle for Clear Skies, in addition to Bibas’s conflict of interest betwen his loyalty to Modiin residents and his dependence on and loyalty to his Likud party leader Binyamin Netanyahu.
The interview is available on the Hadashot Modiin website, and an expanded version is available on Modiin-Watch, including a reprint of the Yediot Ahronot article on the Ben Gurion runway overhaul project schedule.
A year ago, a group of Modiin volunteer residents heeded the call of the Modiin mayor who asked us to lead a public struggle against the planned landing path, in order to provide the public backing to the municipality in its dealings with the aviation authorities and with the ministry of transportation. A few months ago the Modiin mayor has drastically changed his position on the struggle for Clear Skies. Differences of opinion are of course legitimate, however we suddenly found ourselves the target of pressures, intimidations & threats by the Modiin Municipality and its messengers, and that is totally unthinkable.
Thank you to all of you who cooperated with our calls for action, especially to those who attended the protests during the heat of July. Thank you to those of you who generously donated to help finance Clear Skies activities.
Yours truly,
Yaki Beja, Eli Gal & Ezi Shabi -the Clear Skies Activists left standing all the way to the very end.
Fore more details see the Hebrew version of this post on our Hebrew Website.
