Bagatz Decision on Petition is postponed while the Disinformation by the Municipality continues

Yesterday, June 6th, the Supreme Court held a hearing on the Modiin Municipality demand to amend the Ben Gurion TAMA due to the addition of the flight path over Modiin. The purpose of this demand is to pose strict limitations on the use of the landing path over Modiin after the works on the runways are over (expected September 2013). A detailed report of the court proceedings is available here (in Hebrew).

After hearing both sides the court decided to postpone decision on the matter pending review. This means that there is no timetable for a court decision, and a decision can take weeks or months. There is no urgency as the decision pertains to the use of the landing path over Modiin after the runway works in Ben Gurion Airport are completed, some two years from now.

Prior to the Supreme court hearing the Modiin Municipality distributed a press release which addressed the end of the works of runway 26, on which we reported in detail last weekend. This press release is another brick in the wall of the disinformation spread by the Modiin Municipality headed by Bibas.

Clear Skies analyzed this press release and it found that except two sentences, all of the sentences in the Modiin Municipality press release contain disinformation/are misleading. Our analysis of the Modiin Municipality press release is available here (in Hebrew).

The works on Runway 26 are over – what does it mean to us?

On June 1st the Israel Airport Authority (IAA) announced that works on runway 26-08 are now complete and that runway 26 has been reopened – three months earlier than the schedule. This is a success of the prize-reward contract system that the IAA devised with the contract in order to minimize the length of time that Ben Gurion Airport will operate on a one runway system.

Runway 30 on which the planes over Modiin land on is due next for works. The IAA has decided to keep runway 30 open together with runway 26 until June 15th, and then to close runway 30 down until August 1st. Runway 30 will be used together with runway 26 during the month of August, which is the peak of the tourist season. On September 1st 2011 runway 30 will close down for works, and it is planned to reopen on September 1st 2013.

This means that the intensive period of  use of the landing path over Modiin is essentially behind us. Until June 15th and during the month of August we will still experience flights over Modiin, mainly when there are western winds over 10 knots. Since during the summer there are rarely western winds during the night, this summer we are likely to have few aircraft noise disturbances during the night. Ultimately it all depends on the decisions made by the IAA Air Traffic Control in routing incoming aircraft.

On September 1st 2011 flights will cease over Modiin until the completion of the works on runway 30, which are due for September 2013.

The main question that remains to be decided by the Supreme Court this coming Monday is whether there any limitations will be placed on the use of the landing path over Modiin in the future, and whether the TAMA plan of Ben Gurion Airport needs to be updated due to the new landing path over Modiin. The aviation authorities made it abundantly clear that the landing path over Modiin is a permanent landing path and an important part of their toolbox for running Ben Gurion Airport.

Clear Skies will post an update after the Supreme Court decision is announced.

For more details see the post on the Clear Skies Hebrew website.

What the Modiin Municipality “forgot” to tell us

On Monday next week, June 6th at 9AM, the Supreme Court in Jerusalem will conduct a follow up session to discuss the Modiin Municipality petition regarding the flights. The previous session was held some seven months ago, on November 1st 2010, in which the Supreme court instructed the State to submit a written response to address several claims made by the Modiin Municipality.

The intensive use of the landing path over Modiin is scheduled to end on September 2011, when runway 26 will be reopened after the works on it are completed. The contractor doing the work on the runways is entitled according to his contract to a bonus if he finishes the work early, and will be required to pay a fine if he is late. Runway 30 on which the flights from Modiin are landing on will be then closed down for works for a period of two years, during which there will be no flights over Modiin.

Clear Skies has recently obtained the document of the State’s answer to Bagatz which was submitted over three months ago. We are publishing to the public this document and the important findings included within it.

An analysis of the State’s answer to Bagatz reveals some very interesting facts, which the Modiin Municipality as usual did not share with the public.

These findings include:

1. The State’s answer makes it vividly clear that the main reason for the decline in the flights over the city during the winter months was due to the seasonal decline in the demand for long distance flights. Ever since Passover we are experiencing a significant increase in the number of flights over Modiin, and this number is expected to peak during the summer, the high season of tourism. Only two months ago the Modiin Municipality unabashedly claimed that the reason for the decline of the number of flights over the city was supposedly due to its relentless legal efforts…
2. The State’s answer reveals how careless the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) was when it decided that flights will take off on runway 30 towards the east. The breadth of the CAA safety study was to ask the airlines if they think they will be OK with it. The airlines said “no problem”, but after runway 26 was closed down and planes began to take off on runway 30 to the east, the airlines said that the heavy planes (for long distance flights with a lot of fuel, people & cargo) are at risk of crashing on the mountains east of Ben Gurion Airport, unless the plane load is lightened. Regarding lightening the load, the airlines argued that in such a case it would not be economical for them to operate these flights. The CAA accepted the airlines position, and that is how the landing of flights over Modiin at night came about.
3. The State’s answer reveals that despite all the hype at the time, Minister  of the Defense of the Environment Gilad Erdan did not issue a warrant forbidding the flights which generate over 75 decibel noise levels.  The State’s response states that this because in the eyes of the Ministry of Defense of Environment this is not considered excessive noise, and that because contrary to the claims made by the Modiin Municipality, the regulations which govern noise hazards do not apply to noise made by planes.
4. The State claims that the Airport Authority is handing flights which generate over 75 decibels as exceptions, but the reality is that Airport Authority does not even threaten the airlines with a fine or any other sanctions, and the head of the CAA Giora Rom states clearly that it is not feasible not to have some of the flights over Modiin exceeding the 75 decibels noise levels.
5. The State makes it clear that contrary to the Municipality’s claim there is no need to update the Ben Gurion Airport Area plan (TAMA) in order to include the landing path over Modiin, since the TAMA is not updated every time a landing path is changed, and since the TAMA for Ben Gurion Airport only refers to the areas which experience over 60 decibel average - while the noise levels experienced in Modiin due the flights are well below this threshold.
6. The State’s answer reveals that the Aviation Authorities adamantly refuse to give up the use of the landing path over Modiin even after the works on the runway will be completed, and they emphasize its importance in the future too. The Aviation Authorities also adamantly refuse to impose any limitations on their future use of the landing path over Modiin.
7. The State’s answer includes a reprimand of the Modiin Municipality for its personal attacks included within their legal briefs on the State Attorney, in which the Modiin Municipality attorneys accused the State Attorney of lack of integrity and used language that was deemed as befitting internet talkbacks, not court legal briefs.

For a more detailed analysis, including access to the State’s entire response, please see the post on the Clear Skies Hebrew website.

Modiin Municipality’s request for court order to cease the night flights was rejected again by Bagatz

Modiin-Watch unveiled this week that the Modiin Municipality submitted on December 8th an additional request to Bagatz to issue a court order to cease the night flights, and that Bagatz once again rejected this request over a week ago, just like it rejected last August the Modiin Municipality’s first request for a court order.

From the wording of the Bagatz decision it seems as if the Modiin Municipality attempted to use the strike of the State’s attorneys to its advantage.

The end of December will mark six months to the flights over Modiin, and our impression is that Bagatz is not persuaded by the arguments presented by the Modiin Municipality and that Bagatz does not intend to issue a court order to forbid the flights.

The repeated refusal of Bagatz to take any practical steps to stop the night flights is in sharp contrast to the Modiin Municipality’s claims that Bagatz supposedly accepted all its claims.

On a more positive note, it appears that the work on the runways is proceeding faster than planned, and the next phase of the work which will involve closing down runway 30 used for the flights over Modiin may take place as early as July 2011, instead of the end of 2011 as originally projected.

The Modiin Municipality hid from the public the fact that it issued an additional request for a court order and that this request was rejected, and it issued a press release only after this fact was unveiled by Modiin-Watch. The Modiin Municipality also unabashedly claimed that the progress on the runway works is thanks to its legal efforts with  Bagatz, while the truth of the matter is that this progress is due to the large financial bonuses for early completion that the Airport Authority placed as part of its contracts with its contractors – contracts that were negotiated and signed long before the planes started flying over Modiin.

For more information please see the post on our Hebrew Website.

Latest Developments regarding Minister Gilad Erdan’s involvement regardin the Flights

In light of recent developments described in detail in the post on our Hebrew website, the demonstration which we planned to pressure minister Erdan this Friday is cancelled.

We will update this post by tomorrow to provide a summary in English of these latest developments, so please check back again.

Call for Action: Enroll in the Rally we are holding next Friday, November 26th

As you recall, On November 2nd The Supreme court instructed Minister Gilad Erdan, who is in charge of Defense of the Environment, to respond by the end of November and to provide reasoning why he does not exercise his authority and issue a warrant forbidding the night flights over Modiin.

Two weeks ago we wrote Minister Gilad Erdan, and we asked him to wield his authority and issue such a warrant. We also invited Minister Erdan to make a brief visit to Modiin at night and experience the noise levels that the residents of Modiin are experiencing every night.

We’ve been also in contact with Yossi Hazai, advisor to Gilad Erdan, who stated that the minister is planning to visit Modiin at night to gain personal insight to the noise levels that the flights are generating. Hazai also stated that per recent noise level measurements, some 25-30% of the flights over Modiin exceed the 75 Decibel threshold, yet the head of the Noise and Radiation Branch at the ministry of the Defense of the Environment does not deem this to be unacceptable noise levels.

Given that Minister Erdan has not yet  taken the action we are striving for, and given that our window of opportunity to exert public pressure on Minister Erdan will close at the end of the month, we are organizing public pressure on Minister Erdan next week that will peek with a mass protest on Friday, November 26th.

Like in the successful protest of July 2009, we plan to convene starting at 8:00AM the parking lot in front of the Modiin Municipality and head out by 8:30AM to a destination that will be decided during the next few days. We are planning the rally so as to enable the participants to get to the children schools and pick them up by 11:45AM.

We are requesting that you confirm your plan to participate in this rally via email to planes@modiin.us, so that we can monitor the number of people who plan to participate. Please state your mobile phone and the number of participants who will attend.

The rally will be held only if we reach significant participation numbers – so please confirm your participation today!

We also seek volunteers who can help with hanging flyers in entrances to homes, putting up posters,  making phone calls (in Hebrew), assist in directing people during the day of the rally, contribute financially, etc. If you are willing to assist, please email us at planes@modiin.us.

We will also hold a campaign early next week to flood the office of Gilad Erdan with your phone calls, emails and faxes. We will address this in detail in a separate email in the beginning of next week.

Please pass on this message on to your neighbors in Modiin and share the link to our Website post on your Facebook profile.

For more details please see the post on our Hebrew Website.

If you opt to stay at home during the rally – please don’t complain later about the noisy night flights!

The Supreme Court Decision re Petition on Flights over Modiin

Bagatz published on Tuesday its decision on the Modiin Municipality petition against the flights over the city, which was discussed in the Supreme Court on Monday. Bagatz did not accept the Municipality request to issue an injunction to halt the flights over the city at night.

Bagatz addressed four clause (clauses #5-8) of the Municipality 165 clause petition, directing the state to provide answers within 30 days to the Municipality’s questions in these four clauses. Three clauses address the long term use of the landing path over Modiin beyond the period of the Ben Gurion Runway works (the major use of the landing path over Modiin is due until the end of 2011).

One clause (clause #8) is  directed at Gilad Erdan, the minister in charge of Defense of the Environment. Within this clause Minister Erdan is asked to explain why he does not use his power to issue a warrant forbidding flights over Modiin at night.

It should be noted that the State’s response to the petition included a letter from the Ministry of Defense of the Environment, referring to the noise measured during the night flights over Modiin in July, and stating that this noise is not unreasonable noise. Thus, the minister of Defense of Environment is likely to stick to this position.

However we now have a window of opportunity that is four weeks long to apply public pressure on the Minister of Environment Gilad Erdan to change the position of its ministry and to issue a warrant forbidding flights over Modiin at night.

Clear Skies has already sent a letter last week to Gilad Erdan, urging him to heed the calls of Modiin residents and to issue a warrant forbidding flights over Modiin at night. We enclosed letters we received from residents detailing the adverse effects the night flights have on their ability to sleep, including their children. We asked to schedule an urgent meeting with the Minister and invited him for a brief nightly visit to Modiin to experience for himself the noise levels involved.

We will also ask the media to help by putting Minister Gilad Erdan on the Spotlight. If we do not receive the desired answer from the Minister we will call on you, Modiin-Maccabim-Reut residents, to take an active part in an email/phone/fax campaign targeting Minister Erdan, and if that will not do the trick we will organize a rally.

We feel compelled to protest once again the deception of the Modiin Municipality’s publications, who stated after the court published its decision that “The Supreme Court has accepted all of the Municipality’s claims”. If that were the case, the flights would have of course ceased. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.

For more details on the Supreme Court decision and its consequences please see the post on our Hebrew website.