1,000 Modiin Protestors Send a Powerful Message

Three hundred and fifty (350) cars (!!!) - we counted them one by one and that's also the official police data - and an estimated 1,000 Modiin residents (!!!) protested yesterday (Friday) via a car convoy and demonstration in front of the Israeli Aircraft Authorities in Ben Gurion, to express their outrage against the IAA intent to turn Modiin into an Airport.

The car convoy stretched for several kilometers along route 443 and highway 1 and blocked for a period of time the entrance to Ben Gurion Airport.

It was heartwarming to see the impressive turnout by Modiin residents (unprecedented in Modiin history) who conducted themselves patiently and orderly in the long convoy to the Airport which lasted over an hour, and stood in the sun and heat in front of the IAA offices, to express their protest, along with their children who received an important lesson in Democracy.

Credit for most photos: Eli Gal

A public in a democracy has power, and what differentiates between cities that are trampled on and between cities whose needs are brought into account is the mobilization of the public and its ability to express forcefulness and resolve.

The public of Modiin-Maccabim-Reut sent a clear message yesterday to the decision makers in Israel that we are not going to quietly accept the arbitrary decision of the Aviation Authorities, and that we will mobilize to fight this in any way available us, making the Modiin public a force to be reckoned with.

The change in tune by the IAA CEO Kobi Mor who spoke to the demonstrators was evident.

A complicated battle still lies ahead, and we are likely to need similar protests in the upcoming weeks. We are hopeful that the Modiin public will have the wisdom to mobilize to the future protests in similar masses.

The following excellent video coverage of the protest by the GO443 shows the heart and spirit of the Modiin residents:
http://www.go443.co.il/Go443/Video/Video.asp?ID=327#

Links to more media coverage and photo album of the protest are available on our Hebrew website: http://planes.modiin.us

Kudos to all the Modiin-Maccabim-Residents residents who took part in the rally yesterday and made it into the impressive event that it was!

Chaos in Aviation - Not over our Children's Heads!

Dear residents of Modiin-Macabim-Reut,

Last week, I along with other members of the Clear Skies campaign committee, met with the General Manager of the Civil Aviation Association, Giora Rom.  On his desk were two eye opening signs that read “The chaos in aviation is over”.

Giora Rom was appointed to his position after the Lapidot comission turned in its findings regarding the serious safety failures of the aviation industry for the past many years which make the failures of the second Lebanon War pale in comparison.

Unfortunately the chaos in the Israeli civil aviation authorities is still going strong!  Only last month, we read in an article in “Haaretz” that as a result of lack of supervision and management by the airport administration a corn field was allowed to grow wild and caused a mishap in the automatic mechanized descent of two planes which flew low over a dangerous mountainous area and only the pilots’ alertness saved the planes from crashing.

This same mechanized system is what the airport authorities want to put into action to land jets every 10 minutes during the afternoon hours at a height of 300 meters above the heads of the residents of Modiin. 

How can we entrust those who cannot even supervise the maintenance of his facilities, with landing 747 aircraft at a low altitude above the heads of our children and hold us hostage to any mechanical mishap or human error?

The Minister of Transportation has remained silent, as well as the Minister for the Protection of the Environment.

The lives of the residents of Or Yehuda have become pure hell, as a result of the takeoff pathway going right over their heads.  This will also be our fate if we sit by and keep silent and not protest and generate a loud public outcry that will create shock waves all the way to Jerusalem.

Tomorrow, Friday July 24^th, 2009 at 9:30 AM we are all gathering at the parking lot opposite the Iriya, and we drive together to Ben Gurion airport in one long convoy of protest led by our mayor Haim Bibas and the members of the city council, in order to send a clear and precise message to the ministers of the Israeli government:

We will not agree to turn Modiin-Macabim-Reut  into part of Ben Gurion Airport!

We will not allow the chaos and irresponsibility of the aviation authorities to celebrate above our children’s heads!

Sincerely,

Yaki Beja
Spokesperson for Clear Skies for Modiin

PS

Please register for the convoy by emailing planes@modiin.us and state your cell phone number so we can keep you posted on last minute updates.

PROTEST CONVOY TO BEN GURION AIRPORT ON FRIDAY LED BY THE MAYOR

The protest convoy will take place this coming Friday July 24th. We will gather at the parking lot across from the Iriya at 9:30 AM and will leave for the airport at 10:00 AM sharp, via route 443 to route 1. The convoy is with the police approval and escort. Mayor Haim Bibas will lead this convoy.

Please register for the convoy by emailing planes@modiin.us and state your cell phone number so we can keep you posted on last minute updates.

In a meeting last week with Giyora Rom, the chief operations manager of the Civil Aviation Administration, he stated clearly that he will be approving within a few days the new landing path over Modiin (see details here). Thus we are intensifying our struggle and are launching a FIERCE PROTEST CONVOY of civilian vehicles, from Modiin to Ben Gurion airport. Police permits have been secured, and there will be a police escort.

The convoy will leave Modiin via the Shilat junction onto Route 443 into route 1 and straight into the airport and will conclude with a demonstration across from the offices of the Civil Aviation Administration at the airport. It is imperative that this demonstration be forceful and we expect that the residents of Modiin will come out in full force to express their rejection of the authority’s intention of converting Modiin to a part of Ben Gurion airport.

We demand from the Minister of Transportation to implement the recommendations of the economics committee of the Knesset to establish a committee of independent experts that will examine the alternatives for the proposed landing paths and it’s negative repercussions for Modiin-Macabim-Reut and its residents.

It is incomprehensible that the entire procedure of implementing new decisions by the government rests entirely on the recommendation of one planner at the Israeli Airport Authority who is determined to convert Modiin to be part of Ben Gurion Airport and who categorically rejects every other proposed alternative.

Yesterday we unveiled the details of the trial flights that were performed above the city as well as additional information that casts grave doubts  about the credibility of the information presented by the airport authorities to the Knesset Members (see details here).

Meeting with Mayor Haim Bibas

The Clear Skies activists met with Mayor Haim Bibas on Monday night. The mayor reinforced the activists' resolve and outlined his ongoing discussions and negotiations with the various authorities and government offices. He promised anticipated interesting developments in the near future. Mayor Haim Bibas will lead the protest convoy to the airport and he has sent a letter to the members of the city council urging them to  personally join this convoy and to recruit other residents to the cause.

The following is an excerpt from Haim Bibas's letter - please see this as a personal request from mayor Bibas to each and every one of you:

"We are arriving at the critical decisive moments of this long campaign that has taken place during the past few months. The public’s outcry of protest is a crucial and an influential ingredient in this campaign and therefore each person’s participation is of great significance for all of us."

WE ARE CALLING UPON EVERY RESIDENT OF MODIIN-MACABIM-REUT TO TURN OUT IN GREAT NUMBERS FOR THIS PROTEST CONVOY TO THE AIRPORT ON FRIDAY JULY 24TH, 9:30 IN FRONT OF THE IRIYA.

Please help us spread the importance of this action to all of the town’s residents

The campaign has printed up thousand of flyers regarding this protest convoy and we need your help in distributing them. They need to be distributed at shopping centers around town, the train station, at synagogues, restaurants, etc. Please give of your limited time by volunteering to pass out these flyers. Call Orli at 052-8555019 to volunteer and receive the flyers. You can also post a flyer in the staircase, elevator, storage area, parking area of your buildings.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE ON YOUR CONTACTS LIST AND EMPHASIZE TO THEM THE UTMOST IMPORTANCE OF EVERYONE’S PARTICIPATION IN THIS PROTEST CONVOY SO AS TO CONVEY A POWERFUL MESSAGE TO THE DECISION MAKERS IN JERUSALEM.

SEE YOU AT 9:30 am THIS COMING FRIDAY IN THE PARKING LOT ACROSS FROM THE IRIYA!

The Civil Aviation Authority is about to approve the landing path over Modiin

The leaders of Clear Skies Over Modiin met at the end of last week with Giora Rom who heads the Civil Aviation Authority.  In this meeting there was a fruitful dialogue of a positive nature, however, the meeting demonstrated that there were no results yet from the simulation of the municipality proposed alternative, and there has been no advancement in exploring the alternatives to the route that goes right by the separation fence.

Giora Rom did not address the fears of the residents regarding a possible accident that could occur at a very low altitude above the homes of the town’s residents. He determined that there is no danger to security in the proposed  landing approach, despite the fact that only several hours prior to this meeting  a plane which crashed in Iran and all 150 passengers on board perished, and a similar catastrophe happened less than a month ago in Yemen.

Giora Rom made it clear that he intends to authorize in the next few days the proposed new landing path which will bring the planes in right over Modiin, and to publicize them to all the international carriers.  This is the final stage before the new landing path goes into operation.  This is despite the fact that the civil aviation authority has not yet properly checked out the alternatives that they committed to examine when they met with the mayor of Modiin on June 21st.

The following is the Clear Skies response to this meeting:

We thank Giyora Rom and the civil aviation administration for agreeing to meet with us, listen to our concerns and laid out for us the constraints that they face.  This is in sharp contrast to the Minister of Transportation, Yisrael Katz, who disregards our requests for a meeting despite the fact that he is an elected public official.

We expect the aviation planning authorities in the Ministry of Transportation to exhaust all possibilities and alternatives, and to leave no stone unturned before they decide arbitrarily to land planes, passing over Modiin at very low altitudes.  We demand the authorities not to set facts on the ground and not to authorize or publicize the landing paths that the Israeli Airport Authority has proposed until after all the alternatives are thoroughly  checked out.

We chose to build our homes in Modiin because it is a green and calm city.  Because of our desire to live in this type of atmosphere we are willing to accept long commutes to our places of employment.  If we were willing to live in a community adjacent to the airport , we would have done so.  It is unacceptable that the residents of Modiin-Macabim-Reut should have to pay the price for the negligence of the Aviation and Planning Authorites of the Transportation Authority for the past many years, as was described in the Lapidot report.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Please help with the campaign. Even an hour of your time can be productive. To volunteer call Orli at 052-8555019 or Sharon 054-6474026 or send an email to planes@modiin.us More volunteers are needed. Even if you can only give an hour, we can use your help, to sign up people to the petition, hand out flyers at the train station or in shopping centers, sign up people for the car convoy next Friday July 24th. All cars will meet at the parking lot accross from the Irya at 9:30 AM and will leave at 10:00 AM sharp via Shilat junction onto 443 to Route 1 into Ben Gurion airport. If we are not successful with this campaign we will all pay the price so lets all come together for this most important cause.

LEAFLETS TO BE PRINTED UP

By following this link http://groups.google.com/group/eplanesmodiin/files?hl=en
you can get to two leaflets written in English and Hebrew that can be printed up on a regular home printer. If everyone is willing to print up as many of these leaflets as possible and put them into the mailboxes in your building/neighborhood, and ask others to do the same, we will have an opportunity to reach many more people. It is essential that we get many many more signatures onto the petition. We are running out of time and must do our very best to reach more people.

Thank you, in advance to all who have answered and will answer the call.

Clear Skies Updates

Summary of Operation Clear Skies

The residents of Modiin, Macabim,Reut answered the call of the steering committee for clear skies over Modiin and flooded the offices of the government and the aviation authorities with incensed emails, in which they expressed their opposition and outrage at turning Modiin into part of Ben Gurion airport.  During the two days of this campaign, 665 emails were sent out to people with decision making capabilities.

We thank those who rose up to the challenge and answered our call to action.  Democracy is defined by power of the public, and we will use all means available to us in order to convey our message to the decision makers that the residents of Modiin, Macabim, Reut will wage a fierce battle against turning our city into part of the airport.

Our city’s residents chose to settle in this city and raise their children in a quiet and green city.  In order to do so Modiin’s residents are willing to put up with long commutes to their places of employment.  Had we wanted to live in one of the communities immediately surrounding the airport we would have done so. 

It is unacceptable that the residents of Modiin, Macabim, Reut, and our children will be required to pay the price for the lack of planning of the aviation authorities for the past many years.  We will continue our struggle of opposition and will intensify it, if it becomes necessary, until we succeed in reversing the proposed new flight paths.

The car convoy protest from Modiin to Ben Gurion Airport rescheduled to July 24, 2009

We are happy to report that the public has expressed an interest in this action and as of Tuesday morning 51 cars have signed up for this protest.  In order to accommodate as many as possible we  pushed the convoy date by a week to Friday July 24th. We will meet at the parking lot opposite the Modiin Municipality at 9:30 AM, mark the vehicles and will leave Modiin at 10:00 as an organized convoy via the Shilat junction to route 443 and onto route 1 straight into Ben Gurion Airport.

The steering committee is calling upon all residents of Modiin to support the campaign and join this convoy in full force.  Please register by email at planes@modiin.us

Reach out to new residents to Sign our Petition 

The steering committee is calling upon all those who have not yet signed the petition, to please do so.  Click here for the English translation of the Clear Skies Hebrew petition.   Currently there are 4,378 signatures, and we should be able to reach to many more residents.  Time is running out.  We aim to submit the petition to the Minister of Transportation within a very short time.  We call upon every adult resident of Modiin-Macabim-Reut to sign the petition.

Campaign actions this week to educate and alert the public:

Tuesday July 14,2009 An activists convoy within the city. We will gather at 7:15PM at the lot across from the Iriya.  They convoy will exit the lot at 7:30 PM via the following route: Emek Ha-ela, Yechezkiel Hanavi, Emek Beit Shean, Emek Zvulun, Azrielli, Emek Hachula, Reut commercial center.  The convoy will use a sound system to announce and explain the campaign issues.

Wednesday July 15,2009 There will be a booth at the balloon festival that will be taking place at the end of Emek Ayalon at the park behind Modiin Center.  6:00 PM-9:00PM

Thursday July 16,2009 A stand for explanation and clarification of the issues will be set up at the Emek Zevulum commercial center where the children’s activities are from 6:00-9:00 PM

Friday July 17,2009 An all day protest vigil starting at 10:00 AM including a booth for explanation and clarification of the issues will take place outside the Azrielli Mall

Please join us for any and all of the above activities.  There is strength in numbers and every voice makes a difference.

We need your help to organize the above actions – to volunteer please email planes@modiin.us .

Operation Clear Skies is Underway

Purpose: Overflowing the decision makers in the Israeli Government and the Aviation Authorities with the objections of Modiin-Maccabim-Reut residents to their plan to turn Modiin into Ben Gurion Airport.

Method: Overflowing the decision makers via mail, fax & phone today Sunday July 12th and tomorrow Monday July 13th.

Each of us will forward on this message to fellow residents and call them to do the same.

Operational Instructions:

1. Send Email to Decision Makers

a. Create the header and recipients

1) Outlook users:

Click here to create an email automatically populated with the recipients and header.

2) Gmail, Walla, Hotmail and other webmail users:

Compose an email and copy-paste the following recipients and header (or compose your own header as you please):

Recipient list:

   

sar@mot.gov.il; yiskatz@knesset.gov.il; pniot@sviva.gov.il; pmo.heb@it.pmo.gov.il; KobiMo@iaa.gov.il; gerdan@knesset.gov.il; lplanes@modiin.us; bnetanyahu@knesset.gov.il

    

Proposed header: We will not allow Modiin to be turned into an airport!

b. Fill the email body, Sign it and click Send

Write a few words in the email body or copy into it the following sample text, sign it with your name and address, and click send.

Sample email body text:

    

TO:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Minister of Transportation Yisrael Katz
Minister of Environmental Protection Gilad Erdan
General Manager of Civil Aviation Authority Giora Rom
General Manager of Israel Airport Authority Kobi Mor

Dear Sirs,

I vehemently oppose the intention of the aviation authorities to convert Modiin-Maccabim-Reut into part of Ben Gurion Airport and to bring planes down, in their landing path, at a height of 300 meters above our heads, every 10 minutes in the afternoon hours.

With this plan you will impose on us and our children unacceptable and untenable hardships of noise and air pollution.  But most of all a life threatening danger, every 10 minutes in the event of human or mechanical failure that might cause a crash into one of our tall buildings, which are built on hills, and cause an unfathomable  human catastrophe.

We chose to live in Modiin as a quiet and green city and a good place to raise our children.  In order to achieve this we took on upon ourselves longer commutes to our places of employment.  If we were interested in living in one of the existing residential communities surrounding Ben Gurion airport , we would have chosen to do so.

It is unacceptable that the residents of Modiin-Macabim-Reut should be expected to pay the price due to the failure and omissions of the aviation planning authorities  for the past years upon years to address flight safety issues. This is an outright arbitrary maltreatment  by the authorities, of the citizens.

We demand the implementation of the recommendation issued by the Knesset Economic Committee to establish a committee of independent experts that will examine the  alternative landing paths while taking into consideration the impact on the safety and quality of life of the residents of Modiin-Macabim-Reut.

Sincerely

Name
Address

     

2. Send Fax to Decision Makers

Print the mail you just sent and fax it to the following numbers:

Minister of Transportation: 02-6663004
Minister of Environmental Protection : 02-6535958
Prime Minister Office: 02-5664838
General Manager of Civil Aviation Authority : 03-9774599
General Manager of Israel Airport Authority : 03-9712436

3. Call the Offices of the Decision Makers

Call the following phone numbers and ask to leave a brief message expressing strong objection to turning Modiin into an airport:

Minister of Transportation: 02-6663005
Minister of Environmental Protection : 02-6553701/2
Prime Minister Office: 02-6705555
General Manager of Israel Airport Authority : 03-750000

4. Forward this message to your mailing lists

Forward this message via email to all the city residents in your mailing lists - school, kindergarten, synagogue, etc.

5. Get your neighbors to act too

Print this message in several copies, knock on your neighbors doors, hand them a copy and ask them to visit our website today and join the campaign: http://planes.modiin.us

_________________________________________________

We ask the residents to cease fire on Tuesday, and we will act to leverage the operation results for a media effect. Afterwards we will assess the situation and we may ask the residents several days later to overflow again the decision makers.

We will post updates on the Hebrew campaign web site throughout today and tomorrow as to the number of mails sent by the residents (one of the email addresses belongs to our campaign and we will use it to monitor the progress).

PS

Register for our protest convoy!

On Friday morning July 24th we are organizing a convoy of cars from Modiin to Ben Gurion Airport to join the proposed landing paths. We will convene at 10:30AM in the parking lot in front of the Municipality and embark together on our journey to Ben Gurion Airport at 11:00AM.

If you are able to attend the convoy please email your name and mobile phone number to planes@modiin.us so we can update you on the exact time and place.

The Hebrew version of this message is available here.

קראו כאן את הגרסה העברית של הודעה זו

Don't let Modiin become Ben Gurion Airport!

From the facts  that we have gathered a very dire picture of the consequences of the planned landing route for Modiin-Maccabbeam-Reut and its residents:

1. The Airport Authority provided data that indicates that 190 planes will land each week (150 flights on weekdays and 40 on Friday night-Saturday) between the hours of 13:00 to 18:00. The implications: Every 10 minutes a low-flying plane will fly over on a weekday, and on Shabbat there will be one every 15 minutes.
2. Each year the volume of incoming traffic increases by 5-10%. If so, in five years, an incoming plane will fly over the city every 6 minutes on weekdays, and every 9 minutes on Shabbat.
3. These are not the planes flying at great heights (as the present night flights to the east), but rather part of the last leg of the landing which means decreasing altitude to only 300-400 meters above residents' homes.
4. The Airport Authority confirms that these flights will cause significant noise to the city residents. Air pollution in the city is also expected to get worse.
5. The danger to security is even more serious – any technical difficulty or human error at this low level of flight above densely populated areas could cause a terrible tragedy.
6. The Lapidot report presented a year and a half ago evidenced faults in systems and serious failures by the airport authorities and planners in the  Ministry of Transportation over many years. They never succeeded in internalizing the need to upgrade the airway aspect of B.G., and are now attempting to do this in a haphazard manner to the detriment of the residents of Modiin-Maccabbeam-Reut.
7. According to Ha'aretz newspaper (June 24, 2009), the Airport Authority also demonstrated negligence in operating the computerized  landing system (similar to the one they are now trying to operate over Modiin), and several weeks ago the system sent the wrong instructions to airplanes which might have crashed if not for the alertness of the pilots. The findings of the investigation showed that the backup system did not discover the problem and did not warn of the error in real time because there were no procedures relating to a dangerous situation of this kind. In addition, in the wake of the fact that the Airport Authority was negligent in inspecting the clean-up of the area of the runway, high and thick vegetation in the area of the navigational support apparatus at B.G. interfered with the signal ray that is used by passenger airplanes in descending for landing.

1. In the Airport Authority's response to this serious incident, it related to it as a 'minor problem'. If this is the way the Authority operates, how can it be depended on to direct planes flying low over the city's densely populated neighborhoods?

In our opinion, the Israeli Airport Authority's operation has been scandalous and irresponsible during this entire period, and was characterized by hidden action behind the back of the Modiin municipality, dismissing the alternatives proposed without examining them properly. In the light of the scandalous operation  of the Airport Authority and the serious determinations of the Lapidot Report regarding the failings of the Aviation Planning Authorities and the the inability of the Civil Aviation Authority (the regulator) to fulfill its tasks, we have lost faith in the decision-making processes of these authorities.

It is also important to emphasize that the Israeli Airport  Authority and the Civil Aviation Authority relate to the alternatives with only the safety of the flight in mind; they do not relate to the consequences of the flight descent paths on the residents on the ground.

We demand that two alternatives be examined: The alternative proposed by an expert hired by the municipality of Modiin to begin the descent arc a kilometer earlier, above the unpopulated area of the city (and Ligad Center). The second alternative is to examine solutions with the Defense Department for an optimally secure air lane a kilometer close to the separation fence.

Members of the Knesset economics committee who participated in the discussion arrived at the conclusion that the process has not been proper and does not deserve the public's confidence, and the committee recommended the establishment of an independent committee of experts that would take into account all the various factors in determining the alternatives for the landing lane, including the implications of the alternatives for the residents of Modiin-Maccabbeam-Reut.

We demand that the government of Israel implement the recommendation of the Knesset economics committee to establish an independent committee of experts to examine these alternatives, and call upon the residents of Modiin-Maccabbeam-Reut to awaken from their apathy, to understand the consequences of what is about to happen above our heads and to join the struggle.

Your joining the struggle is essential for its success in protecting our homes – please join the team and let us know how you can help.

Headquarters of the residents' struggle for clear skies in Modiin-Maccabbeam-Reut:

Cellphone: 054-6474026

Email: planes@modiin.us

Website: http://planes.modiin.us 

English Website: http://eplanes.modiin.us