The Municipality to Petition the Supreme Court against the Night Flights – but its Chances Appear Slim

On Monday this week the Municipality issued the following press release (translation to English courtesy of Modiinfo):

Municipality to Petition the High Court Against the Night-time Landing Path

The city's management met last night (Monday) in order to discuss the latest developments regarding the nighttime flights over the city.

During the discussion, it was agreed that the city cannot function properly with the noise disturbances caused by the planes and the disruption of the residents' quality of life. It was therefore decided to petition the High Court against the nighttime landing route above the city.

The route is a blatant violation of the entire process that began when the Civil Aviation Authority and the Israel Airports Authority declared in front of the High Court that "the procession will run only during the afternoon hours, depending on the direction of the wind. We are only speaking about approximately 30 landings on weekdays, and around 20 on weekends. The procession is only temporary until Route 30 is renewed, planned, and implemented."

The municipality will hire the services of the former head of the CAA, a pilot and Israeli aviation expert, Neri Yarkoni, esq. In the past, Yarkoni has represented a number of authorities against the CAA and the IAA, and today leads the Holon area against a night-time flight plan similar to the one affecting Modiin.

Yarkoni will join the Municipality Legal Advisor, Dana Chafetz-Tokler, Esq, Einav Livna, Esq, from the Legal Department, and Ayal Mamo, Esq. and Avi Portman, Esq. from Agmon Attorneys.

The basis for the petition as stated above are statements made by the aviation authorities to Bagatz well over a year ago. The problem is that Modiin Municipality erased its petition in June 2009, and thus it is essentially relying on a dead process, that was succeeded by a new process with totally different parameters.

Following the resident protests organized by Clear Skies in July 2009, the municipality and the CAA entered into a new process, in which the CAA evaluated the Modiin Municipality’s proposed landing path. This process culminated in the CAA decision published last April, which included a reduced forecast of 5-10 flights expected to fly over Modiin, but on the other hand the CAA decision did not include even a single word about any restrictions on what hours flights will take place over Modiin.

Instead of appealing to Bagatz against the CAA decision as Clear Skies proposed, the Modiin Municipality embraced the CAA decision document, overlooking the fact that there was no mention of the hours which this landing path will be used. The Modiin Mayor Haim Bibas put his faith in the forecast cited in the CAA document and in the trust relations with head of CAA, Giora Rom.

Thus Clear Skies believes that the appeal to Bagatz has very slim chances of success, and that it is mostly aimed to convey to Modiin residents that its Municipality is doing everything it can to stop the night flights that are disturbing the sleep of its residents.

We sincerely hope that the Municipality’s legal team has some tricks up their sleeves that they are not sharing with us, and that our assessment above will ultimately be proven wrong.

For more details see the post on our Hebrew Website.

The CAA: Oops, Our Forecast was Wrong…

The new LDA landing path over Modiin started operating on July 1st 2010, and ever since then Modiin residents have been suffering from noisy flights every night. Click here to watch a short video filmed by Clear Skies activist Ezi Shabi of these night flights over Cramim neighborhood (Tsipor).

Last Thursday the CAA informed Modiin Municipality that they are forced to open landing window between 11:30PM and 01:00AM for long range flights who carry heavier loads and require the longer runway 30. While the LDA landing path over Modiin is considered by the aviation authorities as the last priority during the day, it is considered by the aviation authorities as the only option during the night for flights landing on runway 30.

BTW, the experienced airline captain who consulted Clear Skies and the Municipality stated that flights can land over Ben Shemen forest (instead of over Modiin) also at night when good weather conditions exist, but the CAA rejected his opinion.

As result of the night flights Bibas sent an angry letter to the head of CAA, Giora Rom, claiming that the agreements between the sides were breached and threatened to appeal to Bagatz.

The aviation authorities responded that there was never any agreement between the aviation authorities and the Modiin Municipality - and they are correct. The CAA decision was a one sided document, which Modiin Municipality did not even receive a draft in advance to provide its comments and feedback – and the Modiin Municipality certainly is not a party to any agreement. The CAA worded its decision very carefully and provided what it termed as a “forecast” of 5-10 planes daily that would pass Modiin. In the CAA decision document there is no restriction regarding night flights.

It is precisely because that a “forecast” is such a nonbinding term and because there is no legal binding agreement between the the CAA and Modiin Municipality that Clear Skies pushed to appeal to Bagatz, in order to set clear restrictions to the use of the LDA landing path, and to set sanctions in case these restrictions are violated.

However mayor Bibas ignored all the warnings by Clear Skies and by council members Danny Rosenfeld and Alex Weinreb, and rejected our appeals to go to Bagatz, stating that he has complete faith in Giora Rom, head of the CAA. Bibas persuaded the great majority of the city council members to support his position, relying on these forecasts and presenting them as agreements. Mayor Bibas and the city council members ignored the hundreds of emails sent by Modiin residents responding to our request, urging the mayor and the council members to continue to struggle for clear skies.

Now we are all paying the price of Bibas’s gullibility, vanity and inability to heed others’ advise. 

The main obstacle to go to Bagatz now against a decision made by the CAA in April is that the supreme court rejects appeals that are not made in short proximity to the decision. Thus an appeal submitted by Modiin Municipality in July-August against a decision published in April may be rejected out of hand by the supreme court due to “shihuy” (delay).

We still hope that it is not to late to go to Bagatz, but the likelihood is that our quality of life will be significantly compromised over the next year and a half, and perhaps even longer.

For more information please see the detailed post in our Hebrew website.

Clear Skies Recap and New Revelations

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.

The struggle for Clear Skies is over

Modiin city council, with all of its 17 council members present, discussed Wednesday evening the proposal submitted by Alex Weinreb to submit a petition to Bagatz against the CAA decision to establish a new landing path for commercial jet planes at height of approximately 400 meters over the heart of Modiin-Maccabim-Reut. Only ~15 residents heeded our call to come to vote, and 50 residents sent emails to the city council members.

Council member Danny Rosenfeld was predominant in the discussion, asking challenging questions and claiming that without a binding legal agreement we have no guarantees that the “forecast” presented by the CAA of 5-10 flights per day over Modiin that will end by December 2011, will indeed materialize. But Rosenfeld’s arguments were dismissed.

According to reports we received, council member Levana Shifman (#2 on Weinreb’s Greens list) was very persistent in the discussion on the flights held Monday night in the coalition management forum, and asked challenging questions. That discussion ended with a coalition management decision that supports the process led by mayor Bibas and Deputy Mayor Bernstein, and opposes the proposal to appeal to Bagatz against the CAA decision. Coalition members are expected to adhere in their vote in city council regarding matters discussed and decided in the coalition management forum.

When Alex Weinreb’s proposal was brought to a vote, it was supported only by council members Weinreb & Rosenfeld. All the other council members present supported the counter proposal submitted by mayor Bibas, describing the management forum decision. Council member Levana Shifman left the meeting room just prior to the vote.

Mayor Bibas said he plans to file a lawsuit for loss of property value due to the CAA decision, but that will have no impact on the decision itself. According to the information presented to council members, the prospect of success for such a lawsuit are deemed very slim.

Mayor Bibas continued to disseminate disinformation during the meeting, and adamantly refused the request of council member Danny Rosenfeld to allow the Clear Skies delegates to present words to city council – even though that it is a common practice to do so when groups struggling for a come to city council (examples: parents from Reut school, resident struggling for a synagogue in Maccabim, residents struggling against cellular antennas – all got their say).

We are now at the mercy of the CAA and the Airport Authority, and we can only hope that their forecast – of 5-10 flights per day over Modiin that will end by December 2011 - will indeed materialize. The flights are due to start July 1st.

Senior CAA and Airport Authority officials laugh in our faces in a meeting held September 2009 – they knew why (photo: Eli Gal)

Come tonight at 6:45PM to the Municipality Bldg for our last chance to divert the planes

Tonight, Wednesday 2.6.10 at 7PM a Modiin city council meeting will be held in the municipality building, 1 Tiltan St. The first item on the agenda is a proposal for the municipality to appeal to Bagatz against the CAA landing path of jet planes over the heart of Modiin-Maccabim-Reut.

The appeal to Bagatz is our last chance to divert away from the city’s populated areas the jet planes that will start landing over our heads on July 1st 2010.

During the past few days we met with several key city council members and we asked for their support for the appeal to Bagatz. There are still quite a few city council members who have not made up their mind. Some of the city council members are influenced by pressure from the mayor, and they hesitate from going against the mayor’s position, who opposes the appeal to bagatz -  despite the fact that mayor Bibas explicitly promised Modiin residents that he will exhaust all options at our disposal in order to prevent the noise and pollution from these jet planes.

Therefore it is imperative that as many Modiin-Maccabim-Reut residents show up tonight at 6:45PM at the municipality building, and stare at their elected representatives in the eye, and ask them to serve their constituents, and appeal to Bagatz. Please print and hold in your hands this simple message, or attach it to your shirt.

Please also email today the city council members using this email address: council@modiin.us . It's enough to write a title like "please decide to appeal to Bagatz against the landing path!" and to sign your name. If you have any connection to specific city council members, now is the time to contact them and ask them to support the appeal to Bagatz. Their contact info is available here.

The call to appeal to Bagatz is backed by both Green parties, who rarely unite on anything: The Green party leader in Modiin, council member Alex Weinreb, who picked up the gauntlet and submitted the proposal to appeal to Bagatz to city council, as well as Eitan Keter Yaakov, the head of the Modiin branch of “ha’tnuaa ha’yeruka”.

Please remind yourself how the Modiin public rallied in their masses in July last year, when about a 1,000 residents drove in a convoy of 350 cars to Ben Gurion Airport to protest the aviation authorities decision to setup a flight path over the heart of Modiin. Recall also the declarations made by Haim Bibas that if the path is not shifted to the unpopulated areas, then we will go back to appeal to Bagats. Watch this video from the protest last July:

http://www.flix.co.il/tapuz/showVideo.asp?m=3310243

If a large number of Modiin-Maccabim-Reut turn up tonight we stand a good chance of affecting the decision. Be there!

Please see our Hebrew Website for more details.

New Landing Path Officially Published - Time for Bagatz

Last week Clear Skies for Modiin learned by accident that the new flight path over Modiin was already formally published, without the CAA or the Modiin Municipality informing the Modiin public. The flight path was initially published as going into effect on June 3rd, 2010. This publication was replaced by a second publication according to which the flight path will go into effect on July 1st, 2010. Given that new flight paths need to be published 45 days before they go into effect, this means that the new flight path was published no later than April 19th 2010 – well over a month ago, without informing the Modiin public.

Our only course of action at this point is to appeal to the supreme court of justice against CAA’s chosen flight path, stating that viable alternative flight paths that are less damaging to Modiin residents have been proposed, and that these alternate flight paths have been rejected out of hand by the CAA. Clear Skies has found a law office that specializes in aviation law, who are very well versed with the legal aspects of the flight paths. Their lead solicitor was the legal council to the Lapidot committee, which one of its recommendations was to setup an instrument landing approach to runway 30 (which resulted in the flight path over Modiin). The law office believes that we have a good chance of changing the CAA decision via a petition to Bagatz, but that we must act fast.

We conveyed the above information to mayor Bibas a week ago and we asked for an urgent meeting to promote the petition to Bagatz, but we were ignored - just like the hundreds of emails sent by Modiin residents earlier this month were ignored.

During the course of the past few weeks Clear Skies members have been under a great deal of pressure by elements in the Modiin Municipality to close shop, as the Modiin mayor announced that as far as he is concerned, the struggle for Clear Skies is over and that we need to accept the CAA decision. Sharon Maoz resigned from Clear Skies three weeks ago, stating in a newspaper interview that he had no choice but to side with the mayor, and last week four more activists followed suit.

Those of us who  continue the struggle for Clear Skies remain committed only to the 5,000 residents who signed the Clear Skies petition, demanding:

“to wage a stubborn struggle for our quality of life and for our property, via any legal, judicial or public means against the proposed flight path, because we will not let Modiin-Maccabim-Reut become Israel’s neglected backyard!”

Thus we are taking the struggle to the city council arena, and we are calling on the general Modiin-Maccabim-Reut public to demand from Modiin city council on its meeting on Wednesday this week, June 2nd, 7PM, to decide on urgently submitting a petition to Bagatz by the Municipality against the CAA flight path.

It is imperative that a great deal of Modiin residents show up for this city council meeting, stare the city council members in the eye, and demand them to submit a petition to Bagatz. The cost of submitting such a petition is negligible (~one shekel per Modiin resident) and we have nothing to lose by submitting it, and a lot to gain.

Please note Wednesday June 2nd 7PM in your calendar and follow closely our announcements this week.

Your active support this week is crucial for the struggle to keep our Skies Clear of  noisy and polluting jet planes.

See the announcement on our Hebrew Clear Skies website for more details.

Call for action: Flood the mayor’s office with emails calling to continue the fight for Clear Skies!

On Wednesday this week, May 5th, at 7PM a city council meeting will be held in the municipality building. We would like to use this opportunity to apply public pressure on the Mayor Haim Bibas and the city council members, to pass a decision in city council declaring that the Modiin City Council decides to continue the forceful struggle against the proposed flight path over Modiin, using all the means at the municipality’s disposal.

Thus we call upon all the residents of Modiin-Maccabim-Reut to flood the mayor’s office from now until Wednesday night with emails, faxes and phone calls, in which you will convey to Mayor Haim Bibas that the residents of Modiin-Maccabim_Reut expect him to continue to lead the struggle against the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) flight path, and that the residents of the city will continue to give the mayor all the public backing that he will need, as we have done throughout the past year.

We have designated a special email address (council@modiin.us) in order to keep track of your emails and so as not to flood the emails of the council members who are mostly volunteers. We will update the city council members every day on the number of emails you sent.

Please send your emails to: haim-bibas@modiin.muni.il; council@modiin.us

Proposed title: Mayor and Council members – keep fighting for Clear Skies!

Write a few words in the body and sign your full name and city of residence. You can use the sample Hebrew letter included in this link.

Fax the mayor’s office at: 08-9721034

Call the mayor’s office at: 08-9726010

Please pass on this message to your email contacts in Modiin and ask them to do the same.

Let the mayor know that you you are not ready to give up yet!

Please see the announcement on our Hebrew website for more details:
http://planesmodiin.blogspot.com/2010/05/blog-post.html