The Forum For Green Israel

The Forum For Green Israel (Hebrew: הפורום לישראל ירוקה) is an Israeli environmental non-profit association (amuta) founded in 2011 by a group of young veterans of special units of the Israel Defense Forces. During their military service they encountered numerous environmental hazards across the country and saw how difficult it was for state authorities to deal with them. The absence of treatment and enforcement, they argued, invited vandalism and the destruction of many spaces and resources in Israel. Out of that exposure grew the desire to form an association that would promote environmental protection in Israel from a Zionist worldview and assist law-enforcement authorities in the national effort. The organisation's declared purpose is to help law-enforcement bodies protect natural resources through field documentation and monitoring, research into the severity and scope of environmental phenomena, and the promotion of legislative solutions in the legal and parliamentary fields. It works from a concept of 'cross-border hazards': because of gaps in regulation and enforcement between different areas of Israel, including Judea and Samaria, it seeks to prevent those areas from becoming a source of pollution that harms the rest of the country, such as smoke from fires and contamination of water sources. Its founder is Gilad Ach, who was among the founders of the right-wing organisation Ad Kan – Young People for Israel. The association's CEO is Erez Kalif. One of the most prominent volunteers was Gilad Ach, who still serves as chairman of the association. Gilad is the brother of David Ach, a Shayetet 13 fighter who died after contracting cancer as a result of diving in the polluted waters of the Kishon River during his military service. All of David's team-mates died of cancer following the dives in the Kishon and were recognised, after a struggle, as fallen IDF soldiers. In the framework of a legal proceeding initiated by the Atalef association of Shayetet 13 veterans against the IDF, Gilad Ach was asked to document the water pollution in the Kishon. Thus the initial core of volunteers for documenting environmental hazards was formed, and out of it the association was established. In time, a causal link was proven between the chemical waste and industrial sewage discharged into the river from factories in the area, the concentration of carcinogenic substances found in the water, and the outbreak of the disease among the divers. Following that loss, and out of an understanding that a considerable part of the pollution and environmental damage in Israel is carried out by giant corporations for economic motives, and that there is a lack of effective treatment and enforcement against environmental harm including the destruction of many spaces and resources in Israel, the 'Forum for a Green Israel' association was established in order to document, expose and act against business entities that harm the environment. The Forum's areas of activity include waste (fires and smuggling of electronic waste, burning of agricultural and household waste, pirate construction-waste landfill sites); illegal industries (pirate quarries, illegal concrete plants); vehicle dismantling (illegal car scrapyards, smuggling of faulty batteries out of Israel); public advocacy (conferences, publications in the media and on social networks); and legal and legislative activity (promoting primary legislation for systemic solutions by waste stream or environmental crime, in order to make environmental harm economically unviable, and filing complaints with enforcement bodies and financial claims against environmental offenders in order to exact a price from those who harm the environment). Once a year or more, the association publishes reports and studies on various environmental topics.

The Forum For Green Israel was founded in 2011 by a group of young veterans of special units of the Israel Defense Forces. During their military service they were exposed to numerous environmental hazards across Israel and to the difficulty of state authorities in dealing with them effectively. The absence of treatment and enforcement, they argued, invited vandalism and the destruction of many spaces and resources in the country. Out of this exposure grew a strong desire to form an association that would promote environmental protection in Israel from a Zionist worldview and assist law-enforcement authorities in the national effort. The association's origins are closely tied to the Kishon River affair. One of the most prominent volunteers was Gilad Ach, who still serves as chairman. Gilad is the brother of David Ach, a Shayetet 13 fighter who died after contracting cancer as a result of diving in the polluted waters of the Kishon River during his military service. All of David's team-mates died of cancer following the dives in the Kishon and were recognised, after a struggle, as fallen IDF soldiers. In the framework of a legal proceeding initiated by the Atalef association of Shayetet 13 veterans against the IDF, Gilad Ach was asked to document the water pollution in the Kishon. Thus the initial core of volunteers for documenting environmental hazards was formed, and out of it the association was established. In time, a causal link was proven between the chemical waste and industrial sewage discharged into the river from factories in the area, the concentration of carcinogenic substances found in the water, and the outbreak of the disease among the divers. Following that loss, and out of an understanding that a considerable part of the pollution and environmental damage in Israel is carried out by giant corporations for economic motives, and that there is a lack of effective treatment and enforcement against environmental harm including the destruction of many spaces and resources in Israel, the 'Forum for a Green Israel' association was established in order to document, expose and act against business entities that harm the environment. The organisation's declared purpose is to help law-enforcement bodies protect natural resources through field documentation and monitoring, research into the severity and scope of environmental phenomena, and the promotion of legislative solutions in the legal and parliamentary fields. It works from a concept of 'cross-border hazards': because of gaps in regulation and enforcement between different areas of Israel, including Judea and Samaria, it seeks to prevent those areas from becoming a source of pollution that harms the rest of the country, such as smoke from fires and contamination of water sources. Its areas of activity include waste (fires and smuggling of electronic waste, burning of agricultural and household waste, pirate construction-waste landfill sites); illegal industries (pirate quarries, illegal concrete plants); vehicle dismantling (illegal car scrapyards, smuggling of faulty batteries out of Israel); public advocacy (conferences, publications in the media and on social networks); and legal and legislative activity (promoting primary legislation for systemic solutions by waste stream or environmental crime, in order to make environmental harm economically unviable, and filing complaints with enforcement bodies and financial claims against environmental offenders in order to exact a price from those who harm the environment). Once a year or more, the association publishes reports and studies on various environmental topics. Their purpose is to raise awareness and put on the public agenda phenomena of environmental harm that involve regulatory failure and a lack of enforcement by state authorities. Published studies include research on pirate vehicle scrapping in Israel; research on pirate and legal quarrying in Judea and Samaria; research on inorganic agricultural waste and its treatment in Israel; research on batteries and their treatment in Israel; and a national hazards survey mapping and documenting all the ecological hazards caused by illegal industries in Israel, made accessible to the public on the Forum's website. Among the achievements the association lists are the closure of a concrete plant in Tzur Yitzhak and the 'Mega Beton' concrete plant near the Oranit crossing and Rosh HaAyin; the closure of a pirate waste landfill at Dimona in the Eshlon riverbed; the closure of a pirate landfill in Yarkon, north of the Segula industrial area in Petah Tikva; fines imposed by the Ministry of Environmental Protection on electronic-waste recycling corporations; the closure of a large construction-waste transfer station used by criminal organisations in the Yavne area; and the closure of a construction-waste site in Rantis.

• 2011

  The Forum For Green Israel is founded by a group of young veterans of IDF special units.

• Gilad Ach documents water pollution in the Kishon River as part of a legal proceeding by the Atalef association, forming the initial core of volunteers.

• Closure of a concrete plant in Tzur Yitzhak and the 'Mega Beton' concrete plant near Oranit and Rosh HaAyin.

• Closure of a pirate waste landfill at Dimona in the Eshlon riverbed.

• Closure of a pirate landfill in Yarkon, north of the Segula industrial area in Petah Tikva.

• Fines imposed by the Ministry of Environmental Protection on electronic-waste recycling corporations.

• Closure of a large construction-waste transfer station used by criminal organisations in the Yavne area.

• Closure of a construction-waste site in Rantis.

A Zionist environmental watchdog that assists law-enforcement authorities by documenting, exposing and litigating against environmental offences, with a focus on cross-border hazards and illegal industries.

1. 1Official websitegreenis.org.il
2. 2Wikidatawikidata.org
3. 3Hebrew Wikipediahe.wikipedia.org