Economic woes in the United States and Europe may force one leading environmental group to shutter its doors. The Public Health Coalition, a 12-year-old green group located in Haifa, will be force to close this month if it cannot gather the emergency funding needed to keep afloat. The coalition issued a statement saying that fruitless fundraising efforts in the last year both in Israel and abroad have left the group in the red. “Over the last year, raising money from foundations has been very difficult to …More

Thirteen years ago, the navy launched an investigation into the wide scale pollution of the Kishon River. Now new findings, soon to be published by the Environmental Protection Ministry, claim that a nearby naval IDF base was one of the sources of the river’s contamination. "I was here 12 years ago with the Shamgar Commission in an effort to map the enormous pollution that occurred here," Yuval Tamir, a former naval officer who heads up an organization to help support naval officers impacted by cancer after …More

A ruling last week in Israel’s High Court of Justice has made polluting much more expensive. Under the current law, which the court upheld, companies manufacturing polluting materials could be held responsible for the cost of the cleanup. Last year, the Knesset passed a landmark bill to fund a nationwide asbestos cleanup project. The program, led by the Environmental Protection Ministry, called for both the government and the manufacturers of polluting materials to be held responsible for the cost of …More

The head of the National Commission for the Protection of the Environment in North Sinai has accused Israel of dumping sewage and toxic waste in the Mediterranean. Abdallah al-Hijawy, commission chair, plans on recruiting environmental NGOs to help file claims in an international court to stop the pollution. “In front of the international community, Israel is responsible for the service sector in the occupied lands,” he said. According to al-Hijawy, Israel currently discharges over 180,000 cubic …More

A Venezuelan leader slams an opponent over a "Hitler" jibe. [Forward] Some artefacts from the Syrian shul burning have been saved. [Forward] Israelis start eating carbs again. [Times of Israel] Is air pollution causing Israelis shortness of breath? [Times of Israel] The US is seeing a rise in Jewish single mothers. [Ynet] The Buenos Aires Holocaust Museum is running some sort of Hitler moustache ad. And it doesn't seem to be an April Fool's joke. [Heeb] …More

The IDF is shifting gear when it comes to preserving environmental quality, and presenting a new set of measures to be taken this year. "The IDF's role is to protect the state, but there is no reason why we shouldn't also create a balance and protect the environment too – if we provide commanders with the tools to do so," said head of the Technology and Logistics Branch's Environmental Protection Administration Lt. Col. Eli Paz. "Alongside the ongoing security struggle, we must also engage in the struggle …More

A team of scientists from Tel Aviv University are using data retrieved from NASA satellites to understand the relationship between weather and air pollution. In a recently published article in the American Journal of Climate Change, the scientists suggested a revolutionary method to standardize how pollution is tested and tracked worldwide. “Using the same algorithm to calculate for the whole world, we can really get more objective methodology for monitoring pollution,” lead investigator Pinhas Alpert …More

Arab and Jewish residents banded together on Sunday to protest plans for a new cement factory in central Israel’s Qalansawe Industrial Zone. School children and others from nearby communities waved signs reading “My House is Not a Dump Site!” to draw attention for the high levels of industrial pollution already plaguing the region and demand that plans to build new factories be stopped. According to community activists, illegal dumping and pollution from nearby factories have turned the area in …More

NoCamels Team, NoCamels - Israeli Innovation News Researchers at Tel Aviv University have managed to produce quality analysis of pollution in major cities around the world – using readings taken in outer space. Professor Pinhas Alpert of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences and head of the Porter School of Environmental Studies, is turning to three of NASA’s high-tech satellites for a comprehensive view of pollutants in the atmosphere. Using eight years’ …More

Israel has joined an innovative clean air project taking place across 27 international sites. The program, called CITISENSE, seeks to unite the global community against pollution trends. To that end, Haifa has become one of nine launching cities to begin CITISENSE cooperation, including Belgrade, Oslo, Barcelona, Edinburgh and Vienna. Cities from nations across Europe, Asia and Australia will ultimately join as well. Participating sites will use sensor technology to share information and monitor air …More

On Yom Kippur, 99 percent of Israeli drivers voluntarily abstain from taking to the roads, and polluting industries close for the day. As a result, every year air pollution levels around Israel drop dramatically, according to the Environmental Protection Ministry. “It’s a present of the religious community to the secular,” Eilon Schwartz, the founding director of Israeli environmental group Shaharit, said of the High Holiday. He called Yom Kippur “a day that the social, environmental, …More

Pig farming in Israel is a profitable business, especially for farmers willing to flaunt the law. A recent raid on Araf Farms, a piggery in Northern Galilee, revealed the farm brought in over $17.5 million in profits over the past year, while continuing to pollute the environment and subject their animals to cruel conditions. The multi-ministry team conducting the raid found 2000 pigs in cramped conditions wallowing in a sewage sludge strewn with pig carcasses, according to the Agricultural Ministry, part of the …More