Israeli Expansion Pushes Towards the Sea

Israel expands its territory by constructing artificial islands
The example of the Japanese, who expand their living area by building artificial islands has turned out to be rather catchy: the Israelis are planning to create two such constructions in the nearest future.

The Israel Institute of Technology is developing a large-scale project for the construction of two artificial, teardrop-shaped islands; each Island will cost investors approximately one billion dollars.

Although the sum is rather considerable for Israel’s economy, which is currently experiencing a crisis, the creators of the idea say that all spending will be recovered rather quickly. On these islands, they want to build new, expensive offices, airports, and blocks of apartments facing the sea.

According to the plan, this technical miracle will be joined with the “mainland” by kilometers-long bridges; traffic with the new islands will be provided by a system of underwater tunnels. As a result of the new Israeli plan, the artificial islands will not only accommodate up to 20,000 people and provide comfortable offices to 10,000 people, it is supposed that they will also attract up to 20,000 tourists each day.

However, all such projects are expensive, and ecologists say that construction of artificial islands may unfavorably change the environment of the Mediterranean coastal area belonging to Israel.

At least, the trajectory of the sandy lines that make up the coastal beaches will be changed. It is quite natural that Israeli ocean will suffer after the construction of the artificial islands; marine animals will hardly enjoy a massive invasion of people, especially with airports nearby.

Concerning the beaches, the creators of the Israeli project assure that the problem can be solved very easily. The removal of 50-200,000 cubic meters of sand from the new islands to the affected beaches will at the most cost the owners of the island one million dollars. Heck, that’s pocket money for these guys.

In any case, the Israeli Cabinet of Ministers has already included the technical justification of the project on the agenda; it’s likely that investors will get the government’s go-ahead in about three months.

However, scientists warn in advance that they will be able to guarantee that there won’t be an ecological disaster unless the Israeli government gives the scientists an active role in the project. If we think about the problem seriously, the desire of the scientists is quite logical: the financial companies involved in the project are sure to try to cut corners to minimize their spending, and, consequently, as is proven by a short-term economic logic, these companies will ignore details extremely unfavorable for the Israeli environment and ecology, especially if it will save them millions in cash. Of course, theoretically, the scientists will be unbiased, or will they?

Maria Gousseva