?

What is preferable

…To admit a mistake

?or to actually make one …

In this beautiful place, on the margins of the Timna Valley in the Arava
Desert, 20 km north of Eilat, a tourism zone is about to be constructed,
with 4 hotels and two theme parks

on an area of over 300 dunams

(30 hectares), with an invest-
.ment of about a $100 million
 ?Why
?For what
?For whom
20 minutes away from the Timna Valley
there are over 10,000 hotel rooms in Eilat!
History: When the Timna Valley was divided among the local
administative bodies about 15 years ago, the "Hevel Eilot“
Regional Council demanded the area between Sasgon Hill
(at right in the photo) and Michrot Mountain (centre) in order
to establish a hotel. The Nature Reserve Authority reluctantly
.agreed so that the other areas would be declared a nature reserve
The demand to build a hotel stemmed from the fear that there may not be enough economic activity
to support the kibbutzim. Nowadays, local politicians pin high hopes on this tourism zone, which is
!supposed to be a catalyst for the development of the Arava. The cause is worthy, but the price is not

The nature reserve authority agreed to give up an area of rare natural value, simply because the
kibbutzim had the clout: they are the people who live in the area, they were the first modern
inhabitants of the Arava, they are the local authorities. In an area of such sparce population,
everyone knows everyone and everyone works with everyone. There is no opposition.
.In fact, there weren’t even any environmentalists active at that time

.As time went by, the entrepreneurs arrived, the people with the money
 Kibbutz
Elifaz

Blue marks the area of the proposed project to be built by

the Igra Group from Eilat, one of the owners of
Herod’s Hotel. The tourism zone blocks the passage
.between 3 sandstone mountains

The National Israel Trail (in red), which passes

through the most beautiful areas of the
.country, will have to be detoured
This area, which is now natural open space, will be
.electrically fenced off to keep out wild animals
:And this is what they plan to build in the heart of the desert
)Click for next slide(

Mt. Michrot

Sasgon Hill
The official stand of the Nature and Park Authority is that it’s
tolerable, because the plans have been legally approved,
and because the "hotel will be ‘green’". However, hotels in
this part of the desert, even if they are confined to 2-3
storeys, cannot possibly be "green". Bulldozers and cement
trucks simply don’t belong next to magnificent mountains of
virgin sandstone, no matter how beautifully the landscaping
has been planned, or how carefully the project will be
The only thingThe
implemented. green about
only thingthis project
green is the
about this project is the
$103 million that will be invested in it, and the hundreds of
millions of dollars in profits that will be exploited from this
.landscape in the years to come
 ?What’s more important
The law of the land?
?Or the land itself

Who does the desert actually belong to?

?Are we entitled to do whatever we want with it
 .Let's have a look at the Timna region for a moment
.It already bears almost every type of human activity Agriculture

Hotel Kibbutz Sand

?Complex
Quarries

For-Profit
Park Transport
Corridor

Mining Sewage
Recreation Heavy Ponds
Area Industry
km to 20
Eilat

Airport
)Planned(
Shown here is only a small part of the heavy damage
that has been inflicted so far as a result
.of human activity in the Timna area

lowering level of
the water table,
desiccation of
acacia trees elimination of a
unique habitat:
the Samar-
Elifaz Dunes

industrial sewage,
natural area turned overburden sulphur, acids &
into an intensively dumps (mining heavy metals
commercialized zone waste), enormous
of human activity open pits
km to 20
Eilat
Here are other possible locations for the
tourism zone, in areas that are less
:environmentally sensitive

Park
Ent-
rance

Man-
made km to 20
Lake Eilat
Today almost everybody agrees that draining the Hula Lake was a mistake.
However, it is easier to mock past failures than to cope with the challenges of
the present and of the future.

Building 4 hotels and a water theme park that includes 2.5 kilometers of water
canals in the middle of a desert nature reserve is not a lot more logical than
draining a lake in the middle of the Galilee.

One of the differences is that, by this point, we should have become wiser:
to remember that nature is not infinite, and that life in this uniquely beautiful
area demands an extra cautionary approach.

The proposed tourism zone in Timna is

a grave error. It is not easy to admit
a mistake, and the bigger the mistake,
the harder it is. On the other hand, do
we simply proceed without reassessing
or rethinking?

It is still not too late to stop the

bulldozers, before this grave error
. turns into an enormous blunder
 ?So what can we do
Sign a petition to freeze this plan until other, .1
less destructive alternatives are discussed.
http://www.postool.com/petition.php?user=timnahotelpetition

2. Forward this e-mail

3. Send an e-mail to the Hevel-Eilot Regional
Council and to the Igra group, so they can
. reconsider the location of the project
Further Details
• website for the Initiative to Halt
the Hotel Complex at Timna -http://www.freewebs.com/timna
• website for the Hevel Eilot Regional Council http://www.eilot.org.il
• website for the Igra Group http://www.igragroup.com
• Contact us by e-mail: savetimna@gmail.com