A company’s self-interest, the danger of mines, and official disinterest seemingly combined to keep a beautiful natural phenomenon from the public.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

In a follow-up report to its revelation Monday night that a large, beautiful river has been flowing in Israel unbeknownst to the public, Israel’s Channel 11 enumerated some of the reasons that the secret was kept so well for so many years.

The first answer is a logical one: It’s difficult to access.

The land on the way to the site is full of sand and mud emanating from the Arava River that happens to be full of mines.

The region to the west of Route 90, which borders Jordan, is known to be seeded with these explosives from the earliest days of the state. Risking one’s life to see another part of the country that doesn’t look particularly inviting from the road is not something even the most avid of trekkers are willing to do.

In addition, the area is full of sinkholes, making it even more difficult and dangerous to drive to the site.

The purposeful hiding of the river may have also played a role. The Dead Sea Works, a unit of Israel Chemicals Ltd., which owns the concession to the area, was not forthright, according to Oren Aharoni, the reporter who is now releasing more information about the story he broke Monday night.

The environmental survey the company submitted to the National Planning Commission when it asked for permission to dig in the area claimed that there was nothing there, he reported.

“They wrote that … there’s a small ditch, a bit of mud – certainly no impressive wonders of nature like what you can see in our report,” he said.

The authorities accepted the company’s word, and there was no oversight when Dead Sea Works began to do with it as it pleased. This included a lot more digging – and destroying, according to Aharoni – than what the local regional council gave it permission for.

But even here, he said, it’s not clear exactly what work was approved, because there is no relationship between the route that was damaged and the route that the National Infrastructure Commission had allowed.

In addition, Makor Rishon wrote last week that Jordanian contractors are working in the area. According to the Dead Sea Works, whatever they are doing is with full coordination with the relevant authorities.

The regional council maintains that the army gave its permission. When asked, the IDF’s reply was simply that “The activity was known to the military.”

However, Channel 11 reported on Tuesday evening that the Jordanians are working in an area that is in a ‘no man’s land’ and is in fact beyond their own border. A long stretch of torn up ground abutting the river’s canyon caused by the Jordanians can be seen from the air.

Geologist Lior Anmar, one of the first Israelis to discover the river, pointed to a collapsed section of the river’s canyon and suggested the destruction may have been caused by the Jordanian project.

What work is being done, who authorized it, and who is supervising it to ensure that it follows the national plan for the region are questions that as yet have no answers, said the report.

Blue and White MK Miki Haimovitz has formally asked the Minister of Finance to explain how permission was granted for work to be done on the site without checking it, and if in light of the TV report, he intends to end the Dead Sea Work’s concession to work the site.

The post How did an Israeli river full of natural wonders remain secret for decades? appeared first on World Israel News.

The IDF has warned the public not to rush to see it as the area is partially mined.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A long and geologically unique river that was kept a close secret by the Dead Sea Works in whose concession area it lies was revealed to the public for the first time Monday in a report by Kan 11 News.

Over 10 kilometers in length, the river gushes all year long through white canyons 20 meters deep, cutting across the Judean desert towards the Dead Sea.

When contacted by reporter Oren Aharoni, the Southern Coordinator of nature protection for the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, Shai Technai, was in shock at the discovery.

“I think that maybe you’ve ingested hallucinatory mushrooms,” Technai told him. “Are you sure that this is what you saw?”

According to Aharoni, the Parks Authority wasn’t the only organization that had no idea it existed. No green groups had ever heard of it, no tour guides have ever trod its length, and no government agency has ever examined its properties in depth – or overseen its protection.

“It’s like finding a new continent – but in Israel,” Aharoni reported.

“The place is laden with natural phenomena that are unique in the world,” he added.

The report stressed, however, that nature lovers should not start making plans to see the area, as it is extremely dangerous due to the presence of old minefields.

“There is a real danger to life to go there,” Aharoni said. The IDF and Ministery of Defense jumped in immediately, declaring on Tuesday that no one should enter the area due to the mines.

The main question the report raised is why the Dead Sea Works kept the river a secret. It raised the concern that the company’s factories may be doing work in the field that exceeds their permits or may be damaging geological and other formations.

The company is operating there, said Aharoni, “excavating roads, significantly damaging the canyon and causing destruction.”

The geologist and tour guide who revealed the river to the network, Lior Anmar, thinks the whole area is in danger.

“The place is being threatened,” he said Monday on the Kalman Liberman show. “You have to understand that there’s new information here that requires a revision of the [company’s] original work plans.”

The Nature and Parks Authority has already sent an urgent letter to the factories in the area, demanding that they stop working immediately.

The Environmental Protection Ministry reacted to the discovery by saying, “The ministry believes that it is appropriate to investigate and evaluate the [natural phenomena’s] environmental value before issuing additional building permits” for the projects currently underway there.

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