The State Comptroller Matanyahu Engelman's tour of the Western Galilee cluster (August 2nd, 2022)

Last week, State Comptroller Matanyahu Engelman and his office staff toured the Western Galilee Regional Cluster, the Bar Lev High-Tech Park on the Acre - Karmiel road, and the Evron Landfill

           ​Photo: Bar Gutharts

State Comptroller Matanyahu Engelman and his office staff toured the Western Galilee Regional Cluster last week (August 2nd, 2022). As part of the tour, the State Comptroller met with the mayors of the cluster, headed by the Regional Cluster's Chairman, Acre's Mayor Shimon Lankri.

The mayors welcomed the State Comptroller and said that they positively consider his return to the region to take a closer examination of the rectification of deficiencies raised in the State Comptroller's reports regarding the government's handling of the North. The mayors who participated in the visit: Moshe Davidovich, Mate Asher, Arkady Pomeranz, Ma'alot Tarshiha, Shimon Guetta, Ma'ale Yosef, Gabi Naaman, Shlomi, Eyal Shmueli, Kfar Vradim, Hatem Araf, Mi'ilya, Wahib Habish, Yarka, Moshe Koninsky, Karmiel. The Regional Cluster Chairman Lankri thanked the State Comptroller for the Mixed Cities Report published last week and said that he hopes the necessary lessons will be learned.

Thereafter, the State Comptroller toured the Bar Lev High-Tech Park, on the Acre - Karmiel road. This is a unique project of national importance founded on the basis of a vision to generate regional change through a high-tech employment center at an international level. The complex will be comprised of eight buildings spanning 87,000 square meters, with the first building being fully occupied spanning an area of about 12,000 square meters and the second building being under construction.

A variety of high-tech companies and technology startups operate in the park, including: Cymotive, DSP Group, Rad-Binat Group, the German Carl Zeiss company, the American SeatGeek Spiral Solutions company, White Source, BlueVine, Ecoppia, Adva Biotechnology, Moovex, Docdok.health, Terralog Agwa Farm and more.

The Park's Director General, Ram Levinson, reviewed before the State Comptroller the activities of the high-tech companies operating in the park – some of which moved there from the center of the country, thus contributing to the development of the North. Levinson also brought up before the State Comptroller the need for government focus to develop the high-tech industries in the northern region.

The tour was concluded by the State Comptroller and the teams visiting the Evron Landfill, where the ecological activity that is to be carried out, in addition to the steps mentioned in the State Comptroller's report on the danger of closing the landfill, could be seen.

State Comptroller Engelman: "We published a comprehensive report on the implementation of the previous five-year plan for the development of the North. During today's visit I learned about the disparities and challenges brought up by the heads of the authorities in order to promote the North. I call upon the government to conduct a renewed examination of the situation of the North District in relation to the other districts and the effectiveness of the actions included in the government's resolution so as to examine their impact and promote a follow-up plan to the one established for the purpose of reducing disparities between the northern district and the other districts.

Regarding the Evron Landfill, State Comptroller Engelman said: "Following the report we published in recent months on the lack of landfill sites for waste in Israel, alongside the highest landfill percentages compared to the OECD countries, according to the data presented to me today, in about a year to a year and a half there will be no landfill sites for waste in the north of the country and all the waste will be transported to the south of the country. Authorities are already transporting waste over hundreds of kilometers across the country. This is one of the biggest significant environmental deficiencies, with transportation, economic and other implication. I call upon the Minister of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Environmental Protection to rectify the deficiencies we presented in the report and act to find regional solutions for waste treatment, so that the waste treatment and the activity to reduce its volume will be carried out near the place of its formation. Such solutions will significantly reduce environmental damage.


Photo: Bar Gutharts