The bill, which initially was rejected in an 8-7 vote a month ago, aims to preserve the Dead Sea and its natural resources for future generations, curb plunging water levels in the northern basin and create a new management system for mineral extraction in the area. It was originally drafted by members of Adam Teva V’Din (Israel Union for Environmental Defense).

MK Khenin during a protest for the Dead Sea rehabilitation in Jerusalem, near the Knesset (Photo: Friends of the Earth – Middle East)

, Chairman of the Knesset Joint Committee for Environment and Health, called Tuesday night to Finance Minister Yuval Shteinitz to avoid signing the impending agreement with the Dead Sea Works. “Financial considerations must not supersede environmental ones. The agreement will promote more pumping from the rapidly diminishing Dead Sea, and it is gradually being dried up.”

Friends of the Earth - Middle East support MK Khenin and opposes the agreement reached between the Israel Corporation and the Ministry of Finance concerning the rehabilitation of the Dead Sea, the group said in a press release on Wednesday. According to Gideon Bromberg, the organization's director general, "The agreement between the Treasury and tycoons will not save the Dead Sea." Under the proposal, Israel Corp. subsidiary Israel Chemicals will pay 90% of the cost of salt harvesting and the government will pay 10%, and royalties on potash sales will double to 10% exceeding NIS 3 billion a year.

The Avaaz campaign had attracted thousands of signatures, and can be accessed here.

Related:

              MK-Khenin the Dead Sea is in a severe condition of dehydration and destruction

             government quashes plan to rehabilitate Dead Sea

             HADASH launches Dead Sea protection bill in Knesset