What would you rather bequeath your children more and more concrete, or the only large sand dune in the whole Arava Desert?  The Samar Sand Dunes are a unique natural treasure that can never be replaced, possessing tourism, educational, and scientific value.  The Dunes once spread over an area of 7 square kilometres, which even then was not much compared to Jordan, which has some 80 km² of dunes.  But even the little area we had has been chipped away at by agriculture, quarrying for construction in Eilat, and damage from the Timna copper mine waste, and today there is only a strip of 2.3 km² left.  Now the government wants to take part of that away as well! 

The Nature and Parks Authority and the Regional Council have been lobbying to have the Samar Sand Dunes declared a nature reserve, but the Israel Land Authority and the Ministry of Infrastructure, who want to keep it for its commercial value for the construction industry in Eilat, oppose this.  They have now put out a tender for the quarrying of an additional 400 dunams from the southern part of the dunes!  The nearby kibbutzim, who themselves were willing to surrender part of the sands they could have had for agricultural use to be part of a reserve instead, as well as conservationists throughout the country, are appalled by this move.  

On Thursday 14.8.08 a tour was given of the Samar Sand dunes for contractors, toward renewing the quarrying of sand from the site.  They were met by a band of demonstrators who oppose any further deterioration of this natural treasure.  The sale of the present 400 dunams has been carried out by the State without examining potential alternatives, as they had promised, on claims that it would cost too much.  This,  in spite of numerous meetings between Dr. Hanan Ginat from Samar over the last decade with the relevant governmental agencies to try and promote an alternative in which sands would be quarried from underground in the southern area, which is already damaged by waste from the copper mines.  However, because the depth to which the sand reaches is not uniform throughout the dunes, and at greater depths some of the sand might be of a type requiring more preparation and hence cost, conservation apparently takes a back seat to profit.  

Not only were no alternatives to quarrying more of the dunes examined, but the sale was also decided on without having rehabilitated the area already quarried as required by the plan, and without involving any of the locally affected entities in the decision. The demonstration held on Thursday was to protest the sale and to say that the right thing to do is to stop the tender, examine the alternatives for supply of sand to Eilat, and to promote declaration of the Sands of Samar as a nature reserve at the behest of the Nature and Parks Authority and the Regional Council. 

16,000 residents have signed the petition in the space of a week.  You can join in and sign too.  Details at www.arava-dune.org (in Hebrew).