In light of Copenhagen

Green Course Calls on Bibi to Act Now

By Avidan Waldman

On Sunday, December 13, the third night of Chanukah, Green Course organized protests throughout the country. The slogan used played with the Hebrew word Chanukah “ביבי, ישראל חנוקה!” This translates to “Bibi, Israel is choking!” The protests were to push Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to commit to more emission reducing practises in light of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Green Course volunteers sang songs with Chanukah tunes that were directed towards the Prime Minister.

Protests were held in Ashkelon, Tel Aviv, Be'er Sheva, Haifa, and Jerusalem. Although the message was the same, each individual protest had its own local goals to promote.

See all the pictures from the event

Green Course Calls on Bibi to Act Now

By Avidan Waldman

On Sunday, December 13, the third night of Chanukah, Green Course organized protests throughout the country. The slogan used played with the Hebrew word Chanukah “ביבי, ישראל חנוקה!” This translates to “Bibi, Israel is choking!” The protests were to push Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to commit to more emission reducing practises in light of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Green Course volunteers sang songs with Chanukah tunes that were directed towards the Prime Minister.

Protests were held in Ashkelon, Tel Aviv, Be'er Sheva, Haifa, and Jerusalem. Although the message was the same, each individual protest had its own local goals to promote.

See all the pictures from the event

In Ashkelon, the protest was held at the Barzilai Hospital and was a reminder that Green Course and Israel’s citizens will not accept another coal power plant in Ashkelon. The call was made to Netanyahu to abandon this disastrous plan and focus on renewable power.

In Tel Aviv, the protest was held near Dizengoff Centre on King George. This location is extremely congested with cars. The Tel Aviv protest was demanding more buses and bus lanes to improve public transportation in Tel Aviv. This was another direct call to Netanyahu to pressure the mayor, Ron Huldai, and the Transportation Minister, Yisrael Katz, to improve the public transportation.

In Be’er Sheva, the protest was held in front of the Ramat Hovav factories. The factories in this area are extremely polluting and the demonstration was directed towards Netanyahu to restrict the polluting factories. CEO of the Council for Ramat Hovav, Yossi Ziv, came out to talk to demonstrators.

In Haifa, Green Course was protesting the extremely polluting industries in the Haifa Bay area. Green Course wants Netanyahu to create more stringent regulations on how these companies do business.

In Jerusalem, the demonstration took place right on Netanyahu’s doorstep. This demonstration was a culmination of all the problems that Netanyahu needs to fix. Through songs and chants, Green Course demonstrators told Bibi to cancel the construction of the coal power plant, focus attention on more public transportation, invest in more efficient practises, and enforce and punish polluting factories. Bibi needs to accomplish these while creating an atmosphere of conservation and clean technologies. 
 

In conjunction with the demonstrations, Green Course sent letters to the Director of the Prime Minister’s office – Eyal Gabbai, the Director of the Finance Minister’s office – Chaim Shayni, and Chairman of the National Economic Council – Professor Eugene Kandel. The letter described the issues that plague Israel and the solutions that should be implemented. The letter insists that these offices use the power that they have to create change. It is time to start reducing Israel’s emissions.