Israel Seizes the Last Open Land in an Arab Israeli City – And Offers Pollution in Return
Sunday, July 19, 2026 at 07:01PM Around 2,500 trucks would enter and exit the city of Taibeh every day, agricultural land would be seized and dangerous particles would pollute the air
by Deiaa Haj Yahia 19 Jule 2026 Haaretz
Early one morning in the city of Taibeh's fields in central Israel, Abed Hajj Yahya climbs onto his old tractor and begins another day of work. He drives slowly between the green rows of fig trees and strawberry plants, checking the ripeness of the fruit.
As the tractor sets out, 60 dunams (15 acres) of agricultural land stretch out all around. Hajj Yahya has been plowing the same land for decades. Here he played as a child, first learned to cultivate the land and raised his children.
"My grandfather passed the land on to my father, and my father passed it on to us," he says. "Most of my memories are from here, from all stages of life. It's almost a part of my body."
'People think it's just about land, but for me, it's the life story of an entire family. I can't understand how all this will turn into a compound of trucks, concrete and noise.'
Abed Hajj Yahya, A Farmer in Taibeh: Photo by Tomer Applebaum
The figs and strawberries are the sole livelihood for Hajj Yahya and his two brothers, who work the land daily alongside laborers. The family business supports 10 households, he says.
But a heavy cloud hangs over hundreds of people from Taibeh, a city of more than 47,000 people. The state envisions a terminal for unloading aggregates – sand, gravel and other minerals – there, as it threatens to expropriate agricultural land and the last land reserves for the city's expansion – a city whose population has been growing for years.
To connect the terminal to the rail network, a new path for Route 444, which runs through the east of the city, is being promoted, for which further land would be expropriated – about 4,000 dunams from Taibeh, most of it private land belonging to residents.
According to the municipality, the terminal could mean about 2,500 trucks entering and exiting the compound every 24 hours.
"This means incessant noise, enormous amounts of dust, air pollution and heavy traffic throughout all hours of the day," says a Taibeh resident fighting the plan. "This isn't a small facility; it's a giant factory and transportation hub in the heart of our lives."
Taibeh is split by Route 6, which runs parallel to Route 444. Most of the city lies east of Route 6; to the west are the land reserves.
The container terminal and new roads "could block Taibeh's remaining main direction of development. They completely change the western side of the city," argues Attorney Yusef Juma, a Taibeh resident who is representing the people in their talks with the planning authorities.
An old oak tree and a row of fig trees in an agricultural land in Taibeh. Credit: Tomer Applebaum
"On this land, new neighborhoods with the potential for tens of thousands of housing units, employment areas and public buildings could and should have been planned," he says.
Like many Arab towns, Taibeh has developed within a limited space, and land for development has steadily shrunk.
"Behind every dunam on the state's planning maps stands the young generation of a family seeking a place to build a home," Juma says. "The area designated for expropriation could have allowed the city to grow for decades."
According to Juma, this is also why opposition to the plan extends far beyond the landowners. "The damage won't stop with the people who receive an expropriation notice," he says.
"Quality of life for all Taibeh residents will be harmed; they'll feel it in the worsening housing shortage, in the damage to agricultural and job opportunities, in traffic and pollution."
Hajj Yahya agrees; he mentions both moshav agricultural communities and Arab towns. "This project is a disaster for the entire region," he says. "Taibeh, Tira, Tzur Yitzhak, Sha'ar Efraim and all the other communities and moshavim around – all are near the terminal and all will be exposed to pollution and congestion."
The Planning Administration did not respond to a request for comment.
Samer Jabara, 32, is one of thousands of young people in Taibeh looking for a place to build a home. He says he and his family have been fighting to obtain building permits on their land in the west of the city for four years, but the land expropriation plans have stymied them.
"I pay money every month for a house that will never be mine, while I have land on which I could have built a house. I'm exactly at the stage of starting a family, but everything is stuck," he says.
"I don't know whether to keep waiting or look for a solution elsewhere. I'm afraid that in the end we'll be left without land and also suffer from the noise and pollution. The feeling is that our future is being sacrificed."
The plan for the terminal originated as part of an initiative by the Transportation Ministry to change how construction materials are transported. Instead of thousands of trucks carrying aggregates and other raw materials on the highways, the intention is to send it all on freight trains to regional unloading complexes.
'Behind every dunam on the state's planning maps stands the young generation of a family seeking a place to build a home. The area designated for expropriation could have allowed the city to grow for decades.'
Attorney Yusef Juma:photo Tomer Applebaum
From there, the materials would be moved by truck to construction sites in each region. But when the planning authorities had to determine the location of the cargo terminal for the central region, a dispute arose. Several alternatives have been considered, both near Ben-Gurion Airport and elsewhere in central Israel.
"When we reviewed the transcripts of the planning institutions, we discovered something interesting," Juma says. "Other alternatives were rejected due to proximity to residential areas, agricultural land or streams, or due to environmental sensitivity. But these exact same considerations exist in Taibeh, too."
Majd Raas, an urban planner and economic-planning expert helping the residents, says Taibeh was indeed considered a poor alternative because of the would-be terminal's proximity to homes.
"According to an environmental survey submitted to the National Planning and Building Council, in the Taibeh alternative, the polluting terminal would be built around 300 meters from existing homes and 150 meters from a planned residential neighborhood that has already been approved," he says.
"The survey also states that the aggregate storage facility, the main source of pollution, will be 110 meters from other homes, which were classified as unregulated. This may be a bureaucratic consideration, but at the end of the day, people live there."
He notes that the option to put the complex near Moshav Hagor in central Israel was rejected after residents opposed it, even though it was considered highly suitable: at least 460 meters between the storage facility and homes.
Raas points to another flaw in the planning, stemming from an incorrect assessment of the implementation costs.
"The option to build the terminal near Airport City was rejected by the National Council because it was too expensive, but actually, building the terminal in Taibeh is even more expensive," he says.
An aerial view of some of the Taibeh lands that would be seized. Credit: Tomer Applebaum
"When the airport alternative was examined, costs of relocating infrastructure such as roads and bridges were taken into account, but in Taibeh, they were simply ignored."
Public health experts warn that a terminal so near a residential area would have severe health impacts. "Aggregates are a source of respiratory particle emissions, and there's strong evidence that even relatively low concentrations of particles in the air cause health damage," says Wiessam Abu Ahmad of Hebrew University's School of Public Health.
"As a result of train and truck traffic and the operating of heavy equipment, increased emissions of diesel pollutants, classified as a carcinogen, are also expected."
Worse pollution could increase the number of deaths from heart and lung disease. The Taibeh municipality also strongly opposes the plan to divert Route 444.
City officials say a need to pave a new route over thousands of dunams of private land has not been proved; they also note the alternatives presented for years based on widening the existing road. Such an alternative would keep homes unscathed and significantly reduce the need for additional land expropriations.
A source at the National Roads Company, which is responsible for the project on behalf of the Transportation Ministry, says the company also opposes the diversion of the road.
"It's clear that we can settle for changes to the existing road and widen it by adding a public transportation lane in each direction, especially since part of this widening has already been planned and land has already been seized for it," he says. "I don't know the Transportation Ministry's considerations, but diverting the road doesn't seem like an objective solution."
After the company met with the municipality, its CEO even sent a letter to the chairman of the National Planning and Building Council requesting a halt to the plan to divert the road.
"If even the National Roads Company believed that the existing road could be widened, it's unclear why they're still pushing a plan that will take away thousands of dunams of private land and harm the city's last development reserves," Juma says.
As Hajj Yahya puts it, "I never imagined that somebody could come and take my land. It's like being told I have to leave my home and be thrown out onto the street. I have nowhere to go. At 50, I don't know how to do anything else. My whole life is these fields here."
He pauses for a moment and looks at the field again. "People think it's just about land, but for me, it's the life story of an entire family," he says.
Hajj Yahya has a hard time imagining the change in the landscape of his childhood. "I look around and see fruit orchards, seasonal crops and agricultural plots belonging to neighbors and friends," he says. "I can't understand how all this will turn into a compound of trucks, concrete and noise."
Juma agrees. "When people talk about expropriation for public needs, they think about a few landowners losing property, but in this case the area supports families, employs workers and is part of the local economy," he says, adding that this is irreversible damage.
"Expropriation is almost always one-way. Even if the complex ceases operations in 20 or 30 years, the land won't return to its owners. It will remain in the state's hands."
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