Environmental activists threaten High Court petition over data wipe |
Environmental activists are threatening to petition the High Court of Justice against the Environmental Protection Ministry following its decision, made during the recent war with Iran, to erase tens of thousands of documents from its website regarding the polluting emissions of hundreds of factories.
The ministry said the state’s National Emergency Authority (RAHEL, by its Hebrew acronym) requested the deletion of specific details that could prove useful to an enemy. Netta Drori, the ministry’s legal adviser, informed the Knesset Internal Affairs and Environment Committee on April 19 that the request arrived just before and during the Passover holiday.
She explained that the ministry removed “hundreds of thousands” of data points for a “short period” because it lacked the technological capacity to extract only the information deemed a security risk.
The Israel Manufacturers’ Association had originally appealed to RAHEL to redact details about the precise locations of toxic substances such as benzene and ammonia. The appeal followed Iran’s targeting of industrial sites such as the Bazan oil refineries in Haifa — attacked four times over the past year — and the Neot Hovav industrial park in the south, which was hit three times.
In a statement, the association argued, “The fact that this information was exposed in the past is an omission we have long warned about; now, it is the state’s duty to minimize damage and ‘harden the target.'”
An Environmental........