NB: From Bolsonaro in Brazil, Trump in the USA, to the group below, it
seems that most "conservatives" and "traditionalists" demand and support
environmental destruction.
https://news.yahoo.com/israels-plastic-tax-repeal-signals-060801022.html
Associated Press
In Israel, disposable plastics trigger culture war, test PM
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ILAN BEN ZION
Sun, January 29, 2023 at 10:08 PM PST
NB: News text begins after the photograph captions that appear
immediately below.
An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man buys disposable plastic dishes in
Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighborhood, Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. Israel's
new government is in the process of repealing a new tax on single-use
plastics. Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who have large families and use large
quantities of disposable cups, plates and cutlery, say the tax unfairly
targeted them. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Cranes lift waste, mostly plastic and paper at the GreenNet recycling
plant in Atarot industrial zone, north of Jerusalem, Wednesday, Jan. 25,
2023. Israel's new government is in the process of repealing a new tax
on single-use plastics. Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who have large families and
use large quantities of disposable cups, plates and cutlery, say the tax
unfairly targeted them. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A GreenNet recycling plant employee cleans the ground next to piles of
disposable plastic ready for export, in Atarot industrial zone, north of
Jerusalem, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. Israel's new government is in the
process of repealing a new tax on single-use plastics. Ultra-Orthodox
Jews, who have large families and use large quantities of disposable
cups, plates and cutlery, say the tax unfairly targeted them. (AP
Photo/Oded Balilty)
People drink in disposable plastic glass at Mahane Yehuda market in
Jerusalem, Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. Israel's new government is in the
process of repealing a new tax on single-use plastics. Ultra-Orthodox
Jews, who have large families and use large quantities of disposable
cups, plates and cutlery, say the tax unfairly targeted them. (AP
Photo/Oded Balilty)
A Tel Aviv's municipality worker cleans the beach from plastic waste, in
Tel Aviv, Monday, Jan. 9, 2023. Israel's new government is in the
process of repealing a new tax on single-use plastics. Ultra-Orthodox
Jews, who have large families and use large quantities of disposable
cups, plates and cutlery, say the tax unfairly targeted them. (AP
Photo/Oded Balilty)
A disposable plastic cup is seen at the beach in Tel Aviv, Monday, Jan.
9, 2023. Israel's new government is in the process of repealing a new
tax on single-use plastics. Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who have large families
and use large quantities of disposable cups, plates and cutlery, say the
tax unfairly targeted them. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
People buy disposable plastic dishes at Mahane Yehuda market in
Jerusalem, Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. Israel's new government is in the
process of repealing a new tax on single-use plastics. Ultra-Orthodox
Jews, who have large families and use large quantities of disposable
cups, plates and cutlery, say the tax unfairly targeted them. (AP
Photo/Oded Balilty)
A women drink in disposable plastic cup at Mahane Yehuda market in
Jerusalem, Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. Israel's new government is in the
process of repealing a new tax on single-use plastics. Ultra-Orthodox
Jews, who have large families and use large quantities of disposable
cups, plates and cutlery, say the tax unfairly targeted them. (AP
Photo/Oded Balilty)
A child drinks in a disposable plastic cup as others carry goods in
plastic bags at Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem, Friday, Jan. 20,
2023. Israel's new government is in the process of repealing a new tax
on single-use plastics. Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who have large families and
use large quantities of disposable cups, plates and cutlery, say the tax
unfairly targeted them. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A man carries drinks in a disposable plastic cup at Mahane Yehuda market
in Jerusalem, Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. Israel's new government is in the
process of repealing a new tax on single-use plastics. Ultra-Orthodox
Jews, who have large families and use large quantities of disposable
cups, plates and cutlery, say the tax unfairly targeted them. (AP
Photo/Oded Balilty)
1 / 10
Israel Plastic War
An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man buys disposable plastic dishes in
Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighborhood, Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. Israel's
new government is in the process of repealing a new tax on single-use
plastics. Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who have large families and use large
quantities of disposable cups, plates and cutlery, say the tax unfairly
targeted them. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
JERUSALEM (AP) — On Idit Silman’s first day as Israel’s new
environmental protection minister, she handed out soft drinks in
disposable plastic cups to hospital patients.
The gesture held deep symbolic meaning in Israel, where soft drinks and
single-use cups, plates and cutlery have become weapons in a culture war
between the country’s secular Jewish majority and the smaller but
politically powerful religious minority.
For much of the public, a tax imposed last year on plastic goods seemed
like a straightforward way to cut down on the use of items that are
major sources of pollution. But many ultra-Orthodox Jews saw the extra
cost as an assault on a way of life that relies on the convenience of
disposable goods to ease the challenges of managing their large families.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the most right-wing in
Israel's history, relies heavily on ultra-Orthodox parties and has moved
quickly to remove the tax on plastics. On Sunday, his Cabinet voted to
repeal the tax, sending the matter to the full parliament for what is
expected to be final approval.
“We promised and we delivered,” said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich,
leader of the Religious Zionism Party. “The fight against the cost of
living is a fight we all are waging.”
In 2021, when Netanyahu and his religious allies were in the opposition,
then-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government authorized a tax on
highly sugary drinks as a health measure to curb rising obesity rates
and diabetes, and the tax on single-use plastics as a means of fighting
a plague of plastic pollution. The tax levied 11 shekels per kilogram
($1.5 per pound) on single-use plastic goods, effectively doubling the
market price.
Repealing those taxes were key demands of Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox
allies, who made them a rallying cry ahead of November’s parliamentary
election. Another coalition deal between Netanyahu and his
ultra-Orthodox allies would effectively eliminate a refundable deposit
on plastic bottles imposed a year ago.
The United Nations Environment Program has called plastic waste “one of
the biggest environmental scourges of our time,” and says the equivalent
of a garbage truck-full is dumped into the ocean each minute. Plastics
can take centuries to degrade, cause extensive damage to ecosystems and
can contain compounds toxic to organisms.
Israel is a major consumer of single-use plastics. The Environmental
Protection Ministry said in a 2021 report that Israeli consumption of
single-use plastics had more than doubled between 2009 and 2019. It said
the per capita average hit 7.5 kilograms (16 pounds) per year — five
times the average in Europe.
Single-use plastics made up an estimated 90% of trash on Israel’s
coastline, and 19% of the garbage on public lands, constituting a major
environmental threat, it said.
Nonetheless, Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox allies, or Haredim, are
celebrating the plastic tax’s expected repeal. Disposable plasticware
has become a key element of the Haredi lifestyle in Israel in recent
decades, said Yisrael Cohen, an ultra-Orthodox political analyst.
Families with an average of six children per household use disposable
plasticware for weekday meals and large Sabbath gatherings alike as a
labor-saving solution to washing the dishes. Single-use plasticware is
de rigueur in Jewish seminaries where ultra-Orthodox men study and eat
their meals.
“It’s an entire industry, an institution,” he said. “Single-use plastic
is a great solution for the Haredi community.”
For ultra-Orthodox politicians, these taxes were emblematic of what they
considered the previous government’s attack on their lifestyle. Haredi
media outlets frequently referred to them as “decrees” issued by the
secular finance minister at the time, Avigdor Lieberman, that were aimed
at targeting the religious minority.
“Lieberman has been depicted as the one who stuck it to the
ultra-Orthodox on every issue,” Cohen said. “Automatically this thing
was painted as something that targets the Haredim.”
Environmental groups say that over the course of 2022 — the year the tax
was in effect — single-use plastic consumption dropped by a third.
A survey of Israeli beaches by a pair of environmental groups, Zalul and
the Israel Union for Environmental Defense, found a significant drop in
the quantity of single-use plasticware and plastic bottles on Israeli
beaches. They cited the taxes on plastic and sweetened drinks.
On top of the environmental impact, the tax generated nearly $100
million in revenue, according to the country’s tax authority.
Meirav Abadi, an attorney with the union, said that repealing the tax
would be “like a green light to go back to using these utensils in an
even more intensive manner.”
Limor Gorelik, head of plastic pollution prevention at Zalul, called the
minister’s photo op with the plastic cups “really embarrassing.”
“It’s so frustrating because we were so late in trying to make steps
towards other countries” on multiple environmental issues. She fears
Israel may “go backwards” on other issues as well.
Smotrich, the finance minister, has also extended a tax break on coal
until the end of 2023 in a bid to keep electricity bills down — a move
environmentalists say will increase consumption of the polluting fuel.
Silman, who was a member of Bennett’s party before defecting to
Netanyahu’s Likud party last year, signaled on Sunday that she may yet
change her stance.
Silman voted against the Cabinet decision to repeal the plastic tax,
saying that after studying the issue in recent weeks, she has come to
understand the “enormous” environmental cost of disposable plastics. She
said the government should find an alternative way to reduce plastic
consumption before doing away with the tax.
But she said the original tax was a mistake and should not have been
done in a way that “arouses antagonism toward a particular population.”