For decades, the Israeli state’s military operations rendered 7 kilometers of Rishon Lezion's shoreline unusable, transforming nearly its entire length into a firing range for grenades and mortars. This systematic privatization of public space forced hundreds of thousands of residents into a narrow, overcrowded strip of beach, a direct consequence of state violence against its own populace.
Now, a joint research project, funded by the municipality of Rishon Lezion and led by Israel’s National Mine Action Authority and the National Institute of Oceanography, aims to clear unexploded munitions. This multi-million-dollar effort, expected to take years, promises to return only 2 kilometers of coastline to public access, a fraction of what was seized.
Beachgoer Mark Kostman articulated the daily reality for working people, noting the existing public space was "completely crowded and too dense to even have fun." The state's decades-long military occupation of the coast directly created these conditions of scarcity and deprivation.
The State's Role in Capital Accumulation
The Israeli government openly admits that nearly half of the country’s 194-kilometer coastline remains off limits to civilians. This vast appropriation of collective resources serves commercial ports, power plants, desalination facilities, military bases, and firing zones, all essential infrastructure for capital accumulation and state power.
Israel Faintuch, head of the Maritime Division at Israel’s Ministry of Defense National Mine Action Authority, described the task as "looking for a needle in a haystack." Researcher Roy Jaijel added, "It’s really hard to find things in the sea." These statements underscore the immense and ongoing cost of rectifying the environmental and social damage inflicted by military operations, rather than preventing it.
Capital's New Frontier on Cleared Land
Despite rhetoric of public access, the project's completion promises to triple the area's coastline, opening new avenues for private profit. Moria Malka, head spokesperson for the city’s municipality, confirmed that much of this newly accessible land will become a nature reserve, but also a "residential area near the sea." This reveals the underlying drive for capital accumulation, transforming previously militarized commons into valuable real estate for private development.
Delays have plagued the project, specifically due to Israel’s multiple wars with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Iran. Divers cannot work when missiles are falling, illustrating how ongoing imperial conflicts directly impede even these limited efforts at environmental remediation and public land access.
The army confirmed missiles aimed at larger cities like Rishon Lezion fell into the sea during the current war launched by the U.S. and Israel against Iran, and the 12-day war last June between Israel and Iran. This demonstrates the direct and immediate impact of state-sponsored violence on both the environment and any pretense of public welfare.
Global Capital's Underwater Expansion
The findings from this localized Israeli project are expected to serve global capital interests. Pedro Basto, research and innovation program manager with the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining, openly emphasized the increasing dependence on the seas for capital.
He noted that "renewable energies based on the sea (wind turbines and harnessing water currents) and the global connectivity that most of the world relies on every minute of every day, depend massively on underwater cable laying." This global push for underwater clearance is not a humanitarian gesture; it directly facilitates the expansion of transnational corporate infrastructure and resource extraction, ensuring the smooth flow of capital across oceans.