Writer: Mickey Gur – born in Bat Galim
Who would have believed that in 2025, a local authority in the State of Israel would approve the construction of a private hotel on the beach?
Not 200 meters or 100 meters away, but right on the sand, on the waterfront at Bat Galim Beach, where residents, guests and tourists are supposed to swim, sunbathe, play tag or lick popsicles.
And who would have believed that the authority that would support the construction of a hotel on the sea that would constitute an ecological hazard and a cause for mourning for generations would be the Haifa Municipality.
After all, Haifa was already badly burned when the Meridian Hotel was built on the Carmel Beach. The hotel, which became, in the eyes of many, a symbol of the violation of the public interest, stands out in its ugliness and has become a symbol of shortsightedness and the connections between capital and government.
Architecture and environmental studies students from all over the country are making a pilgrimage to the building built on the Carmel Beach to learn how the Haifa Municipality suffered blindness and caused environmental damage for generations.
And now, the municipality intends to repeat the mistake and allow the "Dor Chemicals" company, headed by Gil Dankner, to build a private, 7-story hotel on Bat Galim Beach.
Apparently, the municipality has extenuating circumstances.
For 30 years, the ugly and neglected skeleton of the casino has stood on Bat Galim Beach, reminding the public of yet another resounding failure of the municipality.
If Dankner's hotel is built, the ugly skeleton will disappear, and in its place will be a building that might, for a change, be beautiful and well-maintained, and thus, seemingly, the stain of urban helplessness that allowed the existence of a rusty, crumbling, and dangerous skeleton on one of the most beautiful beaches in Israel for decades will be erased.
To remove any doubt, there is no connection between the crumbling skeleton and the historic casino building that was built on Bat Galim Beach in the 1930s. The historic casino building was demolished long ago. The crumbling skeleton on Bat Galim Beach is simply part of a building whose construction was halted 30 years ago due to the bankruptcy of a contractor.
The skeleton on Bat Galim Beach has no historical value and of course it is not a property for preservation.
The city of Tel Aviv faced a similar problem until recently.
On the seashore, right on the shoreline, stood the abandoned, neglected, and crumbling skeleton of the dolphinarium, a place where, in the distant past, tamed dolphin shows had taken place. The owners of the dolphinarium insisted on building a high-rise hotel on the site, but the Tel Aviv municipality was wise enough to understand that in the 21st century, hotels are no longer built on the beach.
The Tel Aviv Municipality, with its wisdom and resourcefulness, convinced the owners of the dolphinarium to agree to a "barter deal." The municipality gave the owners of the skeleton alternative land to build a hotel and commercial space off the beach and transferred the dolphinarium skeleton to its ownership.
Afterwards, the Tel Aviv Municipality completely demolished the crumbling skeleton of the Dolphinarium and built in its place the wonderful promenade of Charles Clore Park.
Tel Aviv residents, the many visitors, and tourists enjoy every day a charming park overlooking the sea that replaced an anti-environmental plan to build a high-rise private hotel on the beach.
It is unclear what causes the Haifa Municipality to continue to demonstrate such extreme helplessness.
Isn't it understandable that as soon as Gil Dankner, the chairman of the company that owns the skeleton, realizes that he will never receive the municipality's support for building the hotel on Bat Galim Beach, he will rush in and agree to change his plan.
The Haifa Municipality should learn from the Tel Aviv Municipality and reach a barter deal with Dankner.
Mr. Mayor Yona Yahav, the ball is in your hands. Don't repeat the mistake of building a hotel on the beach. It will be a cry for generations. Cancel the plan, destroy the crumbling skeleton and build the magical park that will connect to the beautiful promenades to the north and south. You can do it. Go ahead and succeed!
Hey, the solution is simple for the Haifa Municipality. There is no shortage of money and government sources to finance the purchase. You will sit down with the owner of the property and purchase it. You will demolish it and open it to the public. This will increase the municipality's fund in the eyes of both residents and visitors. In the end, it all ends with simple, easy money.
The hotel should be built within the Navy compound, which should be completely cleared. There is no justification for having such a base in Haifa in a wonderful place that could upgrade the entire Bat Galim neighborhood.
The city has great potential.
The big pig is destroying the city of Haifa, and all for the sake of money! The municipality should shut him down, and the sooner the better!
It is imperative, imperative, imperative to oppose the destruction of the coastline, it is a cry for generations!
Optimization suggestions:
Folk moves to finish or start
1. The seawall... blocks... the seafront must be cleared and opened to residents
2. Harmony between residents and neighborhoods
3. Installation of solar roofs on public and private buildings
4. Feasibility of evacuation of construction in neighborhoods
5. Old Egged Bat Galim amusement center.. to open a Haifa amusement park and attractions for young people
6. Dolphin Bridge Intersection to reduce traffic jams
7. Bat Galim Casino Building to be Disappeared and Open the Seafront to Residents
8. Nazareth and Nof Galilee Light Rail to Open
9. A cruise to Acre... and to other places in Israel from Haifa is very nice.
10. Bat Galim Bridge, Hulda Promenade, Rambam Siyum and more attractive to young people and lively
11. Metropan Haifa Metropolitan Bicycle Routes.. Bicycle routes and promotion of electric bicycle rentals in the city.
12. The Sderot Tunnel Train or Transfer Through the Carmel Tunnels…
13. Beautiful sailing center Bat Galim Allenby
14. Stella Maris Cable Car Perhaps make part of public transportation and add cable cars and open additional cable cars
15. Underground City Development and Attractions for Young People
16. Opening the city to the sea.. Marina throughout the city.. Marine attractions
17. The opening of the German Colony Boulevard to the sea
18. Improvement of urban appearance, strengthening of buildings, evacuation, construction
19. Electrification of all vehicles and public transportation
20. Making places accessible to the disabled
21. Sea Research Building, improving visibility and sea view
22. Construction in gradual height... to allow the sea view and not block it
23. Bicycle and electric scooter rental throughout the city promotion
24. Polluting factories, making them non-polluting or moving them
25. Wonderful international airport
26. International cruise from Haifa to other countries of the world
27. Railway improvement of carriages and electrification
28. Extension of Hecht Park and stretching it at the beginning and end
29. Promotion of music, art and fusion between cultures
30. Mobile libraries.. an abstract idea.. mobile vans of libraries for renting books with coffee and internet points throughout the city
31. Health promotion and the health system in the city
32. Water sports
33. Amusement park attractions and such
34. Promotion of green energy, solar wind, sea waves and more
35. Promoting recycling
36. Solve the problem of pigs and dog poop in a proper way
37. Thanks
38. Separation road, Dolphin Junction, from train to cars until the train is moved
39. . . Property tax discount for the holder of a disabled card
40. Stand-up music culture for a pleasant atmosphere in the city for all of us and for wonderful tourism
The entire Bat Galim Promenade needs to be upgraded so that the stretch from Dado Beach to Gurvitz Promenade will be attractive and have a good atmosphere.
Improve the appearance of the coastal landscape, clean and prevent the accumulation of sand on the promenade, clean the beach and sea from pollution, and maintain the smell of clean sea air, and not the smell of...
And it would be better if they continued the promenade all the way to the German colony... to allow access through or instead of the port that blocks access to the sea.
There is a lot to do in the wonderful city of Haifa.
And the city's citizens, its residents, young and old, women and men, need to be encouraged and also open the sea to the public.
The train that is blocking: There are 3 options:
1. The train sinks in a section that blocks the sea
2. Relocating the train through the Carmel Tunnels or parallel to them by cutting an additional dedicated tunnel.
3. The Sderah Tunnel _ A transfer that bypasses the existing one. Forgo the Central Hasmona and Bat Galim stations. And directly from the central Carmel Beach to the bay. With the possibility of a station in Kiryat HaMalma
Thank you for your consideration.
good
Simply an ecological disaster, a disaster for residents who enjoy the sea, enjoy looking out over the sea in all its shades from anywhere and in all its forms, a mass of concrete on the sea as a barrier, congestion and overcrowding, there is already overcrowding because of Rambam, this corner of paradise will suffocate.
The Haifa Municipality learned nothing from the Meridian Hotel - Carmel Beach incident!!!
First time this is defined as a mistake
The second time is already idiocy!!!
A 7-story hotel is 23 meters high, a wall in front of the neighborhood, hiding the sea from all of Bat Galim Avenue, the value of the houses will drop, and the noise from parking every day around 110 hotel rooms and employee vehicles and events will simply overload 200-300 vehicles without parking.. This is a disaster, they are crazy, destroying a building for preservation, everything in this city is upside down…
The value of houses will plummet Oh, yoyo, what will we do with the value of houses until we get used to feeling like millionaires? What will we do? All the high-tech people will flee from here back to Tel Aviv.
An old neglected neighborhood with terrible houses, so there will be a hotel. Well??, it will be nice and clean and maybe people will start renovating the facades of their houses.!❗️
Even today, 7-story buildings have already been approved on the waterfront.
Maybe they'll stop resisting all the time and something will come out.
Finally! For 30 years this dangerous ugliness has been standing there! Crime. Drugs. Prostitution. What not…..
For my part, you will build 2 hotels there. The main thing is that it will finally look like a normal city.
And for those who don't like a hotel, let them wait another thirty years for the perfect project they dream of. Although it seems to me that most will be in their graves by then...
There is great potential for the Old City of Haifa
Those who commit this injustice have a name, a written record, and a face.
The mayor and his deputies, you will remember for the rest of your life, we will hold you accountable.
The mayor sold Haifa for ninety shekels to anyone who comes and demands... He who chases money will not be satisfied with money.
The mayor of Haifa does not support the life of the population at all. When he does not declare a regional/social state of emergency, he has chosen to support the government and the capitalists in every aspect and in every place chosen by entrepreneurs. The perpetrator is leading Haifa and the Gulf to be taken over by entrepreneurs. He signs the permits for them. Many citizens wish that he would disappear from political activity. I wish the same for all his deputies and the officials involved. So sorry, I have no idea about the trends in Tel Aviv and I am not interested in a time of emergency in the field of poisoning the population of Haifa and the Gulf with terrible diseases to the point of death. I am anxious for the future of the next generation and the babies
right!
We should also barter with them on another area in Bat Galim, and connect the southern and northern promenades on the coastline!
It is desirable that a hotel be built in Bat Galim.
But the inner line and not on the waterline
Water belongs to everyone, it is not owned by anyone and access to such an important and precious public resource must not be blocked!!
Haifa Municipality, Roman, wake me up from my coma!!
Once again, the Greens want to leave a city gray and gloomy enough, let us breathe!
Why don't the residents contact the National Building Committee?!!!
There should be one law for everyone!!!
How can there be differences on the coastline?!!!
Crazy!!!
I support everything you wrote, but I have the impression that you are hanging hope on the horns of the altar. We have an elderly mayor who came back only to do things for himself, and it seems that the future of the city interests him as little as a garlic peel. I'm sorry, but salvation will not come from him. Maybe a court and public pressure.
Right!
Crying for generations. The structure needs to be taken down and the promenade continued. Haifa residents are entitled to the vibrant and rich beach in Bat Galim, with careful work and not for sale to greedy landowners.
The municipality sold the land over 20 years ago.
The wheel cannot be turned back. Unless the residents of Bat Galim raise funds and buy the land from the landowner.
The place deserves a swimming pool with salt water, for the well-being of the people of Haifa.
Every person with eyes and a brain understands that this building needs to be removed, the avenue opened up, and the promenade connected. Only corruption blinds and stuns.
The brainstorming of some new hippies in Bat Galim. The casino is not and has never been on a beach, and as in Bat Galim a long time ago, a hotel and a marina should have been built. We have known the casino for many years as children, swimming in the pool and walking around the smelly casino. Most of the new hippies in Bat Galim are not from Haifa.
Ran, in Tel Aviv you can walk from Jaffa to the north of the city on the sand. The hotels are across the promenade and the road. The same is true in Miami. A hotel built on the sand and water of the beach is a serious hazard.
In other words, there is no problem with hotels in Bat Galim, only with the location of this hotel, which could and should be built in Bat Galim, but in a different location. And why hasn't the Bat Galim neighborhood become the jewel in the crown? That's another discussion.
I have nothing more to add to what is written, every word as a rock. We must not repeat the same mistakes again, the beach must be returned to the residents because the beach belongs to the residents of Israel.
The city of Haifa did not develop because of people like you – everything is against it. Visit Barcelona, Miami or even Tel Aviv – everywhere there are dozens of successful hotels on the beach. Let them build 100 hotels..let tourists come..we are tired of seeing a neglected city and promenade
As the daughter of a former Galimi, whose parents were married in the famous casino building, I say it's time. The decision makers have a big nose. And enough of the pretense and whining. As it looks now, better? Catastrophe is a soft word for this "beauty". Bat Galimi is neglected. It's time to bring this real estate gem out of the darkness into the light. A general evacuation and construction (and there is no shortage of things to evacuate and build) that will begin, I hope, with this project.
Happy New Year
Enough with the beautification, anywhere in the world a neighborhood like Bat Galim is an elite neighborhood, developed with hotels and luxurious buildings. First, remove the Carmel Beach towers and the others nearby (remember? The Tshuva family...) before coming to oppose the renovation of the casino building.
The casino building is a decades-old disgrace to Haifa. It harms the marble hill in Bat Galim. The building should be demolished to build a park, continue the hill, and build a hotel across the hill that will integrate into the hill as soon as possible.
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Already today, on this short, narrow stretch of beach, there is a serious problem finding parking, so we are going to double the number of vehicles that will arrive at the complex.
Just a dream…
A beautiful avenue, opening out to the sea, stunning beauty. It was decided to block it with a building. A mistake from decades ago that continues to be perpetuated
This is not for the public good, it is for private money.
Persistent heart pain.
The public must be prepared to buy the plot of land and the building in cooperation with the municipality, otherwise Mr. Dankner's money will also ruin the piece of land, ending with Dankners of their kind.
So the IDF bases need to be evacuated and the land of the IDF bases returned to the residents.
Everyone knows what not to do and no one offers a solution.
Many solutions were proposed both in the article and outside it: expanding the beach, bringing back the pool, and demolishing the building.
The mayor is simply corrupt.