Environmental protection in Israel

Good question.

Unfortunately Israel is very lacking in this area & I was naive & thought they were still the clean country I remembered.

The country has been in a HUGE boom phase construction wise that it's a very very dirty country pollution wise. I'm sure they don't take precautions when building & using chemicals, as I've experienced problems smelling toxins from other apartments.

I've heard from a couple of expats that they spray more toxins on the produce here than we ever would be allowed to in the US & Canada. I'm checking on that as we speak with Greenpeace.

While they do have HUGE recycling bins around every neighborhood, I question how many people actually recycle. I can see the water & pop bottles, but not much else.

Also in Afula (not sure about other cities), my landlord told me that they caught them (not sure if it's a private company or the gov't) NOT recycling the stuff that was put into the recycling bins.

There's a lot of corruption in Israel, so this doesn't surprise me, although years ago I heard this happened in Canada & even in the US there was a story about recycling computers.

Overall Israelis don't care about their health b/c 75-85% of them smoke & not one pack, but 1-3 packs per day. There are more Israelis trying to be more health conscious, but b/c this is all new for them, they aren't very educated in this area. This is my opinion as I'm a die hard holistic Green person.

The gov't doesn't seem to care about all the cigarette smoking & it bothers me & several other expats.

I can't even walk down the sidewalk without smelling or inhaling second hand smoke. It's a BIG problem.

If I want to sit outside on a lovely day & eat or have a drink, I can't, b/c THAT'S where all the smokers are.

Even in stores where it's illegal to smoke, all they do is hang their bodies outside the door & smoke.

I've even been in a place where they serve food & at least 4-6 of the people working there light up b/c it was raining outside.

Or the doors are open to the stores or restaurants & so the cig smoke from outside comes inside.

They care MORE about arresting people who want to smoke weed, than about toxic cigarettes & I won't ever be able to go dancing b/c almost ALL bars allow smoking even if it's illegal.

They do have solar panels on every house & apartment & I'm not sure, but assume commercial buildings too, but I don't think that's b/c they are Green, rather it's b/c it saves them money since the sun shines here almost 365 days out of the year.

Cars - they often keep their cars running while inside talking on the phone.

Organic is expensive here. Not too bad, but things like chicken are.

Overall their education about our mother earth & chemicals & toxins is terrible & they don't care either. They don't even know the simplest of things like using vinegar to wash things around the house, or baking soda, etc.

Again, there are some people who are moving in a positive direction, but that's a very small percentage & how many of those are expats & not Israelis that have been living here for 2-3 generations.

On a positive note, Israel is known for its new innovations & in relation to Green things, but just b/c the companies here create new & interesting things, doesn't mean they educate the masses & that everyone here thinks Green.

I normally don't deal with conventional doctors, but b/c of my health issues & me trying to get disability, I'm forced to & my family doctor basically knows they don't accept holistic practices here like that Candida is a health issue. They don't recognize it.

Or the psychiatrists here just push drugs, & I just heard that the gov't is telling all shrinks they can ONLY see patients for 15 mins. max & they are trying to get them to push the drugs. IT'S TERRIBLE.

I find Israel to be very much like the US instead of leaning towards EUR.

Oh, they don't allow GMO crops here, but they do allow them to be imported which is stupid b/c I read that they do import corn & soy.

There may be more to tell, but that's all I can think of at the moment.