Yael Darel, The-Marker, 19/11/2018
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Study by an institute for national policy predicts that by 2050 nearly all Israelis will also be doing everything else underground because the population will double
The Israel of 2050 will be a land of apartment towers, with nearly all other activity from shopping to manufacturing to road travel taking place underground. In the entire country, there will be no more than 700,000 dunams (175,000 acres) of open space.
This dystopian vision of Israel just 33 years from now is contained a report released this week by The Forum for Population, Environment and Society, “Zafuf” in Israel. The research team behind the report, which is led by Prof. Rachelle Alterman of the Samuel Neaman Institute for National Policy Research, says Israelis will need to be living in towers and doing everything else underground because there will be more than twice as many people living in the country.
“In the Israel of 2050, 18 million will be living in the country and 98% of them will live in giant towers,” the team predicts. “The few villages that are left will be artificial ones, products of preservation policies.”
Dan Perry, a former head of Israel’s Israel Nature and Parks Authority and a contributor to the study, said a doubling of buildings and infrastructure will make Israel’s landscape almost unrecognizable.