POLICY - May 2019

POL I CY The Israeli Insurance , Pension&FinanceNewspaper 30 Tel Aviv Re 2019 A catastrophic earthquake in Israel in not an apocalyptic prophesy, it is a certainty and takes place on average once every 100 years. It could hit us tomorrow, in 10 years or in 15 years time, but it will happen and when it happens it will cost the lives of tens of thousands and injured people and leave hundreds of thousands without a roof over their heads. Israel has some 9 million inhabitants, the majority of them in the big cities on the Coastal Plain, in Jerusalem and Be’er Sheba. In the past, when the population here numbered only a half a million, 30 thousand people were killed in Herod’s period. In the 11 th Century, almost the entire population was drowned in a tsunami. In the 16 th Century there were thousands left dead in Jerusalem, Hebron, Nablus and Ramleh. 1,200 people met their deaths in the last big earthquake, in 1927, in Safed and Jerusalem. A State Ombudsman’s report in 2016 pointed to the government needing to prepare for 37 thousand deaths and injuries – as a direct consequence of a future earthquake. The various governments have done next to nothing. There has been a lot of talk, ideas and recommendations by the Defense Ministry , the Civilian Command , the Magen David Adom – how citizens should behave in the event of an earthquake (storing up food and water, a first aid kit, a torch etc.) and an annual conference with many participants by the National Emergency Authority . And I almost forgot – signs along the beaches with an arrow and the word “Tsunami”. The governments ran away from taking responsibility already in 2005 when they approved the National Urban Construction Plan 38 giving easements on buildings constructed before 1980, by granting exemptions from Betterment Tax and Sales Tax as well as lower rates for betterment levies and mandatory fees. The governments thereby shifted responsibility to the city mayors, who rightly did not cooperate, since the UCP 38 apartment extensions imposed a heavy burden on their infrastructures: added kindergartens, schools, sewerage and water systems, parking and so on. In the last decade almost nothing has happened and in 2017 only 250 buildings over the whole of the country were undergoing construction according to the plan. There is a one and only solution to the cardinal threat of earthquakes in Israel – the demolition and/ or strengthening of 80 thousand residential building and 4,500 public buildings that were built prior to 1980 (until then there was no binding construction standard against earthquakes). Governments have since 2005 chosen to ignore the threat facing us and hoping that it will not occur on their watch, despite the potential risk of an earthquake being far greater than the immediate threat from Iran, the Hizbulla or from Gaza. In this situation, the mayors, particularly of the 15 largest local authorities, need to take charge, since at the end of the day, they are the ones who will be facing the chaos of tens of thousands of dead and injured and hundreds of thousands of homeless people, with infrastructures that have been totally destroyed, whilst the government ministers over the years have, instead of solutions, been seeking top attorneys to represent them on official commissions of enquiry that will be set up as a result. The town mayors, with the support of the contractors organizations and the insurance companies, need to submit within a few months to the new government an emergency national plan, consisting mainly of jet acceleration of the processes for approving and executing UCP 38 programs, that is a demand from the government to grant the municipalities between 50 and 100 thousand shekels for each apartment extension which is approved and/ or a one-time approval to increase the municipal taxes by 5% over the low inflation, to fund the additional Continued on the next page ‏ • The State Ombudsman’s 2016 report pointed to the government needing to prepare for 37 thousand deaths and injuries as a result of a future earthquake • The various governments have done almost nothing • City mayors, contractors, real estate developers and insurance company executives – the solution will not come from central government By Mordechai Ish-Shalom TRIANGLE AGAINST EARTHQUAKES: THE MUNICIPALITIES, THE CONTRACTORS AND THE INSURANCE COMPANIES