The Sharon-Carmel Cities Association for Environmental Quality, representing 19 local authorities and around a million residents, filed an administrative petition in the Jerusalem District Court on Sunday demanding the immediate cancellation of a recent amendment to the emissions permit for coal-fired units at the Orot Rabin power plant in Hadera, in central Israel.

A similar petition was submitted last week by the environmental NGOs Green Course and Home Guardians.

Orot Rabin, with its distinctive chimneys, comprises six coal-fired units and two gas-fired units, the latter with their own emissions permit.

Of the six coal-fired units, four (units one to four) were never fitted with the filtration units known as scrubbers, which are standard in Western European plants.

Units one to four were supposed to close at the end of 2025. Then, in October 2025, the Energy Minister instead decided to extend their operations until 2028, allowing up to 500 hours of operation annually to cover exceptional and emergency situations.

The backdrop to that decision was the temporary closure of the Tamar and Leviathan gas fields after the start of the Gaza war, sparked by the deadly Hamas invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and the shuttering of the Leviathan and Karish gas fields during the 12-day war with Iran last year. Gas from the three fields supplies over 70 percent of Israel’s power.

Academic surveys over the past 25 years have linked coal pollution from the........

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