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Friday November 2, 2007

Former dump becomes Ariel Sharon Park

A former suburban landfill outside of Tel Aviv was rededicated last week as Ariel Sharon Park.

Sharon played an instrumental role in blocking developers who had sought to build apartment buildings on the 2,000-acre site that now bears his name.

The Hiriya landfill, which served as a dumping ground for the Tel Aviv region for 46 years, grew into a yard high pile of waste that attracted huge flocks of scavenging birds that would get caught in the engines of planes flying in and out of Israel’s nearby international airport. Travelers on some of Israel’s busiest highways could see it — and smell it — until authorities decided to do something about the colossal, seething mass of waste and greenhouse gases.

They shut it down in 1998, and decided to transform it into a model of environmental rectitude, complete with recycling plants and a theme park on recycling.

The park, which project officials say will be 2 1/2 times the size of New York’s Central Park, will take 10 to 20 more years to complete. But parts are already open to the public, offering walking and biking paths along the Ayalon River, with a vantage point of the Mediterranean coast.

Because the area is now being transformed into something that serves the public, “there is no name more fitting for this park than that of Ariel Sharon,” Israel President Shimon Peres said at the dedication ceremony. — ap

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