Poleg’s Revival

Poleg Stream is named after a man-made trench that splits a Kurkar hill about 1 km from the sea. Carved around 4,000 years ago by Middle Bronze Age people, it was designed to drain the surrounding swamp. The basin has been settled since the Stone Age near an oak forest and swamp that dominated the landscape. Axes from
8,000 years ago suggests early forest clearing for grazing.
The forest remained until the late 19th century, when the Ottomans fully deforested it. In the early 20th century, Jewish, Arab, and British leaders viewed the swamp as a nuisance to be drained for agriculture, and engineering efforts followed, leaving only a small nature reserve. Even today, farmers see the remaining small swamp as a problem, overlooking its environmental and historical value.
In the 1980s, “Ramat Poleg”- a Netanya neighborhood for military veterans – was established near the stream estuary. Built on seemingly untouched dunes, it now houses 30,000 residents across 2,200 dunams, with a mix of cul-de-sac cottages, 90’s buildings, and glass towers. Hotels are now rising near the sea. Despite local opposition, the municipality approved a narrow 10-meter “ecological corridor” and a large parking area, calling it “for the public good.”
Having grown up in Ramat Poleg, I’ve long mourned the loss of my childhood landscape. The once-pristine beach is now crowded; an asphalt lot and “ninja” playgrounds sit by the stream. Dunes have been replaced by towers, lawns, exotic trees, and parking fields. The memory of nature lives mostly along the stream,
where the natural experiences of many children have vanished, cleared or dried up, for thousands of years. Only a 50-dunam reserve remains, beside an unprotected swamp that is home to endangered species, now under intense development pressure