Operating since 2006, a mushroom factory in Moshav Hosen continuously creates a stench that troubles its neighbors in the moshav and in the adjoining villages of Peki’in and and Buqei’a. The factory owners are seeking to expand its already sizeable factory premises despite hundreds of complaints filed every year, claiming that the odor nuisance will be solved once ‘new technology’ is installed in the larger structure.
In a recently filed planning objection, Adam Teva V’Din notes that over 300 locals complained about the factory’s unpleasant emissions in 2022 alone, with some claiming they suffer from breathing difficulties, headaches and nausea as a result. Residents in the triangle of villages that are home to Druse, Arab and Jewish families point out that the plant has no current business license, and that the Environment Protection Ministry has ignored their complaints.
Ortal Sanker, environmental justice attorney at Adam Teva V’Din, is demanding that planning authorities require an environmental impact statement before rubber-stamping the expansion plan:
“No factory, especially an unlicensed one, should be allowed to expand its polluting activities until the problem is solved. The stench issue must be resolved; it’s a matter of environmental justice.”
