Ramon Crater is part of the largest nature reserve in Israel. One clear day, the National Israeli Electric Company erected giant pillars in it! The Pillars Protest set out to correct this environmental and scenic blight!
Ramon Crater, with its dramatic landscapes and rich biodiversity, attracts countless visitors every year from all corners of Israel and the world. Recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage conservation site, it is an area of exceptional environmental and scenic value, acknowledged as part of the Incense Route and recently designated as an International Dark Sky Reserve. It also serves as the main tourism asset of Mitzpe Ramon, whose entire tourism industry relies on activities within the crater — from jeep tours and hiking to stargazing experiences.
The beginning of the campaign to underground the new power line in Ramon Crater
The campaign to underground the power lines in the Ramon Crater began about 17 years ago, led by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. On February 22, 2011, the Minister of Infrastructure at the time, Mr. Uzi Landau, issued a decisive statement declaring that all future high-voltage lines crossing the Ramon Crater would be placed underground. The minister’s declaration explicitly emphasized the protection and preservation of Israel’s primeval landscapes. At the time, this was considered a groundbreaking decision in Israel.
Photo: Shimon Bukstein
In 2015, the National Infrastructures Committee (NIC) formulated Plan TTL 60 — the route of the 161 kV power line crossing the Ramon Crater. There, it was decided to underground 7.5 km of the high-voltage line, while 2.5 km would remain overhead according to the plan. In 2016, the plan was submitted for government approval. During the committee discussions, the Electric Company, relying on expert opinions from two different landscape architects, claimed that the overhead section was “negligible, marginal, and almost invisible,” and further claimed that there were technological difficulties preventing complete undergrounding along the entire route.
Prior to the decision, no public consultation was held regarding the plan, and various bodies such as the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the Mitzpe Ramon Local Council did not bother to express a firm position against the overhead line, effectively approving its construction.
The battle for our home landscape – the “Pillars Protest”
In 2019, the Electric Company, in cooperation with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, began work on undergrounding a high-voltage line in the southern section of the Ramon Crater. During visits along the undergrounding route, we were impressed by the high level of professionalism shown by the Electric Company and the close supervision and oversight by the Nature and Parks Authority. However, to our surprise, during the third COVID lockdown, we discovered that the company had erected 14 monstrous high-voltage pillars, each up to 36 meters tall, stretching for about 2.5 kilometers — from the base of the Ramon Crater cliff to the northern bank of Nahal Ramon.
Like most residents of Mitzpe Ramon and the surrounding area, we were shocked to discover the construction of these 14 power pillars, positioned right along the central front at the entrance to the crater. This provoked widespread anger due to the complete lack of public participation in the decisions made by the National Infrastructure Committee and the disregard for the protection of Israel’s most iconic and irreplaceable landscapes. Residents of Mitzpe Ramon and the region, who for years had believed that the guardians of the land ensured the new power line would be fully underground, were dismayed to learn after the fact that the approved infrastructure plan included overhead sections — a reality that fundamentally contradicted the explicit decision of the Minister of Infrastructure, Mr. Uzi Landau, to underground the entire 161 kV line along its full route across the crater.
According to Keshet NGO, this constitutes a major planning failure, marked by a severe lack of transparency, creating an unparalleled environmental and scenic blight — one that is blatantly visible and highly intrusive to the entire crater landscape. This visual scar could cause significant economic and reputational damage to the region on both the national and international levels, potentially exceeding by far the cost of correcting the planning failure itself.
As a result, a public protest emerged. Efrat Kedem-Silbert, a member of Keshet’s executive board, together with her partner and children, set up the Pillars Protest encampment beneath one of the power pillars near Highway 40, which crosses the crater. Within a short time, she succeeded in mobilizing thousands of citizens, environmental organizations, hikers from across the country, senior decision-makers, ministers, and government offices to join the struggle. The protesters argued that the power lines had not yet been connected to the pillars, meaning there was still a chance to repair the severe damage to Ramon Crater. Their actions generated massive media attention, and a petition they initiated gathered about 7,000 signatures.
The residents of the region remain determined to reverse the consequences of the misguided decisions made by the National Infrastructure Committee and the Electric Company, vowing not to relent until the company removes the pillars that mar the crater’s unique and iconic landscape.
The involvement and responses of parties
The Mitzpe Ramon Local Council, the Ramat Negev Regional Council, Keshet NGO, the Yeruham Tourism Association, Negev Highlands Tourism, the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority — all unanimously agree that the National Infrastructure Committee, the Israel Electric Company, the Government of Israel, the relevant authorities, and the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure must halt the on-site work, join forces, and find a proper solution to underground the remaining two and a half kilometers as originally promised, bringing the project to completion with full environmental responsibility, as should have been done from the outset.
All parties involved maintain a fundamentally positive approach, and the undergrounding achieved so far is a welcome accomplishment. However, it remains incomplete — the 14 overhead power pillars nullify much of the hard work and financial investment already made in the sections that were successfully placed underground.
From the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel it was stated:
“In a place like the Ramon Crater — one of the most beautiful and unique sites in Israel and the entire world — power lines should run underground only, not above ground on massive steel pillars. The investment required to underground the lines is small in national terms — a minimal price well worth paying to preserve the landscape and the beauty of this extraordinary place.”
From the statement of support by the CEO of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, Iris Hahn, in her appeal to the Minister of Infrastructure, Yuval Steinitz:
“There is a clear preference for undergrounding, even at the cost of disturbing the natural terrain… One can truly relate to the powerful outcry rising from the field.”
Following the extensive media attention generated by the Pillars Protest, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the Electric Company announced that they were working toward a technological solution, budgeting, and obtaining the necessary permits to underground the power line in the Ramon Crater — with the aim of preserving the unique landscape section where the 14 massive power pillars had been erected.
The Israel Nature and Parks Authority stated that for many years they have worked to remove environmental hazards from the Ramon Crater, in order to preserve its pristine natural character and to establish it as a major tourism anchor.
Photo: Haim Rabia
Keshet NGO’s actions in support of the Pillars Protest
At the start of the campaign, Keshet NGO’s Planning and Environment Department began acting with professionalism, determination, and a sense of public responsibility to strengthen the Pillars Protest. Members of the organization — led, as mentioned, by Efrat Kedem-Silbert — took the lead in the protest within the crater. The NGO stands firm in leading environmental and community struggles alongside other green organizations and will continue to do so until the overhead power line in the northern section of the crater is removed. Keshet also addressed the Minister of Infrastructure, Yuval Steinitz, the Minister of Environmental Protection, Gila Gamliel, and additional relevant officials in formal letters.
The team of Keshet’s Planning and Environment Department reviewed the protocols and transcripts of the Vatal (National Infrastructure Committee) discussions and found that the committee members had not given sufficient consideration to the implications of avoiding the undergrounding of the power line. They also identified a series of flawed arguments.
In their letter, they stated that the power pillars constitute damage to the primeval landscape and that, in their view, this represents a fundamental planning failure that contradicts the 2011 decision of the Minister of Infrastructure at the time. The visibility of the 14 pillars is massive, dominating the main visual approach to the entrance of the Ramon Crater.
The department members further noted that leaving a 2.5-kilometer overhead segment resulted solely from a budgetary “compromise,” amounting to only tens of millions of shekels, rather than from any professional or ecological reasoning against undergrounding.
The appeals made by the NGO and others to the Planning Administration resulted in a legal opinion from the Vatal’s legal advisor, stating that no amendment to TATL 60 is required in order to underground the remaining overhead section. Following this, the head of the Planning Administration addressed the Director General of the Ministry of Energy with an unequivocal demand to find an urgent solution to the landscape damage caused in the crater.
In addition, in response to the NGO’s letter,
the Director General of the Ministry of Environmental Protection,
David Yehiely, replied:
“In light of the unique character of the Ramon Crater as a geological, ecological, and scenic nature reserve, and as one of the most important hiking destinations in the south, and following the significant public involvement, the Ministry of Environmental Protection supports the Nature and Parks Authority’s initiative to explore the possibilities of expanding the undergrounding, and the ministry will assist as much as possible in promoting this initiative.”
The NGO calls for the immediate halt of the Israel Electric Company’s work along the segment and urges all relevant authorities to implement the necessary planning correction and allocate the required budget to underground the line in this section, along with the removal of the pillars that were installed there.
The National Infrastructure Committee Congress
On May 31, 2021, the National Infrastructure Committee (Vatal) held a congress in Mitzpe Ramon to present the Electric Company’s plan for completing the undergrounding of the power line in the crater and removing the pillars. The event began at 10:00 a.m. at the Ramon Crater Visitors Center, continued with a field tour along the undergrounding route in the crater, and concluded with a presentation of the plan and a discussion at the Mitzpe Ramon Community Center.
Below is video documentation of the tour and the discussion that followed.
The approval process for the under-grounding plan is underway!
On July 15, 2021, the System Management Company — the government company responsible for planning and managing Israel’s national electricity transmission system — submitted the planning documents for the undergrounding route to the National Infrastructure Committee (Vatal).
We assume that these documents, which are not complex, will undergo an expedited review process by the Vatal planners and its environmental consultants, and after a round of revisions, the plan will be formally submitted for public objections.
We intend to request participation in the preliminary Vatal discussions prior to the plan’s submission, in order to demand that the process be accelerated. According to the timeline outlined in the submitted documents, the removal of the pillars could take up to four years — whereas during the congress, it was stated that the entire process should take no more than two years (one year for statutory and detailed planning, and one additional year for the undergrounding and removal of the pillars).
On July 26, 2021, a NIC discussion was held regarding the additional undergrounding plan (TTL 60/A).
We, the representative of the Nature Reserves Authority, Gilad Gabay, and the head of the Ramat Negev Regional Council, Eran Doron — expressed our concern that no economic data were presented in the event that the electrification of the line is not carried out and the undergrounding route is altered, a step that could significantly shorten the process of undergrounding the line and removing the pillars.
Nevertheless, the committee decided to submit the plan for public objections. We expect that there will be no significant objections to the plan and that it will be approved in the coming days.
According to statements by the Transmission System Management Company, the detailed planning is progressing in parallel with the statutory approval process — a step that may help shorten the overall timeline.
At the same time, we approached the newly appointed Minister of Energy, Adv. Karine Elharrar, requesting that the funding for the undergrounding be included in the upcoming biennial state budget.
2022
With the completion of the revisions required by NIC for TTL 60A, the plan was submitted on February 27, 2022, for approval by the Ministerial Committee on Interior, Services, Planning, and Local Government. As expected, the committee approved the plan without any reservations, and the approval was published on March 10, 2022.
With the final approval of the plan, the countdown began for completing the undergrounding and removing the pillars according to the schedule set in the plan — and we are here to ensure that this commitment is fulfilled.
2023-2024
At the end of 2022, we were informed that the engineering design for the undergrounding works had been completed, and in January 2023 the actual undergrounding began. As of February 2024, the Electric Company had completed the undergrounding and connection of the line, and work had begun on removing the pillars themselves, with the first stage involving the removal of the cables from the overhead pillars. At the same time, camouflage paint tests were carried out on the remaining pillars that receive the line at the base of the crater cliff.
Photo: Noam Shalev
Significant Government Investment in the Environment
The government investment in the additional undergrounding of the high-voltage line in the Ramon Crater was budgeted at approximately ILS45M . This represents an important governmental statement about the significance of preserving the Ramon Crater in particular, and the Negev and crater region as a whole. However, this important investment pales in comparison to the broader national change brought about by the Pillars Protest.
In April 2023, the Electricity Authority published its New Policy Principles for the Undergrounding of New High-Voltage Power Lines. For the first time, the Minister of Energy and Infrastructure adopted the authority’s recommendation and established a formal national policy for undergrounding high-voltage lines.
According to the new policy, in order to reduce the environmental impact of developing the electricity network, new high-voltage lines will be placed underground when crossing coastal areas, nature reserves, and national parks. To allow flexibility for cases where undergrounding is justified in additional circumstances, the minister approved an additional quota of about 50 kilometers for undergrounding. An investment equivalent to roughly half a billion ILS.
In practice, the 2023 state budget allocated ILS1.5B for the undergrounding of high-voltage power lines in open areas and nature reserves — a clear governmental investment in environmental quality for the benefit of Israel’s landscapes.
We achieved the impossible
The struggle that at first seemed the most just yet utterly hopeless ended in a tremendous and rare victory for both the public and nature.
The undergrounding of the line was completed in June 2023 according to schedule, and during 2024–2025 all overhead pillars were removed. In June 2025, the concrete bases of the pillars were extracted, marking the completion of the land restoration. The primeval landscape of the Ramon Crater has returned to its natural state.
What once threatened to become an ugly scar in the heart of the desert has become a symbol of environmental responsibility, civic determination, and faith in the public’s power to change reality.
Together with a committed and determined public, we succeeded in doing the impossible — we restored the crater to its original form, brought about a change in the national planning approach to landscape-sensitive power transmission across Israel, and proved that when one believes in the justness of their cause, even what once seemed impossible can become a reality.
