"Morris Kahn has been operating in Israel for 40 years. He was never interested in real estate deals, and has no intention of developing additional projects on land or at sea in Eilat at this time," says Benjamin (Benjy) Kahn.
Benjamin Kahn, the son of Morris Kahn, is the owner of the Eilat underwater observatory. For the past two and half years, Morris Kahn has been behind the Zalol (Dive) society, which has been working with the Ministry of the Environment and other environmental organizations to remove polluters from the Gulf of Eilat, beginning with fish cages.
Kahn says the interest in removing the fish cages belonging to Ardag and Suf Fish, should be a primary public interest in Israel. Instead, he claims that the state, primarily the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, gives precedence to the narrow economic interests of fish farmers, and is prepared to sacrifice the Gulf of Eilat and its coral reefs to that end.
Kahn says he joined Zalol's struggle two and half years ago, following an appeal by MK Nehama Ronen (Center Party), who was managing director Zalol.
"After diving in Eilat, I was horrified by the condition of the corals, which I have known for decades. I quickly realized that the ministries were apathetic to what was going on, so we decided to lend a shoulder to the society's activities, out of love of the sea. We openly donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Zalol. The money was entirely used for information campaigns, lobbying the Knesset and supporting organizations that set themselves up as protectors of the Gulf," said Kahn.
Kahn rejected out of hand allegations that his family would be the main profiteers from the bill to protect the Gulf of Eilat's beaches. He said the aim of the bill was to create a framework that would forbid activities that would damage the Gulf's natural heritage. The bill had no article supporting making the Gulf into a nature reserve. He said one clause calls for the preservation of the coastal area, where the underwater observatory is located, as a nature site and banning construction.
Under the 1973 contract between the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority and Red Sea Marineland that set up the underwater observatory, Morris Kahn demanded the insertion of a clause giving him first refusal rights to build another observatory.
The fish farmers claim the fish cages do not pollute the sea, and actually contribute to diversity.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 20 February 2002