Save Adullam from Oil Shale Extraction

Opened on January 06, 2010 | Contact Petition Author

(http://atzuma.co.il/saveadullam לעצומה בעברית)

More information: Save Adullam.org

Stop the oil shale extraction in Adullam now!

Bicyclists and hikers love to travel through the scenic parkland, while Jews and Christians worldwide are inspired by the story of David's sojourn in the Cave of Adullam.

In December 2009, an international oil company began an exploratory drilling in Adullam Park. In July, they began an exploratory drilling near historic Lachish.

A pilot extraction project for assessing economic feasibility (but not the environmental damage) is set to begin on the Biblical David and Goliath battlefield site in the Valley of Elah.

The pilot and commercial extraction will implement a new system for heating the underground shale to 650 degrees Fahrenheit, forcing the oil out of the shale rock and into pipes for further processing.

If the extraction proceeds as plans, the underground heat and oil extraction risk destruction of the landscape, the antiquities, the wildlife, the air, and the ground-water.

This area was the heart of Judea in the first centuries CE. Beautiful and valuable two-millennia-old antiquities fill the park, most buried safely underground. If these hidden treasures crumble under years of slow heat, they will be lost forever.

The expensive extraction process has never been profitable. The new technique may cross the profitability threshold, but even if so, local farmers who work the land will be entitled to no royalties and local tourism operators will suffer.

The scenic and historic center of a small country is no place to dig for oil shale. Stop the oil shale extraction in our beloved Adullam.