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Greenpeace Israel campaign manager: We will pay the price for coal - with our health

Naval police led a coal ship to its dock in Hadera on Thursday, after local Greenpeace activists attempted to prevent it from entering Israel.Group members from Israel and Germany approached the Orient Venus, which had made its way from South Africa to Israeli territorial waters near Hadera, with a rubber raft. Three of them climbed up the side of the ship with a rope ladder waving a flag reading “coal kills.”The move was part of the organization’s efforts to prevent an additional coal mill from being built in Ashkelon.Police demanded that the three disembark the ship but they refused. In response, a naval force led by superintendent Aryeh Dahan, escorted the ship to the Hadera port.One activist left the vessel upon the arrival of police, who were forced to remove the remaining two. All three were taken in for investigation by the naval police.Mor Levy, 22, one of the Greenpeace members who boarded the ship, said, “It’s true that our action is unusual, and maybe even extreme, but unfortunately, we have no choice. The insistence on using coal for energy is far more extreme. The government is harming me and those who are close to me! “I believe anyone can make a difference,” Levy insisted. “You can make a difference from your home by conserving energy, which will prevent another mill from being built.”Nili Grossman, manager of Greenpeace’s energy campaign in Israel, said from the raft: “We all pay the price for coal, which includes health problems, air pollution and climate change. The public pays the real price for coal. We will continue to fight until the polluting coal mill is called off.”In 2009, 10 Greenpeace activists conducted a demonstration at the Ashkelon coal-fired power plant and blocked the entrance to the facility.Police arrested all the protesters.Greenpeace also led a letter-writing campaign, in which it gathered 20,000 letters to the government opposing the mill.