Residents of the Modi’in area, together with the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, have been fighting in recent years against a plan to pave an access road to the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Modi’in Ilit through an ecologically sensitive area known as Gazelle Valley. While the road plan is still under discussion in planning committees, another, less visible process is unfolding on the ground: illegal construction of farms, fences, and roads that is gradually consuming the landscape and degrading the area.
