Ramat Poleg residents fight Netanya’s Red Line: «We won’t be the buses’ parking lot»

The dispute over the «Red Line» public transport project in southern Netanya is heating up again. Residents of the Ramat Poleg and Ir Yamim neighbourhoods continue to oppose a plan that would run a dedicated public transport lane along Zalman Shazar Street and place a bus terminal at the edge of the neighbourhood. One of the protest’s activists laid out their case on the regional radio station 90FM.

On the midday programme «Yoman Tzohorayim», hosted by Yossi Hadar with reporter Itamar Rotem, attorney Talia Dina Benbenishti, a Ramat Poleg resident, described the campaign. Rotem recalled that the issue first surfaced about a month ago, when the plan and its visualisations were published. Residents fear the neighbourhood’s main green artery will turn into something like a highway; they have circulated a petition and threatened to go to court.

According to the reporter, residents were taken aback last Thursday morning when a truck began unloading concrete barriers along the future route of the line, which looked like a sign that works were about to begin.

«The neighbourhood will be unrecognisable»

Benbenishti said the line ends precisely in Poleg and Ir Yamim and, in her view, would transform the area: instead of one long street with roundabouts, there would be a street with eight traffic lights and crossings she described as dangerous for children. Another major problem, she said, is the planned bus terminal at the edge of the neighbourhood. In her words, the neighbourhood is effectively being turned into the solution to bus parking at the cost of its own destruction.

She also described a meeting with Mayor Avi Salma and representatives of Ayalon Highways (Netivei Ayalon), where, she said, residents were shown clearly for the first time what Shazar Street would become. According to Benbenishti, the mayor listened and promised that works would not start until the issues were resolved. After an urgent appeal, she said, the barriers were explained as a mistake and were collected.

The residents’ goal, she stressed, is to move both the terminal and the Red Line route elsewhere, so that the neighbourhood is not harmed and a public transport solution is found without coming at residents’ expense.

Fundraising for an expert opinion

As NetanyaNet reported earlier (8 November), the protest headquarters has started collecting donations to pay for an independent traffic consultant’s opinion and on-site measurements. Residents say that at the meeting with the mayor they were not shown traffic surveys or demand data explaining why a bus lane is needed specifically on Shazar Street. They fear the narrow residential street could become a six-lane road, hurting pedestrian safety, green spaces and parking. According to the same report, the mayor said a municipal surveyor would be sent to measure the width of the road.

Residents say a lawyer they consulted told them a traffic consultant’s opinion is required before legal action can begin. The campaign insists it is not against better public transport in the city, only against a bus lane inside a residential neighbourhood. Such lanes, they argue, belong on main roads such as Ben Tzvi Street; among the alternatives they propose is a route near the IKEA complex. Donation details were published in the NetanyaNet article.

The mayor’s response

Netanya Mayor Avi Salma told 90FM that the barriers had been unloaded without coordination with the municipality. As soon as he was informed, he said, he ordered the work stopped and the barriers removed immediately, with anything not yet collected to be cleared the following day. Salma also accused a political rival of trying to make «narrow and cheap politics» out of an important issue, and said he would keep working for all Netanya residents transparently and in partnership with them.

Source: 90FM, 9 November 2026; additional reporting: NetanyaNet, 8 November 2026.

Photo: Netanya Municipality, via 90FM.