Settlers and
Trash
by Walid Hamad
AL-BIREH, West Bank - While
the Israeli military strangulation of the West Bank tightens by the
day, the Israeli settler community of Psagot, a settlement illegally
erected near my City of Al-Bireh, is taking advantage of the Israeli
government's determination to militarily crush the Palestinian society
to pursue their three decade old policy of illegal land confiscation.
Just as the Israeli Occupation
to suppress the entire Palestinian population has taken on new shapes
and forms in the absence of any international considerations, Israeli
settlers are camouflaging this latest round of land confiscation with
a facade of environmental issues, namely a solid waste landfill site
on the Eastern front of our City.
Since October 2000, at the
outset of the Palestinian Intifada, the Israeli Occupation Authorities
declared by military order the closure of the Al-Bireh Municipality
solid waste landfill site. This landfill site was originally designated
to serve a population of over 100,000 people in Al-Bireh and other surrounding
Palestinian communities within the Governorate of Ramallah/Al-Bireh.
Consequently, the Ramallah and Al-Bireh Municipalities were forced to
reopen and use an abandoned Ramallah landfill site. This Ramallah landfill
site was abandoned many years ago due to it being overloaded and its
close proximity to the Ramallah Industrial Zone and several residential
areas. Likewise, this site was deemed to pose serious health and environmental
risks to the City of Ramallah that further justified its closure.
Now, after over two years
of being forced by the Israeli military to be re-opened and after receiving
huge amounts of solid waste, this previously-abandoned Ramallah site
has reached a level of health and environmental risk that can no longer
be tolerated. The threat of the dumpsite collapsing during the rapidly
approaching winter months is real and adds an additional urgency to
the issue. In light of this threat, the City of Ramallah Municipality
has formally requested its sister city, Al-Bireh, immediately refrain
from using the dumpsite. Subsequently, massive amounts of solid waste
are accumulating throughout the streets of the City of Al-Bireh creating
serious health and environmental hazards.
The Municipality of Al-Bireh,
in coordination with other Palestinian ministries and institutions,
has tried several times to resolve the issue of the closed Al-Bireh
landfill with the Israeli Authorities. After much effort, on October
22nd, 2002, the Israeli Authorities opened the landfill site for several
hours before a band of heavily armed illegal Israeli settlers from the
Psagot settlement closed the landfill site by force by firing on the
municipality workers and drivers attempting to reach the site in their
municipality trucks. Interestingly enough, the Israeli settlers themselves
have never stopped using the landfill for disposing of their own waste
throughout the last two years, through today. The Israeli Authority's
politically motivated reasons to close the only available landfill for
the entire City of Al-Bireh and its indifference to the settlers rampant
actions, has only added gas to the fire of Occupation that my citizens
have been living with for 36-years.
The strategy of the settlers
of Psagot is clear. They are hoping that we Palestinians will find an
alternative landfill site in order for them to confiscate the large
parcel of land the landfill uses in order to add it to the existing
confiscated lands that they have already stolen from my City in hopes
of expanding their illegal settlement. However, it is impossible for
us to seek such an option, even as a last resort, given the physical
constraints of land use present in the Oslo Peace Accords. Their strategy
is multifaceted. Only last year they confiscated additional lands from
the North of Al-Bireh under the pretext of security concerns. As the
world is pre-consumed with seemingly more important affairs, the Israeli
Occupation Authorities are land gabbing at an unprecedented rate in
full synchronization with the illegal Israeli settlers.
Today, every street in my
City is being turned into a trash dump. My citizens are rightfully complaining
about the environmental risk and the health threat this open waste is
posing to their children. My City workers have risked their lives, to
no avail, to properly dispose of our City's waste. I urgently appeal
to the world community and in specific to environmental organizations
worldwide to immediately intervene to allow the Al-Bireh landfill to
be reopened.
Israeli Occupation of the
West Bank will soon come tumbling down, but in the meantime; it is time
to know who is in charge, the Israeli settlers or the Israeli government.
If the website of the Israeli Ministry of the Environment (http://www1.sviva.gov.il/english)
is of any indication - they prominently list only two links on their
homepage: the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and, believe it or
not, the Israel Defense Forces.
(Mr. Walid Hamad
is the Mayor of the Palestinian City of Al-Bireh in the West Bank. He
may be reached by or email [email protected])