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CounterPunch
November
6, 2002
Settlers and
Trash
by MAYOR WALID HAMAD
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 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.
Walid Hamad
is the Mayor of the Palestinian City of Al-Bireh in the West
Bank. He may be reached at info@al-bireh.org
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