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Located at the ecological crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa, Palestine has a rich diversity of flora and fauna, including 2,500 species of plants and 80 species of wild mammals. The construction of settlements and bypass roads in the Occupied Territories threatens the biological diversity of the region.
Case Example: Jabel Abu Ghneim
The Jabel Abu Ghneim forest is a habitat for many species of plants and animals, and an important station for migratory birds. For years, Abu Ghneim was declared a “Green Area” in which development was restricted in order to protect the ecological diversity. Today, the Israeli government has expropriated the land in order to build a large settlement. This indicates that the Israeli government often uses “green- zoning” as a pretext to restrict Palestinian construction in Jerusalem and the West Bank until the political situation allows the Israeli government to build more settlements
Improper sewage disposal from settlements destroys crops and contaminates water in Palestinian villages
While stringent environmental regulations govern the disposal of sewage within Israel , many Jewish settlements located within the Occupied Territories freely release their sewage onto the surrounding land, destroying crops and polluting water supplies. In a recent survey of 170 Palestinian villages, 70 suffered directly from their location close to settlements, and of these villages, 60% reported health problems directly related to settlement polluting activity .
Case Example:
The Efrat and Daniel settlements have been dumping their sewage onto agricultural lands in El-Khadder village, destroying their grape and apple trees. The Kiryat Arba settlement dumps sewage into the Al Fawwar Valley, contaminating the water supply to the Al Fawwar refugee camp, resulting in high rates of water-borne diseases among children. The Ariel settlement pipes its sewage to a site near Marda village, badly contaminating their local spring. In the village of Turmous Ayya, settlers sprayed farmlands with a chemical pesticide, damaging olive trees and vegetables. Other villages, including Surif, Beit Omar, Nahalin, and Yatta, have also suffered from “pesticide attacks” by area settlers
On several occasions, settlers have sprayed Palestinian crops with harmful levels of chemical pesticides in order to render the land unusable for agriculture. Such “pesticide attacks” and improper sewage disposal by settlers make it impossible or impractical for farmers to cultivate their lands. When land is no longer cultivated, the Israeli government considers the land “unused”, making it vulnerable to confiscation.
Hazardous Israeli industries located in the Occupied Territories
Many Israeli factories have been allowed to operate in the Occupied Territories, despite their harmful impacts on the environment and health of the local population. There are approximately 160 Israeli factories in the West Bank, forming industrial zones with effectively no controls on waste disposal or air pollution .
Case Example: Tulkarem
In 1987, citizens of Kfar Saba, Israel, obtained a court order shutting down a hazardous chemical factory. The factory relocated to the Palestinian town of Tulkarem, ignoring the court order stating that the factory should not operate in agricultural or residential areas. Tulkarem residents suffer from increased rates of respiratory disease, and area farmers suffer economic losses due to decreased crop yields and contaminated produce. Land immediately surrounding the factory cannot be cultivated at all and is thus vulnerable to confiscation under the Israeli government’s “unused” land policy.
Israeli Quarries
Israel has created seven stone quarries in the West Bank on land confiscated after the signing of the Oslo I agreement of 1993 . According to Oslo II (the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreeement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip), quarries were to be turned over to Palestinians or to have Palestinian supervision, neither of which has occurred.
Quarries enable Israelis to exploit one of the main natural raw materials in the West Bank, and quarries located in the West Bank provide 80% of the building materials needed for the Israeli construction industry. Quarries also cause environmental and health hazards, including increased rates of asthma and acute bronchial infections for people living in the area. It is important to note that the Israeli military authorities will not issue permits for quarries to be established near Israeli settlements .
Case Example: Wadi Al-Teen Quarry
The Israeli Highest Planning Committee has approved the expropriation of 968.5 hectares of Wadi-Al-Teen, a large valley located near Tulkarem city, to be used by private Israeli companies to quarry granite stone. Despite Palestinian protest, Israel has recently begun to implement the quarry plan. The quarries will destroy wildlife habitat, reduce agricultural land available to area residents, divert run-off water used for irrigation, and release large amounts of dust and other pollutants. Moreover, the quarries allow Israel to pirate the natural resources of the West Bank for its own use, in violation of international law which permits the use natural resources in the occupied territory only for military needs or for benefit of the occupied population .
Exploitation of West Bank water resources
According to a recent United Nations report, 67% of the water used by Israel comes from outside its 1948 borders (‘the Green Line’), including 35% from the West Bank and tributaries of the Jordan River, and 22% from the Golan Heights .
In order to ensure continued availability of outside water resources for Israeli use, the Israeli government retains strict control over water use in the Occupied Territories. Palestinians in the West Bank are allocated 110 million cubic meters (mcm.) of water per year, while Israel uses 413 mcm. per year.
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In addition, while Palestinians can only irrigate 6% of their total agricultural land because of water shortages, Israel irrigates 50% of the cultivated land inside Israel, and Israeli settlers in the Occupied Territories irrigate 70% of the agricultural land under their control.
The Oslo II agreement perpetuates the unequal distribution of water resources, protecting Israel’s current levels of water extraction. While the agreement calls for the development of 23.6 million cubic meters for Palestinian domestic use (Article 40), this will not go far to alleviate the extreme domestic water shortages, and fails to provide for the development of water resources for agricultural use. The agreement specifically calls for Israel to increase the water quota for the Bethlehem and Hebron districts by 1 mcm. per year -- this has not yet been implemented. Moreover, the agreement fails to mention the sources from which the increased allocation of water will be drawn, leaving open the possibility that the Palestinian National Authority will be forced to pay for costly desalinization plants and wastewater treatment facilities in order to obtain the allocated amount of water. By maintaining Israel’s current levels of water extraction, failing to guarantee greater water rights to Palestinians, and postponing discussion of critical water issues until the final status negotiations, the Oslo agreement has served to further entrench Israel’s exploitation of West Bank water resources.
Water issues have long dictated Israeli political policy and military occupation. Israel’s occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights gave it control over tributaries of the Jordan River and its occupation of the West Bank gave it control over the Jordan Valley and two major shared aquifers. National Infrastructure Minister Ariel Sharon has been pressing for Israel to retain sovereignty over water resources even on land it should, in principle, hand over to Palestine, stating that ‘It is unimaginable that Israel would have to ask Palestinians for permission to lay a pipe to Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory” .
Case Example: Obediyya village
The Palestinian village of Obediyya was without water for more than one year. The Israeli water company - Mekerot - was pumping just enough water into the local piping system to reach the Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim and Qedar, but not enough to reach Obediyya. Obediyya is not an isolated case -- villages lying outside the Palestinian self-rule areas (the self-rule area constitutes only 3% of the total land area of the West Bank and Gaza) must depend on Mekerot for their water supply, and are often denied access to running water or electricity for political reasons. Villagers are prevented from digging new wells to replace those that have been taken over for Israeli use or to deepen those that have dried from Israeli overpumping
Diversion and Pollution of the Jordan River
The water level of the Jordan River has dropped drastically, due to Israeli diversion of the Yarmuk River to the eastern valley canal, the pumping of water to the Sea of Galilee, and the diversion of water to the Negev Desert via Israel’s National Water Carrier. In addition, to curb the increasing salinity of the Galilee, the Israeli government diverted one of its saltiest tributaries into the Jordan River, dumping 60,000 tons of salt into the river each year. The river is also polluted by untreated sewage from Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights and Mt. Hermon, as well as from Arab villages which still lack sewage treatment facilities. The construction of a hydroelectric plant at Kibbutz Kfar Hanassi, which was recently approved, will further decrease water flow in the affected section of the river by over 50% .
Environmental injustice and international law
Israeli exploitation of the natural resources and environment of the Occupied Territories violates both the letter and spirit of the Oslo accords and principles of international law.
The Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza (Oslo II) agreement, signed by both parties in September 1995, requires the joint adoption of internationally recognized standards for environmental protection and the prevention of environmental risk, specifically with respect to the discharge of pollutants, waste treatment and disposal, the use of hazardous substances (including pesticides), and the prevention of “noise, odor, pests, and other nuisances which may affect the other side” (Article 12(B)(5)). The agreement states that both sides shall “take all necessary measures to ensure that activities in their respective areas do not cause damage to the environment of the other side” and calls for joint cooperation in the preservation of existing forests and nature reserves (Article 12 (b)(14)), the prevention of nuisances from quarries (Article 12(B)(11)) and the prevention of water pollution (Article 12(B)(6))
The Hague Regulations of 1907, which Israel accepts as binding and has codified into domestic law, formally prohibits pillage (Article 47) and the confiscation of private property (Article 46). Thus, the pillage of natural resources, such as water and quarry stones, and the confiscation of private land through the “unused” land policy, violate central principles of the Hague Regulations. Moreover, the regulations specify that:
The occupying state shall be regarded only as administrator and usufruchtury of public buildings, real estate, forests, and agricultural estates belonging to the hostile states and situated in the occupied country. It must safeguard the capital of these properties and administer them in accordance with the rules of usufrucht (Article 55, emphasis added).
According to the rules of usufrucht, the powers of the occupant are limited by a concern for the future value of the property -- the occupying power is prohibited from exploiting property “beyond normal use.” Over-exploitation of water supplies, causing irreversible salinization of underground aquifers, and the long-term contamination of land and groundwater by improper disposal of industrial pollutants exceeds “normal use” and impairs the future value of the property.
The building of civilian Israeli settlements blatantly contravenes the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 (ratified by Israel in 1951) which states that “the occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies” (Article 49). Since the settlements themselves are illegal, environmental problems stemming from the presence of settlers in the Occupied Territories, such as sewage dumping, pesticide attacks, tree uprooting, and exploitation of water resources, are also violations of international law. While Israel refuses to recognize the Geneva Convention as applicable to the Occupied Territories, the world community has unanimously condemned the building of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories as contrary to international law.
Finally, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by Israel in August 1991, states that “All persons are equal before the law and entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.” However, in the Occupied Territories, there are two highly unequal systems of law -- Israeli law, selectively applied to the settlers, and military orders applied to the Palestinians. The protection from environmental and health hazards enjoyed by Israeli citizens and settlers is clearly not extended to the Palestinian population in the Occupied Territories.
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