The recent phenomenon of large-scale burning of trash by Palestinians in the West Bank is a national security threat, according to Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. It has the potential to cause respiratory harm, they said Thursday.
The Palestinians are said to lack sufficient local landfills, and according to the authorized arrangement, they are supposed to transport their trash on trucks to other locations. But truckers often dump the trash earlier to save time and money, and the trash is then burned.
Following a meeting with OC Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria Brig.-Gen. Hisham Ibrahim, Health Ministry representatives, and numerous mayors and regional council heads on both sides of the Green Line, Katz and Smotrich proposed a five-point plan to address the situation.
The first point in the plan is taking the legal and conceptual measure of declaring it a national security issue instead of a mere nuisance. The goal is to change the focus and heavily increase the kinds of resources that can be brought to bear to confront the issue.
Secondly, there will be a process to grant administrative powers to IDF Central Command, which governs the West Bank, such as confiscating Palestinian garbage trucks.
It was unclear exactly how this measure would reduce the phenomenon, other than for Israel to take possession of trash-loaded trucks or possibly that the trash might be burned in smaller increments closer to wherever it was produced.
Even if the trash was burned in smaller increments and more locally, the distance between many Palestinian villages and Israeli villages is small enough that the main issue would not necessarily be addressed.
Thirdly, Israel will allocate funding, currently with no set limit, to bring aboard heavy vehicles and private companies that can both extinguish fires and remove and transfer the garbage to a landfill.
More aggressive enforcement
Katz and Smotrich also promised more aggressive enforcement and penalties for those who burn trash in violation of the law.
Lastly, a website for keeping track of all such trash fires will be established to better share information and enhance rapid reaction time to new incidents.
Other officials also spoke about establishing new landfills in the West Bank and said the budget for the new campaign would be tens of millions of shekels.
There was also talk of fining the Palestinian Authority when Israel needs to remove Palestinians’ trash and of starting the campaign with the Palestinian village of Na’alin.
In October, the nonprofit Citizens for Clean Air hotline said it had received 2,763 complaints nationwide about air pollution and smoke, with 1,034 of them from Modi’in, accounting for about 37.5% of all reports.
Since then, local leaders have been trying to raise the profile of the issue nationally, but Thursday was the first serious move to address the problem.
In November, the Environmental Protection Ministry issued a plan with many overlapping parameters. Katz and Smotrich have far more power and latitude to throw resources at the issue, especially given the involvement of Palestinians, than the much smaller ministry.