Environment minister unveils plan to combat waste burning in the West Bank

Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman announces key elements of a strategic plan to address pirate waste burning in the West Bank and the increased pollution it is causing in Israel.

As The Times of Israel reported on Sunday, the Citizens for Clean Air organization logged 1,800 complaints last month, nearly triple those submitted in August.

Complaints are now coming not only from communities along the Green Line separating Israel and the West Bank, but from cities further inside Israel, such as Yehud, Kiryat Ono, Petah Tikva, and even Tel Aviv on the coast.

Silman’s announcement comes after a meeting she chaired in the central city of Modiin with the mayor of Modi’in-Maccabim-Reut and chairman of the Local Government Center, Haim Bibas, senior ministry officials, heads of Jewish local authorities in the West Bank, and representatives from the Israeli side of the Green Line.

The plan, which still requires input from the Defense Ministry and government approval, includes long-term steps, for which funding will need to be found, as well as immediate actions, for which the funding exists.

The immediate actions include increased steps to prevent the smuggling of waste from Israel into the West Bank and Gaza Strip; rehabilitating the waste site in Al-Minya, located near the West Bank settlements of Ma’ale Amos and Tekoa; making available engineering tools to extinguish fires that ignite within piles of waste; funding a waste transit station in Abu Dis, near Jerusalem; upgrading sites where equipment can be confiscated; and funding positions for investigators, prosecutors, and monitoring teams in the field.

Longer-term steps include passing nine pieces of legislation, five within the framework of regional orders and four in local council regulations, to strengthen supervisory and enforcement powers and increase fines for environmental offenders; boosting enforcement in Areas C and B of the West Bank, where Israel has full external security control; and integrating the police, the IDF and the security establishment in environmental protection missions.

Additional proposals are to create a 24/7 center that will coordinate inquiries and reports on environmental hazards in cooperation with the fire and rescue services, the Civil Administration — Israel’s civil arm in the West Bank — and the Israel Police; expanding waste treatment infrastructure, which will include sorting, treatment, and landfill facilities, energy recovery facilities, transit stations, and organic waste treatment sites; establishing air monitoring stations in the West Bank; and encouraging the international community and donor countries to finance environmental projects among residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Bibas says the affected local and regional authorities are preparing to file a petition with the High Court of Justice to force the state to deal with the waste fires.