Wastewater from illegal Ariel settlement pollutes Palestinian agricultural lands of Salfit

B'Tselem - Video: Wastewater from the Ariel settlement pollutes lands of the Palestinian town Salfit:

"The West Bank town of Salfit has suffered for years from wastewater channeled its way from the Ariel settlement, as depicted in the video. This case is not unusual in the West Bank: as detailed in B'Tselem's report on the subject, tens of millions of cubic meters of wastewater flow freely in the West Bank, from settlements, from Jerusalem and from Palestinian communities, greatly damaging the environment. In many settlements, the wastewater treatment plants are outdated and cannot treat the load currently placed on them; other settlements have never built plants. Israel has placed obstacles before efforts made by the Palestinian Authority to build treatment plants in Palestinian communities, including the condition that some plants serve adjacent settlements as well. The PA objects, on the grounds that establishing joint plants would legitimize the existence of the settlements.

The neglect of wastewater treatment in the West Bank has already polluted water sources used by Palestinians and in the long run, is expected to pollute water sources shared by Israelis and Palestinians. Give the urgency of the problem, B'Tselem calls on Israel and the PA to advance Palestinian treatment projects as quickly as possible. This includes projects that will serve settlements too, with the understanding that they will continue to serve the Palestinian communities in the future, if the settlements are evacuated."

B'Tselem's last part of this statement is sad indeed. A human rights org giving in to blackmail by the Israeli government and the illegal settlers. Either the Palestinian victims give in to the colonizers' demands and pay for and legitimize their occupation and colonialism or they'll flood Palestinian towns and villages with wastewater and sewage. B'Tselem should revise its own declaration and demand that Israel fulfills it's obligation under international law as the Occupying power to guarantee the health and safety of the occupied, as well as remove the illegal settlements in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.



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