IDF launches campaign against Palestinian air pollution

IDF Central Command chief signs order launching crackdown against unauthorized Palestinian garbage-burning sites; defense minister vows enforcement will begin immediately.

By World Israel News Staff

Israel on Thursday formally launched a campaign against Palestinian air pollution, initiating a crackdown on pirate waste-burning sites in Judea and Samaria.

Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, chief of the IDF’s Central Command, signed a military order for Judea and Samaria activating an enforcement mechanism recently drafted by the Israeli Defense Ministry and the Ministry of Environmental Protection aimed at combating waste-burning near Israeli towns.

Defense Minister Israel Katz (Likud), who instructed Bluth to sign the order, said that enforcement would begin immediately.

“This is a turning point, because the policy we set is today being given tangible expression on the ground,” said Katz. “Anyone who pollutes, sets fires, and harms the health of Israel’s citizens will pay a heavy price.”

“We will target the means, strip away the economic profit, and create clear deterrence. We will not allow a reality in which Israel’s citizens breathe poison.”

“My directive to the IDF is clear: Activate the order and enforce it aggressively against any offender who takes part in the threat of waste-burning. This is a struggle for the public’s security, health, and quality of life — and we will lead it until the phenomenon is eradicated at its root.”

The IDF order is the culmination of efforts by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also serves as minister in the Defense Ministry, municipalities in and near Judea and Samaria, and a number of lawmakers.

Under the new order, waste-burning is now defined as a threat to Israeli national security, with a new enforcement body charged with overseeing efforts to shut down pirate waste sites and prosecute their operators.

For years, residents of Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria, along with cities near the border, have suffered from air pollution produced by pirate waste-burning sites inside the Palestinian Authority.

Data presented to a Knesset subcommittee last year by the Green Now movement claimed that the air pollution resulting from pirate garbage-burning sites was linked to some 1,300 excess deaths in Israel each year, due to chronic illness.

“The signing by the Central Command commander of the orders that finally provide effective enforcement tools against those who dump and burn waste in Judea and Samaria is a major step forward in the fight against this severe environmental and public health hazard,” the Green Movement said Thursday.

“Addressing this danger is not merely an environmental issue but a matter of saving lives; as a result of these waste fires, approximately 1,300 Israeli citizens die each year.”

“While there is still a long road ahead in terms of infrastructure and regulating the treatment of Palestinian waste and waste smuggled from Israel, it appears that the outcry of residents and environmental organizations has today achieved a significant breakthrough.”