Disputes over natural resources are not a new part of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Water, for instance, is a famous bone of contention between the two parties. Recently, however, a newer twist developed in this ongoing battle between nations.
On Monday, Yesh Din – Volunteers for Human Rights, an Israeli rights group, petitioned the High Court of Justice, seeking both an interim order and an injunction against the operation of 10 Israeli-controlled quarries in West Bank.
Michael Sfard, a lawyer for Yesh Din, argued, “Israel is transferring natural resources from the West Bank for Israeli benefit, and this is absolutely prohibited not only under international law but according to Israeli Supreme Court rulings…This is an illegal transfer of land in the most literal of senses.”
A 2008 government study found that three-quarters of the resources extracted from these quarries goes to Israel, accounting for almost a quarter of the sand and gravel Israel uses annually. International law forbids occupying powers from exploiting natural resources in the territories they control. Although Israel does not consider its ongoing military control of the West Bank as an occupation in the classical sense, Yesh Din still maintains that the extraction of rocks and sand for building materials violates international law.
Currently these quarries are Israeli-owned. Palestinians argue they must have control over their own natural resources if they are ever to have a sustainable, prospering economy. If there were a Palestinian state, the majority of these resources might still go to Israel, but Palestinians would control and benefit from this market themselves. Even prime minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu, who takes a right-wing stance on Israel’s relationship with the Palestinians, has stressed the importance of strengthening the Palestinian economy, so he might be willing to change his stance on this particular dispute.
Beyond economic development, another these quarries also create major concern because of their environmental impact. Itamar Ben David, chief environmental planner for the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, said he was “surprised by how big a portion is supplied to Israel by the West Bank….One reason is clearly that planning regulations and environmental assessment are less strong in the West Bank than in Israel. In Israel, nobody wants a quarry near his residential property.”
Hassan Abu-Libdeh, a special advisor to Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad, echoed these sentiments. “This industry is polluting Palestinian lands and populations,” he said.
:: The New York Times, Ynetnews
Image Credit: gotplaid?
More for more environmental news related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, check out these related posts:
Israeli Activists Build Wind, Solar Energy Systems for Palestinian Villages: An Interview with COMET’s Elad Orian
Strategic Foresight Group Reports on the Environmental Cost of Middle East Conflicts
The Conflicted Middle East To Worsen As Global Warming Causes Rising Sea Levels
Author: Rachel Bergstein
When her vegan summer camp counselor explained to a fifteen-year-old Rachel how the dairy industry pollutes the groundwater in poor rural communities and causes global warming, there was no turning back. Her green fire lit, Rachel became increasingly passionate about the relationship between human societies and the natural environment, particularly about the systemic injustices associated with environmental degradation. After snagging a B.A. in Peace and Justice Studies at the University of Maryland, where she wrote an undergraduate thesis on water injustice in Israel/Palestine and South Africa, Rachel was awarded the New Israel Fund/Shatil’s Rabbi Richard J. Israel Social Justice Fellowship to come and spread the green gospel in Israel for the 2009-2010 academic year. She currently interns for Friends of the Earth Middle East in their Tel Aviv office. When Rachel is not having anxiety about her ecological footprint, carbon and otherwise, she can be found in hot pursuit of the best vegetarian food Tel Aviv has to offer. She also blogs about her experience as an NIF fellow and environmentalist in Israel at organichummus.wordpress.com. Rachel can be reached at rachelbergstein (at) gmail (dot) com.
One thought on “Israelis, Palestinians Dispute Over Quarries in the West Bank”
Comments are closed.