When we wrote about the new Herbawi Home Center in Jenin earlier this year, we wondered if it would bring suburban living to the West Bank. Another change is afoot this month in the town of Ya’abad, west of Jenin, reports the Maan News Agency. With most of the town’s 8,000 residents working in wood-coal, the workshops that heat wood release pollution that gives locals respiratory illness at rates double those of surrounding villages. (Left, a workshop in Ya’abad).
Maan writes:
“Not only is the industry non-sustainable, it is contaminating the groundwater and destroying the green forest that gives shelter to the town, and once provided a hideout for Sheikh Izz Addin Al-Qassam, the leader of 1930s revolution, and namesake for Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades.”
One Yaabad resident told Ma’an that the factories’ pollution is “so bad that if you hang up your clothes outside at night, the next morning they will be so grey and rank that you will not be able to wear them.”
At the same time, those Ya’abad residents who work in coal production said it provides a handsome income of 5000 shekels a month ($1350). A 22-year-old coal worker, Yasser Abu-Baker, said ““We benefit from this career, our community benefits, and all of Palestine benefits because we can produce all the wood coal the country needs up here.”
Ya’abad Mayor Walid Al-Abbady said that the only solution is to move the workshops outside of town, which helped Egyptian wood-coal manufacturers to work safely. However, he says, Israeli control of the West Bank is thwarting such a move because it would require construction outside of city limits and in Area C, the part of the West Bank under full Israeli control since Oslo. Now Ya’abad is leaning on the Palestinian Authority to help make the change.
::Photo from Maan News
Author: Daniella Cheslow
Daniella Cheslow grew up in a car-dependent suburb in New Jersey, where she noticed strip malls and Wal-Marts slowly replacing farmland. Her introduction to nature came through hiking trips in Israel. As a counselor for a freshman backpacking program at Northwestern University, Daniella noticed that Americans outdoors seemed to need to arm themselves with performance clothing, specialized water bottles and sophisticated camping silverware. This made her think about how to interact with and enjoy nature simply. This year, Daniella is getting a Master’s in Geography from Ben Gurion University of the Negev. She also freelance writes, photographs and podcasts. In her free time, she takes day trips in the desert, drops off compost and cooks local foods like stuffed zucchini, kubbeh and majadara. Daniella gets her peak oil anxiety from James Howard Kunstler and her organic food dreams from Michael Pollan. Read more at her blog, TheTruthHerzl.com. Daniella can be reached at daniella (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
Hi Seeram
Thanks for the comment. Do you work on ground water issues in the West Bank?
Yours,
Daniella
Sir,
The deforestation is one of the great sin . Because it not only changes the climate, and also the ground water depletion in the area. Hence this should be avoided as much as ossible. Now a days rain as beome scanty, and also frequent rains are also appearing very less. Hence the recharge of the ground water is very less.
The deforestation takes care for the ground water control and pollution. Hence to solve this problem we should make a strict rules to follow.
Thanking you for gibving the opportunity to discusss. I welcome ground water problems , and to solve them I will help them plese do discuss with me in future.
Thanking you,
Yours sincerly, (Seeram.G.Dathathreya).