Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called Tuesday on the international community to investigate Israel’s burial of nuclear, chemical and solid waste in the Palestinian territories.
“The cases of cancer in areas south of Hebron are the highest in Palestine, due to the burying of waste in a nearby location and the presence of a nuclear reactor,” Shtayyeh said during a conference on Climate Change organized by the Environment Quality Authority in Ramallah.
He said landfills where chemical, electronic or solid waste is collected are among the most important factors causing environmental pollution in Palestine and posing a threat to people’s health.
“Despite the measures we are taking to protect and preserve the environment, Israel continues to take measures that destroy it,” he said.
Palestine accuses Israel of using 98 landfills across the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) revealed that Israel has been transferring its dangerous and toxic wastes to the Palestinian territories, putting the life of Palestinians at stake, as well as damaging the soil and polluting the groundwater.
Also, Palestinians accuse Israel of using the West Bank as a nuclear waste dump, in addition to establishing a nuclear reactor in Negev near Hebron in the West Bank, where increasing cases of cancer have been reported.
Shtayyeh said, “We need to end the Israeli occupation, which has turned the occupied Palestinian West Bank into a massive landfill for dangerous and toxic wastes.”
He said that since 1967, Israeli authorities uprooted 2.5 million trees, including 800,000 Palestinian olive trees.
Shtayyeh also said that Palestine's annual water budget is approximately 800 million cubic meters and Israel has “stolen” 600 million cubic meters of it, adding this is part of "Israel's systematic colonialist policies to turn our lands into desert and seize them."
He added that 10 years ago, the PA adopted the Greening Palestine Program, and spent $25 million to plant new trees in the West Bank, and parts of the Gaza Strip.
“It is sad that every tree we planted in the Gaza Strip in the Beit Hanoun area was razed by the occupation forces during their repeated aggressions against the Strip,” the Palestinian PM said.
