AFTER COPENHAGEN, INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
Hannah Amireh, PPP, Palestine
Effects of War and Occupation on Biodiversity
Ladies and Gentle Men
Dear Friends
Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity, to talk in front of this respected forum.
We think that it is very important to discuss an important subject like the Effects of war and
occupation on Biodiversity in Palestine. In fact, the international community is giving zero
attention to the state of nature and natural resources in tension areas including the oPT.
Because of the human disaster involved, there is often reluctance to focus on the
.environmental consequences
Forty-three years of occupation, have inflicted terrific effects .The aggressive and brutal war
against Gaza, gives a very clear example about the collateral damage against the whole
.population
?Our question is how could we conserve natural resources and biodiversity under occupation
We should know first that the Palestinian life depends on the essential goods and services
provided by the variety of genes, species, populations, and ecosystems. The natural
ecosystems provide support for human activities in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry,
traditional and pharmaceutical health products, tourism and many others. These are essential
also for the stabilizing effect of the ecosystems and the protection of the integrity of the
.overall environment
However, the reality on the ground is completely different. As for the Israeli declared nature
reserves in the West Bank, Palestinians have only access to 15% of these reserves. Likewise,
the Israeli army has used them as military camps occupied for training and various military
.purposes; which are against all international environmental rules, frames and standards
Through the Apartheid Wall, settlements, military closed zones and the proclamation of
“natural reserves,” Israel denies Palestinian access to almost 50% of the West Bank, including
the most fertile lands and most important water reserves.
- Over 1.5 million trees have been uprooted since 2000, and harvesting is a continuous hazard
for Palestinian farmers, who face random settler attacks, as well as frequent denials of permits
to access their own lands. Agricultural produce faces long transport and extenuating waiting
hours at the checkpoints, often resulting in produce, rotting in the sun. These systematically
implemented restrictions present an unending war against Palestinian farmers and food
sovereignty. Under these conditions, the proposed agro-business projects that demand a large
amount of workers and an enhanced ability to transport products are either doomed to fail, or
will further exacerbate Palestinian dependency on Israeli permit systems. Since 1967, Israel
has confiscated all of the water resources, refused to give the PA its legal share of the Jordan
River water, and prohibited Palestinian farmers from digging new wells in the area. The PA
has no other choice, therefore, but to buy water from the Israeli water company, Mekorot,
which controls all of the water resources in the Jordan Valley. Even this solution, however,
faces obstacles related to the water problems from which the region suffers. The Israeli
settlements are the largest destroyers of the Palestinian environment, due to the sewage water
and solid waste they discharge into Palestinian farmland.
Israeli settlements produce about 40 million cubic meters of sewage water yearly .Only 10%
of this is recycled, while the rest is dumped in various Palestinian areas in the West Bank. For
instance, 30,000 cubic meters of sewage water is dumped each day in-Wadi al Nar area south
of Jerusalem- from East Jerusalem settlements. Furthermore, the settlements also pollute the
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environment by discharging solid waste, or by burying it in Palestinian areas. According to
official Israeli statistics, one1,000 ton of solid waste per day is dropped illegally in West Bank
areas. In addition, settlements illegally deposit their solid waste in dump areas on Palestinian
land. One of the largest dump areas is close to a location called Abu Dis, east of Jerusalem. It
is estimated to cover 3,000 dunums, and it is specifically used by East Jerusalem settlements.
Another factor that damages the Palestinian environment is the chemical waste - including
toxins such as aluminium, zinc, mercury, cadmium, and other poisonous chemical liquids and
gases - that is produced by Israeli factories in the settlements. This waste is discharged, buried
or burned in Palestinian areas, causing increased disease rates, especially cancer, in the areas
near these factories. For instance, south of Tulkarem city in the northern part of the West
Bank, there are excessively high rates of skin, blood and respiratory diseases that have been
attributed to the nearby Israeli Geshuri chemical factory.
In the Gaza strip, the situation there is a complete disaster. The latest figures show that
Biodiversity is facing a real catastrophe. Pollution percentage is in its highest level mainly in
water. Every body here can imagine what the consequences on the short run are….. and what
that means on the long run…. The deterioration of the water quality in the Gaza strip is
growing more and more until it reached a fatal level. Unclean water makes people sick. Lack
of water means prices is high. The current situation in Gaza City e.g. with more than one
million residents, is to discharge the domestic sewage into a holding pool north of the city
where the accumulated waste has led to flooding of that pool more than one time containing it
into the surrounding inhabited and agricultural lands. Evacuation of human waste and of solid
waste in Gaza is also a big problem. The solid Waste crux augments in terms of collection,
inability to transfer, and the use of unauthorized landfill sites either in Gaza or in the west
bank is causing a serious environmental damage. For example, Japan and through the UNDP
project has donated more than one million dollars in order to buy 22 new Garbage trucks for
Gaza. This was in 2008 and since then Israel is not allowing their entrance to Gaza.
All of these figures together with the besiege on Gaza , closures, military check posts in the
west bank, the apartheid wall , settlements….etc.. Show the extent of the environmental threat
that faces the Palestinian areas, the pollution of Palestinian aquifers, and desertification of
Palestinian land. Israel should be held accountable for that. However, the international
community ignores a reality that adversely affects the Palestinian environment.
If the world after Copenhagen wants to change the system, not the climate, we in Palestine
want an immediate end of the longest occupation in modern history, the Israeli occupation.
We call for an international investigation committee to investigate the Israeli policy of killing
our environment.
We call the international community to fulfil its commitments and moral obligations in order
to support Palestinians to establish their own sovereign independent state on the borders of
June 4, 1967and solving the refugees problem according to the resolution 194.
At last it is obvious that ending the occupation is the only way to save biodiversity in the oPT,
and it is a political issue of first degree.
Executive Committee of the PLO
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Thank you
Hanna Amireh
PPP-political bureau
June 28/ 2010
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