Violation: colonists pumping sewage towards Palestinian fields.
Location: al Khalla and Ras Qabus in Sabastiya
Date: January 22, 2013.
Details:
Israeli colonies have been imposing a great threat on the Palestinian environment and biodiversity. Nearby the archeological city of Sabastiya, which is known for holding a large number of plants species lies the colony of Shavi Shamron.
Since the turn of the new year, colonists of Shavi Shamron started pumping their sewage towards Sabistiya, particularly, al Khalla and Ras Qabus areas in the north. The sewage spread over 35 dunums of olive fields, destroying over 500 trees. The sewage also affected the wild herbs, many species have not been seen at all this year.
Khaled Makhmar commented: ‘residents and agricultural fields alike have been suffering from the sewage floods; the sewage caused the spread of wild boars and a large number of insects and rattus; as a result, many farmers abandoned their lands which are already targeted by the Israeli Occupation Authorities.‘
Ahmad Fares, a member of the Municipal Council, stated: ‘we filed a number of complaints to the Israeli side via a number of humanitarian agencies but all the complaints were in vain. The Israelis claim that there is a malfunction in one of the sewage tanks and that they are working on a solution. However, there are no indications that the situation will be resolved any time soon‘.
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Shavi shamron was established on the remains of a Jordanian Military Encampment which was abandoned after the Israeli conquest of the West Bank.
In 1978, colonists started to place mobile homes and settle in the area; their numbers and the area they captured increased with time. In 2005, the Israeli Occupation Army embarked on the execution of the separation plan which included capturing huge areas of Palestinian lands on ‘security basis’ and making access to these lands subject to Israeli permits.
