- Violation: polluting Palestinian lands
- Location: Salfit governorate
- Date: April 19, 2017
- Perpetrators: Ariel colony
- Victims: farmer Ahmad Bani Nimreh
Details:
At the early hours of Wednesday, April 19, 2017, colonists of Ariel pumped untreated sewage water into Palestinian agricultural lands near the northern entrance of Salfit city. The untreated wastewater drowned 2 dunums of olive groves. Three olive trees aging 45 years were totally affected. Noteworthy, the trees belong to farmer Ahmad Bani Nimreh from Salfit.
The head of environmental health department, Mr. Ashraf Zahd, told Land Research Center the following:
"The problem of pumping sewage water towards Palestinian land didn’t happen by chance; it reoccurred many times during the past couple of months. We reached for the Israeli District Office of Coordination but no actions have been taken in this regard"
The issue of pumping sewage water leads to the spread of bugs and rats not mentioning its negative effect on polluting the agricultural sector.
Photos 1-4: the sewage water flowing towards Salfit lands
About Ariel:
It is one of the biggest colonies in size in Salfit governorate. The occupation gave it the title of "Capital of Samaria". Ariel dates back to 1978; it is when the colony was established in the aftermath of Camp David agreement between Egypt and Israel.
The colony started on 500 confiscated dunums from Salfit city and Marda village to later seize 13775 dunums, of which 2479 dunums are the colony's built-up area.
Ariel now accommodates a religious collage and a number of factories, hotels and residential blocs. Until 2005, its total population mounted up to 16520 colonists. The municipal borders of the colony is four times the size of its built-up area. This gives it the advantage to potential and future expansions.
Prepared by
The Land Research Center
LRC
