Kiryat Ata waste site
Kiryat Ata waste siteEnvironmental Protection Ministry

The Green Now organization has petitioned the Supreme Court against the construction of the "Ramon" waste disposal site in Binyamin on the grounds that the site will be an environmental hazard.

About six years ago, amid opposition from Zionist and environmental organizations, the plan to build the waste disposal site was rejected. The plan had been pushed for by the Palestinian Authority and financed by Germany.

The plan at the time was conditional on only Palestinian Arabs being able to use the waste site, even though it was in Area C which is under the full control of the State of Israel and the Israeli authorities are still forced to move their waste to a distant location.

The State has now announced that it intends to re-approve previously frozen plans and work to re-establish the waste site. According to the state, the possibility of establishing a waste sorting site in addition to the landfill is currently being examined, with the new site to be used by all populations and not just the Palestinian Arabs.

However, Binyamin Regional Council chairman Avi Roeh has revealed that the plans to allow Israelis to use the site as well are only on paper and that in practice only the PA will be permitted to use the site.

Following the renewal of the plans, the Green Now organization has petitioned the court. "The method of burying waste in the ground is an anti-environmental method that is at the bottom of the priority for waste treatment. Nowadays new landfills are no longer established," said Adv. Shlomo Meir Rabinovich, the association's representative.

"It is inconceivable that the Judea and Samaria area will once again become the 'garbage can of the country', financed by the German bank, which in its own country would in no way give a hand in burying waste in the ground. We appealed to the Civil Administration to receive reasoned explanations for the renewal of the plans, and of course we will work to cancel them," he added.

Yitzhak Meir (Icha), CEO of the Association of Cities for the Environment, added: "It does not matter if it is Palestinian waste or Israeli waste. It would be a terrible disaster to landfill waste after the State of Israel decided this was not the solution. We are in a struggle, we will not give up on it and we hope that we will succeed in convincing the decision-makers to get out of this bad plan. "