Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday defined the threat posed by Palestinian waste-burning fires in Judea and Samaria as a “harm to national security harm,” following an emergency meeting with local authority heads affected by the phenomenon.
The meeting included Haim Bibas, chairman of the Federation of Local Authorities in Israel and mayor of Modi’in-Maccabim-Re’ut; Yisrael Gantz, head of the Yesha Council and the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council; the heads of the Modi’in Region, Ma’ale Adumim, Kochav Yair, Kfar Saba, Rosh HaAyin, Shoham, Yehud–Neve Monosson and Beit Aryeh councils; Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, head of public health services at the Health Ministry; Maj. Gen. Rassan Alian, coordinator of government activities in the territories; and representatives of the IDF, police, fire and rescue services and other agencies.
According to a statement summarizing the discussion, officials were presented with “a troubling situation assessment indicating that this is a far more widespread and severe phenomenon than previously described, constituting a serious and ongoing harm to the environment, quality of life and public health of residents in the area, including dangerous exposure to toxic and polluting substances.”
Katz and Smotrich announced the preparation of a national emergency plan to address the threat in both the immediate and long term. The plan will be implemented through interagency coordination led by the Defense Ministry, Finance Ministry, local authorities, and law enforcement and security bodies.
Beyond classifying the phenomenon as a national security issue, additional measures will include advancing administrative tools, via military orders, to permanently seize and confiscate Palestinian waste trucks. Unlimited budgets will be allocated to recruit private-sector contractors and heavy equipment, through the Defense Ministry, to extinguish fires and remove waste. In addition, a waste disposal site will be established in central Judea and Samaria to address fires in the area.
“We will not allow residents of communities near the seam line to inhale smoke that poisons and harms their health,” Katz said. “We have determined a series of steps. First and foremost, we have declared this a national phenomenon at the highest level, one that must be treated as a national problem, and the IDF and everyone else will mobilize to solve it. We will take every step necessary to stop this phenomenon. We know about Na’alin, so we said ‘Na’alin first,’ we will solve the problem there and then move on and solve it from all directions.
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Defense Minister Yisrael Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on a joint tour of Judea and Samaria
(Photo: Defense Ministry)
“The minimum that residents, Israeli citizens, children and adults deserve is to breathe clean, clear air. All lawbreakers, Palestinians and others, will be dealt with firmly. Together, we will eradicate this phenomenon, stop it, and deliver very important news through you, the heads of the local authorities, to your residents. We are going to treat this with the utmost seriousness, with full force, to solve the problem once and for all,” according to Katz.
“Environmental terror proves that the Green Line is virtual, and when Judea and Samaria are the backyard of the State of Israel, the entire people of Israel are harmed," Smotrich added. "We are erasing the Green Line and taking responsibility. We will eradicate this phenomenon through enforcement, waste removal, severe and painful fines, and of course by creating alternatives for waste disposal while imposing the cost on the Palestinian Authority.”