Israeli environmental minister accuses PA of purposely polluting

Israeli Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman accused the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday of deliberately polluting the environment in Judea and Samaria.

“Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley cannot continue to be the environmental backyard of the State of Israel,” Israel Hayom quoted the minister as saying.

“Truth must be told, the P.A. has failed—negligently and intentionally— posing a threat to the residents of the entire State of Israel,” she added.

Silman spoke at the launch of the “Green Now” report on environmental hazards in Judea and Samaria, held at an Arab landfill near the Sha’ar Binyamin industrial zone in the Binyamin region of southern Samaria.

Illegal landfills just outside Jerusalem have repeatedly been set ablaze by Palestinians, forcing businesses in the area to close for the day.

In 2021, then-P.A. Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh used the COP26 U.N. Climate Change Conference to denounce the Jewish state as “the most critical threat” to the environment in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

“We are not a contributor to the toxic gases that lead to climate change. Rather, we are affected by those around us,” claimed the P.A. politician.

“The occupation and settlement measures aimed at leveling land, occupying the hills, transforming green spaces into concrete colonies, draining and drying up water sources and the colonists’ attack on land, stone and trees call for an immediate cessation,” he added.

In the summer of 2021, Palestinians from Beita, a village near Nablus (Shechem) in Samaria, burned almost 100,000 tires as part of anti-Israel riots, damaging the environment and posing a serious health threat.

Shtayyeh in November 2021 presented Beita’s “popular resistance units” with a $25,000 check as a reward for their protests.