Occupied Jerusalem- The residents of the Issawiya town in Jerusalem, especially those living at its edges, will no longer wake up to just the sight of the separation wall that disfigures public space and separates them from the towns of Anata and Shuafat refugee camp. They will now also endure the noise of trucks that unload their cargo of waste at a recently approved landfill site, located meters from their homes.
The plan for this settlement project was first proposed in 2012 and included establishing a waste dump over an area of 520 dunams, owned by Jerusalemites from Issawiya and Anata. After a collective objection was submitted, the plan was reintroduced in 2022 over an area of 410 dunams.
Residents objected again with the help of the "Civic Coalition for Defending the Palestinians' Rights in Jerusalem" and "Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights." Consequently, a new plan emerged, significantly reducing the dumpsite's size to 109 dunams.
The targeted site for the waste dump which Jerusalemites fought legal battles to prevent, succeeding only in reducing its size (Al Jazeera)
Environmental Damage and Impact
Hani Issawi, a member of the Issawiya town's civic committee, told Al Jazeera Net that the residents battled to completely halt this project, yet only managed to reduce its size.
He mentioned that objections stemmed from damages that the dump's establishment would cause, regarding land confiscation on one hand and environmental impacts and noise pollution from the waste-carrying trucks and machinery that will crush the solid waste on the other.
The filing of objections against this settlement project was not limited to landowners, according to Issawi. Residents of neighboring neighborhoods also participated given the dump's proximity to their homes. Shuafat refugee camp, with its five districts, has a population of 130,000 Jerusalemites, in addition to 22,000 residents living in the Issawiya town.
Adding insult to injury, the project was initially designed to receive waste from settlement construction projects and housing units intended for Israelis, as Issawi has stated.
A Palestinian community at risk of displacement next to the planned waste dump near Issawiya (Al Jazeera)
Rejection of Palestinian Plans
Issawi says, "We are not the cause of this waste, yet we are forced to accommodate it on our lands so that the valley is filled with construction remnants, then turned into a park once it reaches street level. This dump's establishment followed settlers' protests against a site near 'Neve Ya'akov' settlement, which was shut down after the objections and moved closer to our location."
Although Issawiya residents initiated and submitted a structural plan for the town, including lands within the dump area, it was rejected on the pretext that there was no feasibility to cut a road to that area. However, Issawi highlighted that the current waste dump plan involves digging a tunnel for garbage trucks to pass through.
This comes amid Israeli policies of racial discrimination in Jerusalem, where Issawiya's residents are now prevented from extending urban development onto their lands due to the dump.
Issawi points out that the total land area of the town reaches 10,470 dunams (1 dunam = 1,000 meters), while the residents live on only 1,040 dunams, exerting control over merely 3,500 dunams of the town's total area.
The occupation encircles the town with settlements on the French Hill side, through settlement projects and institutions like the Hebrew University building and Hadassah Hospital (Issawiya branch), and via bypass roads. The construction of the waste dump in the north further tightens the noose around the town.
Israeli crushers and machinery operating at the planned dump site (Al Jazeera)
Long-term Objectives
Khalil Tafakji, an expert on settlement affairs, says one of the assertions presented during the objection stages was that the project would lead to the displacement of a Bedouin community living in the area, and that land confiscation is a violation of international law.
He added in his conversation with Al Jazeera Net that the plan has political objectives; Israeli authorities do not want Palestinians living in this area because they intend to cleanse the area of them, facilitating road connections between settlements outside Jerusalem's municipal borders with those inside, through this location.
The dump area is supposed to become a natural extension of the street, a cleared and open zone after the valley is filled with building debris and the site converted into a park, to be eventually designated a "natural reserve" where future encroachments are disallowed.
Efrat Cohen Bar, Bimkom's General Manager, previously stated that "the excess dirt from Israeli neighborhood development projects is an eyesore for East Jerusalem residents who are not served by these projects at all". She further added that the state severely limits development and construction in Palestinian neighborhoods. The only waste generated there is a result of house demolitions. It was inappropriate to plan such a polluting facility on private land in East Jerusalem.
