Toxic Apartheid Israel in the West Bank city of Tulkarem

galway | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Tuesday March 23, 2010 22:41

by TD - Free Palestine Campaign

Spreading like the cancer that the output from the factory induces

Toxic Apartheid Israel : Specialising in the manufacture of pesticides, fertilisers and other chemicals, the Israeli company, Geshuri, forced to leave the Israeli coastal city of Netanyana on account of its plants toxic emissions simply relocated to land, stolen for the purpose, on the outskirts of the Palestinian city of Tulkarem in the north-east of the West Bank where the pollution, unabated and continues apace.

Geshuri toxic emissions

Following a court case in Israel, it was moved to Tulkarem in the mid-eighties. The Geshuri complex of factories sited in the shadow of the Apartheid-Annexation Wall has been expanding ever since, spreading like the cancer that the output from the factory induces. In addition to the land confiscation, the factory has a severe deleterious effect on the health of the local community. 2.5 dunums in the immediate vicinity of the factory have been polluted to the point where they are no longer agriculturally viable. Trees in the area are decaying; those that remain alive exhibit stunted growth. Pollution from the factory also widely affects other agricultural land in Tulkarem and has seeped into underground water sources in the area. Noxious carcinogenic fumes from the Geshuri factory have also adversely affected the health of the population. Respiratory problems and eye infections, which are most likely to afflict the very young and elderly, are the most commonly reported problems. It is also believed by medical experts that the pollution caused by the plant has led to cancer cases, although to confirm this no studies have been carried out to date. With the processing of household waste in the Geshuri Industrial Park there are attendant rat infestations.

The chemical complex is beyond the control and power of the PA as the Israeli occupying "Civil Administration" watch over and protect it - where for 11 months of the year the prevailing west to east winds blow the emissions into Tulkakem and in the one month when the winds shift direction and blow from east to west into Israel the factories cease their carcinogenic activities.

Tulkarem activist Faiz Al Tanib spearheads the campaign against the Geshuri complex and the Apartheid-Annexation Wall.

Faiz al-Tanib

Caption: Video Id: GgIqMKcdfUk Type: Youtube Video
Part 1 : Israel's Dark Satanic Mills in Tulkarem

Caption: Video Id: qxC69WMNdlA Type: Youtube Video
Part 2 : Israel's Dark Satanic Mills in Tulkarem

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Racism against Arabs in Israel increases by 28%

by HB

Tue Apr 06, 2010 14:30

http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/middle-east/85...-year

The centre monitored 286 racist incidents against Palestinians by Israelis, pointing out that 21 draft racist laws were proposed since the election of the current parliament. The data also revealed that racism is now endemic in the Jewish religious establishment, pointing to high levels of incitement carried out by rabbis against Palestinian Arabs.

The report said that the police continue to deal with Arab citizens as enemies, and instead of protecting them, neglect them. As a result, "Arab citizens’ confidence in the body that is supposed to protect them is lost."

Human rights activists and researchers in the field of anti-racism note that: "racism has become legitimate in the Israeli street and is part of the general atmosphere and the lives of its victims." They stress, however, that it does not mean that Palestinians living in lands occupied in 1948 should give in to the status quo, but they should step up their opposition and organize their struggle against racism.

Arab MP in the Knesset, Dr. Afou Ighbaria, President of the parliamentary lobby against racism said: "the majority of the Israeli street is heading toward extremist forms of racism as a result of the campaigns of incitement led by the right-wing government through the legislation of the worst racist laws."

He also affirmed that the parliamentarian lobby against racism which was recently established under his initiative will be the vehicle of opposition inside the Knesset, in collaboration with the anti-racism movement, which includes 19 Arab and Jewish institutions, as well as Islamic figures and human rights committees.

Meanwhile, Nidal Othman, a lawyer from the Centre for Equality, said: "the increasing incidence of racism in recent years has a direct relationship to rejection of internal peace in Israel and peace in the region generally."

He added: "the continuation of the occupation policy in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem, and blockade of the Gaza Strip, as well as the continued expansion of settlements, are in themselves racist practices that blatantly and criminally violate human rights and the rights of the Palestinian people."

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