Municipal leaders from the West Bank and surrounding cities presented a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, demanding that he address the issue of trash being burnt in Palestinian Authority-governed areas of the region.
The letter, signed by 35 community leaders, outlined the issues caused by burning trash in the area, namely that it pollutes the air and harms local residents' health and quality of life.
Kfar Saba Mayor and chairman of the Seam Zone Municipalities Forum, Rafi Sa'ar, blamed the government for "dragging its feet" on resolving the issue.
"There already is a government decision, there is professional work, and there are solutions - all that's missing is a final decision and a budget," he wrote in the letter.
"The country can't turn a blind eye toward this environmental plague endangering people on a daily basis," added Yisrael Ganz, head of the Binyamin Regional Council and chairman of the Yesha Council (the umbrella organization representing communities in Judea and Samaria). "The trash burnings aren't a local problem of one municipality or another - it's a national problem."
Government already had plan for trash burning, letter claims
According to the letter, the government had already planned a strategy to address the issue in 2023, but it was never fully implemented due to interdepartmental disputes and budgetary concerns. The letter called on Netanyahu to intervene directly to resolve the disputes and enable the plan to move forward.
The Environmental Protection Ministry, also cited in the letter, reported that trash burning throughout Israel and the West Bank accounts for 75% of carcinogenic chemicals in Israel's air and around 30% of fine particulate pollution, leading to long-term health issues, including heart and respiratory diseases, and developmental issues in children.
If the government doesn't act, the letter concluded, the health of over a million Israelis living in areas adjacent to Palestinian Authority terrority will be at severe risk.
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