“I have a Masters in Environmental Management and a PhD in Environmental Engineering and I work as a consultant for different projects related to the environment in Palestine. Officially, the landfill in Abu Dis [in Area C]204 should be closed.205 The Abu Dis landfill was mainly used by Israelis; they used to bring all the waste from the Jerusalem area to this landfill in Abu Dis. This was happening despite the fact that waste from Jerusalem was supposed to be transferred to the landfill in Beersheba [in the Naqab]. The landfill was under the supervision and management of the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection and the private sector used to run it. However, under international law, it’s illegal to transfer waste from inside the Green Line [from West Jerusalem in this case] to the West Bank. I remember going to the landfill once to try and take some photos, but the guys who were with me ended up getting beaten by the soldiers there. Ninety percent of the waste was coming from Israelis in the Jerusalem area. Waste was also coming from Palestinian towns around the landfill, but it only constituted 10 percent of the total waste going to the landfill. The landfill is hazardous and it was supposed to close a long time ago but Israel used to say that Palestinians from the West Bank don’t have an alternative so we have to keep the landfill open! Now there is a Palestinian landfill near Tuqu’ [town in the West Bank] and it’s more environmentally friendly, so now all the cities and towns in the south of the West Bank use that one. Usually, non-hazardous safe landfills install an isolation system. [In Abu Dis], there is no isolation system protecting the aquifer. There is also no environmental monitoring scheme; basically, the whole waste management system there is really bad. There are Palestinian Bedouin communities who are now living next to the landfill; they were transferred there by Israel. This really damaged their way of living [herding], so now they are trying to survive from the landfill. For example, the Bedouins search for valuable materials in the waste. This landfill, because of the toxic chemicals and poisons it’s producing, is spreading many diseases to the communities living around it. It is scientifically proven that burning waste causes cancer. It can affect all the different organs in the human body; unborn babies are even vulnerable. In addition, the pollutants 204 “Restrictions on Palestinian planning and construction in Area C”, B’Tselem, 30 October 2013, available at: http://www.btselem.org/planning_and_building/restrictions_on_palestinian_planning_and_ building [accessed 22 August 2017] [hereinafter B’Tselem, “Restrictions on Palestinian planning”]. 205 Although Israel claims that the Abu Dis landfill is closed, it appears that waste is still being disposed of in this area. 54