US embassy cable - 05TELAVIV2486

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TEL AVIV 002486 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR NEA/IPA, NEA/RA AND L/NEA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/19/2015 
TAGS: ECON, PGOV, PREL, SENV, KWBG, IS, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN AFFAIRS 
SUBJECT: LEGAL OPINION REQUESTED ON ISRAELI GARBAGE DUMPING 
IN THE WEST BANK 
 
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Gene A. Cretz, reasons 1.4 b and d. 
 
This is an Embassy Tel Aviv - Consulate General Jerusalem 
joint message. 
 
1. (C) Summary:  Media reports of plans for large-scale 
dumping of Israeli garbage on the West Bank have raised 
questions about the legality of such waste sites under both 
Israeli and international law.  The Palestinian Environmental 
Quality Authority will ask that the issue be placed on the 
agenda for the May 2 meeting of the Israeli-Palestinian 
Environmental Experts Committee.  Both sides have agreed to 
address the possible implications for the shared Mountain 
Aquifer within the Joint Water Committee.  Israeli officials 
say that dumping has been halted at the major site 
highlighted in the recent media reports, but may resume there 
under controlled conditions.  Posts request Department legal 
opinion on the legality of such dumps under international 
law.  End summary. 
 
2. (U) Israeli newspaper "Haaretz" ran a front-page, above 
the fold story, April 4 under the headline, "Israel to Dump 
10,000 Tons of Garbage a Month on the West Bank."  The 
article reported that Israeli entrepreneurs planned to use 
the Kedumim (Abu Shusha) quarry, located between the Kedumin 
settlement and Nablus as a site for garbage waste from the 
Dan and Sharon regions of Israel.  The paper suggested that 
the dump could harm the shared Mountain Aquifer and 
Palestinian water wells in the area because some of the 
garbage could include household trash and other organic 
materials.  The article also questioned whether Israeli 
authorities had approved the site for waste disposal and 
quoted a Member of the Knesset and former Minister of 
Environment as saying, "We are dealing with a double crime. 
On the one hand, Israel is preventing the Palestinians from 
making use of the quarry and its resources, and in exchange 
we're giving them Sharon's garbage.  I believe this is a 
violation of international treaties." 
 
3. (C) Minister of Environment Shalom Simhon told NEA Senior 
Advisor for S&T Charles Lawson April 6 that dumping at the 
site had been halted but might resume under regulated 
conditions.  The Minister and an MFA official cited Civil 
Authority attorneys as saying that the dump did not violate 
international law.  In the meantime, an April 4 article from 
the Palestinian News Agency quoted Palestinian Environmental 
Quality Authority (EQA) Chairman Dr. Yousef Abu Safiyeh as 
saying that Israel was "..silently killing the Palestinian 
people through their pollution of the Palestinian 
environment." 
 
4. (C) At the April 7 Trilateral Water Talks, Shaddad Attili, 
an attorney with the PLO's Negotiations Support Unit, raised 
the issue of the dump.  The Israeli Water Commission and the 
Palestinian Water Authority agreed to discuss possible 
implications for the shared Mountain Aquifer in the Joint 
Water Committee.  Grisha Yakubovich, an IDF officer with the 
Coordination Office for Government Affairs in the Territories 
(COGAT), told the trilateral group that dumping had been 
halted in November and that an investigation was underway. 
When ESTH Officer asked Yakubovich, after the trilateral 
talks ended, about a "report" on the investigation, he 
replied that General Mishlev would be willing to give the 
Ambassador a verbal report when they next met, noting that 
some of the legal issues were "sensitive." 
 
5. (C) Abu Safiyeh told Lawson, April 10, over the phone that 
he was going to request that the issue of solid waste dumping 
in the West Bank and Gaza be added to the agenda for the May 
2 meeting of the Israeli-Palestinian Environmental Experts 
Committee, along with the issue of wastewater flows from 
Israel into Gaza.  MFA Water Issues Director Yaacov Keidar 
told ESTH Officer April 12 that both issues were legitimate 
and should be taken up at the May 2 meeting. 
 
6. (C) The Kedumim dump story has raised concerns among both 
Israelis and Palestinians, reportedly including PM Sharon and 
VPM Shimon Peres.  Haaretz highlighted April 12 that several 
hundred protesters demonstrated against the proposed plan on 
April 11 in the West Bank village of Dir Saraf.  The Hebrew 
version of the original Haaretz story included a quote 
attributed to the Chief Justice of the Israeli Supreme Court 
stating that the Hague Conventions say military commanders of 
occupying powers are not entitled to take national, economic 
or social interests of their own countries into account, to 
the extent that they have no implications for their security 
interests or for the local population's interests. 
 
7. (C) Action request:  Embassy and Consulate General request 
an opinion from L/NEA on the legality of such garbage dumps 
under international law.  End action request. 
 
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Visit Embassy Tel Aviv's Classified Website: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/telaviv 
 
You can also access this site through the State Department's 
Classified SIPRNET website. 
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CRETZ