Waste burning designated a security threat by Israel

Israeli authorities have designated waste burning as a threat to national security when conducted by Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank, as reported by the Middle East Eye via Haaretz on December 18th.

The designation was made following an emergency meeting on December 18th, which was chaired by Defence Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and attended by West Bank settlement leaders as well as mayors from central Israel.

By branding waste burning as a national security threat, Israeli authorities would be permitted to confiscate Palestinian-owned waste trucks through orders issued by the Israeli military. These proposed measures would also provide unlimited budgets to recruit contractors and secure equipment for firefighting and waste removal.

These proposals come after various Israeli Knesset members agreed with Jewish Power Party MP, Zvi Sukkot’s, suggestion that Palestinians who burn waste should be executed.

Sukkot’s proposal received backing from fellow Jewish Power member, Yitzhak Kreuzer, along with Environment Minister Idit Silman, of the ruling Likud Party.

All three MPs justified their position by claiming that waste burning constituted “terrorism”, a crime which some MPs are pushing to become punishable by execution.

A bill advocating for the execution of Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis on “nationalistic grounds” passed its first Knesset reading on November 10th, and requires two subsequent readings before becoming law.

The bill is designed to “cut off terrorism at its root“, with a key backer of the legislative amendment being National Security Minister and Jewish Power leader, Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Similarly, Ben-Gvir has argued that officials from the Palestinian Authority, including President Mahmoud Abbas, should face execution, describing the officials as “terrorists in every respect.”

It is unclear if Ben-Gvir’s designation of the officials as “terrorists” would make them eligible for the death penalty under the proposed bill, but Israeli politicians have increasingly demonstrated a blatant disregard for Palestinian life in pursuit of a nationalist state.

Palestinians living in territories under Israeli occupation, such as the West Bank and East Jerusalem, are subjected to a divisive system, which privileges Jewish Israelis over all others.

Meanwhile, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been subjected to a land, sea and air blockade since 2007, with an estimated two-thirds of households being considered food insecure in 2019.

Conditions in the enclave have further deteriorated amid Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which has killed at least 64,000 people, including more than 17,000 children, since October 2023.

Middle East Eye via Haaretz, Maghrebi.org