Beitar Illit settlers release sewage on Palestinian Wadi Fuqeen village farmlands

By Redress Information & Analysis

19 April 2008

The authorities in the illegal Jewish settlement of Beitar Illit, which is built on stolen Palestinian land, regularly open their sewage tanks on to the farmlands of the Palestinian village of Wadi Fuqeen, ruining crops, contaminating the water table and posing a serious health threat to villagers.

A picture is worth a thousand word. The video below is both instructive and appalling. It sums up the character of the Jewish settlers – the misfits, thieves and squatters from the United States, Europe, the former Soviet Union and elsewhere who are stealing and blighting Palestinian lands in increasing number – and it exposes the deep-seated racism that underlies their contempt for Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular.

At least twice a month, starting on Friday afternoons and continuing for a large part of the following day, the authorities in the illegal Jewish settlement of Beitar Illit, which is built on land stolen from the neighbouring Palestinian village of Wadi Fuqeen, near Bethlehem, open their sewage tanks on to the farmlands of the village. As the video shows, the sewage, which runs through specially-built pipelines that open on to the slopes leading to Wadi Fuqeen, accumulates on the Palestinian farmlands, poisoning crops, contaminating the water table and posing a serious health threat to villagers.

Efforts by the Palestinians of Wadi Fuqeen and some Israeli peace activists to persuade the Israeli authorities so stop this appalling and disgraceful behaviour have come to nothing. The “mayor” of the illegal Beitar Illit settlement even had the audacity to suggest that this is a Palestinian problem and that they, the Palestinians, not the Jewish producers of the sewage, should find a way, such as constructing an aqueduct, to divert the Jewish sewage away from their farmlands.

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