Tulkarem 2008 Schedule

Tulkarem, Palestine

Toxic Apartheid Israel: Students mobilize against Geshuri settlement factory

Where: al-Khadouri college to Geshuri industrial zone

Action: Demonstration against the Israeli industrial zone that steals Palestinian land, exploits Palestinian labour, pollutes the land and endangers Palestinian health.

When: February 13

Organized by: Stop the Wall activists, Student Council al-Khadouri College , Student Council Open al-Quds University Tulkarem

Contact details: available from: global@stopthewall.org

Background:

Students in Tulkarem have planned demonstration against the Geshuri Plant, which will take place on February 13 during the week against Israeli apartheid.

The Geshuri plant is a settlement factory situated east of the Apartheid Wall on land belonging to people of the Tulkarem district in the northern West Bank . The Occupation confiscated choice agricultural land for the construction of the plant.

In addition to the land confiscation, the factory has a deleterious effect on the local community. 2.5 dunums in the immediate vicinity of the factory have become polluted to the point where they are no longer agriculturally viable. Trees in the area are decaying; those that remain alive exhibit stunted growth. Pollution from the factory also widely affected other agricultural land in Tulkarem and has seeped into underground water sources in the area.

Noxious fumes from the Geshuri factory have also adversely affected the health of population. Respiratory problems and eye infections, which are most likely to afflict the very young and elderly, are the most commonly reported problems. It is also believed that the pollution caused by the plant has led to cancer cases, although there have been no studies carried out to date.

Prior to 1987, the Geshuri factory was located inside the 1948 lines at Kfar Saba. Because of its damaging effects on the local community, the people in the surrounding area requested of the courts that it be relocated. The courts acceded and had the factory moved onto Palestinian land.

The problems stemming from the Geshuri plant are not isolated incidents but rather symptomatic of the Occupation as a whole. Industrial projects under the auspices of the Occupation do not adhere to Israeli environmental laws and regularly dispose untreated waste onto Palestinian lands. Only a small percentage of the illegal settlements treat their sewage in conformity with Israeli law. Often, as the settlements are predominantly located on hilltops, sewage is released and flows down onto Palestinian land resulting in the poisoning of water sources and crop damage.

As these crimes continue in the West Bank and Gaza , the Israeli state trumpets its achievements on the environmental and agricultural fronts. A main contributor to this is MASHAV, is an Israeli organization that works on the international level to promote the state’s “tested solutions for the problems such as water, capital and land shortages”. Hypocrisy and cynicism reach a new high.

The Occupation’s flagrant disregard and destruction of Palestinian land, agriculture and health through these aforementioned practices is accompanied by the continued seizure of arable land for the construction of the Wall and settlements and the monopolization of key West Bank water sources.

Students at al-Quds Open University in Tulkarem have undertaken a number of activities in the past in an effort to resist the Occupation. Students created a photo exhibit in the university that illustrated the disastrous effect the Wall is having on the community. They have joined in the call for BDS, enacting a boycott of Israeli goods within the university. They have also worked with local youth, expanding the boycott to the Tulkarem refugee camp. During boycott activities in the camp, Palestinian businesses exhibited their products as an alternative to the rejected Israeli goods.

University students have also worked with the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, conducting research in their area on the effects the Wall is having on education. The Campaign has also been able to facilitate trips for students in Tulkarem, allowing them to visit other universities in the West Bank . This has created a number of solidarity links between Tulkarem and other universities, and students now engage in joint strikes and protests.