The Palestinian Environmental Quality Authority (EQA), on Tuesday, said in a statement that, following the Palestinian Authority’s recent move of signing on to four international conventions on environment, Israel will be held accountable for committing crimes against the environment in Palestine.According to WAFA correspondence, ahead of the United Nations Security Council’s recent failure to adopt a draft resolution on ending the Israeli occupation, President Mahmoud Abbas has signed letters of accession to 16 international treaties, including the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, Convention on Biological Diversity, Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses, and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The EQA said that Israel will, therefore, be held accountable for dumping hazardous wastes in Palestinians land, and for deliberately devastating the Palestinian biodiversity and natural resources.
Furthermore, under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the EQA said Palestine would act to restore its sovereignty over the water rights in the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea.
Friends of the Earth International published a report, in 2013, pertaining to the ongoing colonization and ethnic cleansing of Palestine, including the control over land and water resources.
See: http://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/06-foei-palestine-report-eng-lr.pdf
The report highlights the issue of the so-called ‘separation wall‘, which was allegedly designed to segregate the West Bank from Israel, and has been built largely on Palestinian land along the Western aquifer, which is the richest strategic groundwater basin.
It also noted Israel’s use of waste water to contaminate water resources and agricultural land as a form of political pressure.
See: 12/29/14 West Bank: Israelis Raze Crops, Pollute Lands, Violate Schools
The signing of global treaties on environment will enable Palestine to sue Israel for practices which endanger the environment and Palestinians’ safety.
See also: 01/08/15 Palestine to Join ICC on April 1st
