Environment

The decomposition of space in the West Bank means that quarries and their associated businesses come second only to olive production. As the West Bank lacks any other major natural raw materials, limestone and sandstone are considered to be the ‘white oil’ of Palestine and the only raw material available to support the Palestinian economy providing a livelihoodfor thousands of workers.

The quarries fall within Area A, B and C and are situated around Hebron in the south of the West Bank, Nablus and Jam’een in the North, and an increasing number of quarries around Ramallah and the periphery of Jerusalem. 

Many of the quarries in the West Bank are located in close proximity to residential areas where a high concentration of particles with hazardous effects can be found. In recent years there has been an increased level of asthma, particularly amongst children in the environs of the mining. (1) The quarries are also destroying the ecological balance and biodiversity of the West Bank’s flora and fauna, as well as damaging what little agricultural land there is, as it takes time to rehabilitate land in and around the quarried areas. 

Palestinian quarries operating in Area C, under Israeli administration and security are completely unregulated. As well as conditions in the quarries for workers not monitored there is also no regulation of the environmental hazards of quarries in close proximity to, sometimes even inside, residential areas. In the case of a town near Nablus called Jama’een, where I spent a considerable amount of time filming and speaking with local residents about the impact of the quarries, the air is so polluted with dust that many of the elderly people find it difficult to leave their homes. There is a continuous source of traffic from the quarries through the town, which has only one main road, full of lorries laden with stone and debris.

There are a number of Palestinian entrepreneurs who are now working with some of the quarry owners in setting up factories that transform the debris into aggregate and concrete. However permits are required from Israel in a majority of the quarries and have been largely declined. Most of the quarries are not gated or fenced off and with many of them in close proximity to residential areas they become a dangerous adventure playground for children and youth. Many of the people I met in the towns and villages nearby had devastating stories about children and youth who had fallen to their death in the quarries or been maimed for life. A community in a small town Bani Naim, near Hebron in the south of the West Bank, has been pro-active in protesting against the quarries being in such close proximity to the town. They have been successful in securing regulations that prevent quarrying in the town and have had all disbanded quarries fenced off. In 2008 one of the disused quarries in the town was transformed into a small park and animal sanctuary for the local community. 

(1) Barli Vieli, Particulate Matter Emission in the West Bank (Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem, 2009).