CAIRO, April 4, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – A private Israeli company decided to dump 10,000 tons of garbage in a Palestinian quarry in the occupied West Bank territories under the watchful eye of Ariel Sharon’s government, an Israeli newspaper revealed on Monday, April 4.

The construction of the garbage dumb at Abu Shusha quarry, located between the Jewish settlement of Kedumim and the city of Nablus, poses health threats to the Palestinians and violates international treaties and internal laws, Haaretz reported.

In the last few days trucks and bulldozers have been covering the quarry's floor with brown soil to turn it into a garbage dump.

The dump operators plan to deposit some 10,000 tons of garbage very month in , the largest in the West Bank quarry.

The site is operated by D.S.H., a private Netanya-based garbage disposal company owned by the settler Valensi family.

Transferring Israeli garbage to the West Bank will be much cheaper for D.S.H. than taking it to a site in Israel, the daily said.

In addition to violating international treaties prohibiting an occupying power from making use of occupied territory unless it benefits the local population, the project further violates Israel’s laws.

“We are dealing with a double crime,” former environment minister and Knesset member Yossi Sarid told Haaretz.

“On the one hand, Israel is preventing the Palestinians from making use of the quarry and its resources, and in exchange we are giving them the Sharon's garbage. I believe this is a violation of international treaties.”

He was referring to the Sharon and Dan regions from where the garbage will be collected.

Iche Meir, the director of the union of local authorities for the environment, said the work had been done without the union's approval and was illegal.

Unnamed sources told the Israeli paper that kingmaker Daniella Weiss, the head of Kedumim council and one of the owners of Baron Park, was behind the government inaction to halt the project, which has been approved by the environment ministry.

“The biggest mystery is how D.S.H., of all companies, was allowed to build and operate a very profitable waste site on state land without any tender being issued, as required by law,” Haaretz said.

Environment experts said that the project will jeopardize Palestinian water resources.

It will have its toll on the Mountain Aquifer, one of the largest freshwater sources in Israel and Palestine, the daily added.

This is because the dump, which was originally used for “dry waste,” will receive and absorb household garbage with organic substances.

Palestinian pundits said earlier in the week that Israel was launching a “radioactive war” against the Palestinians.

The stark warning followed Israel’s establishment of a “radioactive” glass room at the main Rafah crossing through which Palestinians have to pass to enter or exit the Gaza Strip.