Member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization Hanan Ashrawy condemned an Israeli decision to turn Palestinian lands into a landfill site.
The plan has been approved by a Jerusalem planning committee. This will be the first time since 1991 that Palestinian land in East Jerusalem has been expropriated.
The plan is a new aggression against Palestinian lands and a violation of international law principles, Ashrawy said.
The facility for construction waste, slated to be built at the eastern exit of the capital, will require large-scale expropriation of land owned by Palestinians in the Shoafat and Issawiya neighborhoods of Jerusalem and eviction of 120 Bedouins living in an encampment between Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Adumim.
The plan — approved by the the Jerusalem planning and building committee and prepared by the Jerusalem municipality and the Israel Lands Authority — calls for the site to be set up on the upper section of Nahal Og, near the old road to Ma’aleh Adumim. It will cover 520 dunams, most of which is privately owned by Palestinians. The Og dry river bed is to be filled with thousands of tons of construction waste, which will be brought in from the entire Jerusalem area, over the next 20 years.