Israel’s polluting West Bank factories

JVL Introduction

In a pioneering study published by New Lines Magazine, Alessandro Stefanelli & Filippo Taglieri look at one of Israel’s illegal industrial sites on the West Bank.

It’s here that the detail of the occupation is exposed in all its casual viciousness and lack of care for the Palestinians on whom it is imposed.

As the authors’ put it. “Industrial activity in the area operates within a framework shaped by fragmented jurisdiction, military restrictions, and weak or unenforced environmental regulations.”

In other words no-one on the Israel side cares much about air quality, untreated alkaline wastewater and sludge flowing into surrounding Palestinian farmland and greenhouses or white dust coating agricultural crops.

Many of the firms operating in the zone have commercial links with Europe

Intertwined with this  analysis is the story of the Taneeb family, attempting to eke out a living on their farmland, sandwiched between the 13 factories that make up the Nitzanei Shalom (“Buds of Peace”) industrial zone, the separation (apartheid) wall and other confiscated territory and military installations.

Everything about it makes you scream inside…

Do go to the original article here to see some of photojournalist Alessandro Stefanelli’s images and to get a feel of the suffocating encroachment…

This article was originally published by New Lines Magazine on Tue 23 Jun 2026. Read the original here.