The Municipality of Modi'in Maccabim Re'ut will operate an air pollution monitoring station starting at the end of the week. At the same time, a direct appeal was made to the Minister of Defense: We will provide the army with engineering equipment to remove waste from the sites.
The Municipality of Modi'in Maccabim Re'ut and local authorities from the Shfela and Sharon regions, including Kfar Saba, Rosh Ha'ayin, Yehud-Monson, Shoham, and Hevel Modi'in, continue to lead the fight against environmental terrorism carried out through the rogue burning of waste in the territories of Judea and Samaria, which have become a serious environmental and health hazard for residents of the city and the entire region. Led by Mayor Haim Bibas, the municipality continues to make regular appeals to all relevant levels of government and security, starting with the Prime Minister, through the Minister of Defense, the Minister of Finance (in charge of the Civil Administration in the territories), the Minister of Health, the Minister of Environmental Protection, as well as the army and the Civil Administration.
Reminders and clarifications are being sent on a weekly basis, as part of a warning before taking legal action. The municipality demands to see real steps from the state to eradicate this phenomenon, and clarifies that a petition will be filed with the High Court of Justice if an appropriate response is not received within 14 days of the date of the original letter.
As a reminder, last week mayors in the Shfelah and Sharon regions sent a strong letter to the Prime Minister, Defense Minister Israel Katz, Finance Minister and minister in the Defense Ministry Bezalel Smotrich, Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman, Deputy Health Minister Haim Katz, and the Head of the Civil Administration, Brigadier General Hisham Ibrahim, demanding immediate intervention in addressing the ecological and health hazards caused by the rogue burning of waste in the territories of Judea and Samaria.
After no response was received to this letter, the municipality took operative steps towards collecting environmental data: Starting this coming weekend, a dedicated air monitoring vehicle will operate throughout the city, located in areas from which repeated complaints about burning odors and pollution have been received. The vehicle is expected to provide accurate data to serve as a professional basis for the continuation of the fight.
The letter sent on Sunday stated that "Despite repeated warnings, numerous appeals from us and other authorities, and despite government decisions and the establishment of an inter-ministerial team - no real steps have been taken on the ground. This is despite all the declarations and promises to eradicate the phenomenon."
In addition to this letter, the mayor sent another letter to the Minister of Defense, MK Yisrael Katz, demanding immediate action against the waste fires in the Ni'lin area, an area under the responsibility of the IDF. Bibas warned the minister about the significant increase in the phenomenon of fires in recent weeks, and called on the minister to order the IDF to act decisively to immediately extinguish the fire points, stop the burning, and take continuous action for enforcement and prevention. The letter also stated: "It appears that the Civil Administration and military authorities are having difficulty, for an unclear reason, fulfilling their responsibility to deal with the hazards located in the area under IDF control." As part of the proposed solution proposed by Bibas, it was written, "We, the affected local authorities, demand to receive the necessary powers and means to deploy tools and directly treat the fire points and sources of toxic waste."
Modi'in Maccabim Re'ut municipality stated that the municipality will continue to act in every way possible to grant the residents of the city and the region the most basic right: the right to breathe clean air.
