In Response to Adalah's Petition, Supreme Court Issues Injunction Preventing the ILA from Spraying Agricultural Crops Cultivated by Arab Bedouin in the Naqab
Today, 23 March 2004, the Supreme Court of Israel issued a temporary injunction, as requested by Adalah in a petition filed yesterday, preventing the Israel Lands Administration (ILA), the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Agriculture or any other entity appointed by them, from spraying agricultural crops of the Arab Bedouin inhabitants of the unrecognized villages in the Naqab (Negev).
Yesterday, 22 March 2004, Adalah filed a petition to the Supreme Court on behalf of four Arab Bedouin citizens of Israel, eight human rights organizations, and in its own name against the ILA and the Ministries. The petitioners sought an order from the Court to stop the ILA from spraying the crops, as these acts constitute a danger to the life and health of human beings and animals as well as to their environment. Adalah Attorney Marwan Dalal submitted the petition.
The petitioners are four Arab Bedouin individuals, one of whom was injured from the spraying and three of whom had crops destroyed by the ILA; Physicians for Human Rights-Israel; the Association of Forty; the Forum for Co-Existence in the Negev; the Negev Company for Land & Man, Ltd.; Bustan for Peace; the Association for Support and Defense of Bedouin Rights in Israel; the Arab Association for Human Rights (HRA); The Galilee Society; and Adalah.
The petition describes the facts surrounding the ILA's spraying of crops, on multiple occasions during the last two years, in three unrecognized Palestinian Arab villages in the Naqab - Al-Arakib, Abda, Wadi el-Bekor. The ILA has destroyed thousands of dunams of crops, with the most recent spraying taking place last week. In response to numerous letters sent by Adalah and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel regarding Abda, for example, the ILA admitted to the aerial spraying of crops with a chemical called ROUNDUP, but claimed that the agent did not and could not possibly cause any damage. These allegations are contradicted in a letter sent to Adalah by a health clinic in Mitzpeh Ramon, which reported treating at least 17 individuals, including children, following their exposure to chemicals sprayed by the ILA in Abda in March 2003. One of the petitioners in the case, Mr. Saleem Abu Medeghem, 38-years-old from Al-Arakib, also described in his affidavit feeling nauseous and fainting, immediately after being exposed to the chemicals in February 2004; he was subsequently hospitalized. Mr. Abu Medeghem, as well as other petitioners, emphasized that the ILA issued no warnings, either before or after the spraying.
The ILA, in its correspondence with the human rights organizations, claimed that its actions are legal. According to the ILA, the crops are planted illegally by the Arab Bedouin on state-owned land, and that it is enforcing the state's right to the land. These lands are the ancestral lands of the Palestinian Bedouin in the Naqab, who have suffered from both historical and contemporary injustices. Before the establishment of the state in 1948, the Arab Bedouin in Palestine numbered approximately 60,000. During the 1948 war, Israeli forces expelled many Arab Bedouin from the Naqab, and forced others to flee; only about 9,000 remained by the end of the war. During the subsequent military regime imposed on all Palestinians in Israel (1948-1966), many of the remaining Arab Bedouin had their land confiscated, were displaced from their homes, and were re-located to other areas by the state. State attempts to assert claims of ownership of the land are vehemently disputed.
In the petition, the petitioners emphasized that ROUNDUP is a very dangerous substance. The label affixed to the bottle of ROUNDUP contains many warnings to users, notably that that all physical contact with the chemical must be avoided. It also states - “Do Not Apply This Product Using Aerial Spray Equipment” - and that even if the chemical is sprayed from ground level, no one should be allowed to enter the area for seven days. The ROUNDUP label also notes that the “level of toxicity is 4 – dangerous.”
Two expert opinions obtained by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and Adalah regarding the health risks of using ROUNDUP in aerial spraying were submitted with the petition. Dr. Elihu Richter, Head of the Unit of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and Center for Injury Prevention, Hebrew University stated in his expert opinion that:
“The evidence from research show reproductive risks from paternal and maternal exposure in animals and paternal exposure in humans. There is a suggestion of carcinogenic risk. There are reports of ecosystem impacts affecting crop quality… The application of any pesticide or herbicide by aerial spraying near human settlements is dangerous, and should be banned. Advance warning, which may or may not have been carried out here, does not provide a pretext for violating this rule, since there is the potential for exposure to residues after spraying… In the absence of definitive evidence of absence of risk, the spraying by air of herbicides is clearly an unethical exercise in human experimentation in which the subjects – the residents – including children – exposed to the drift – are unwilling participants.”
Dr. Ahmad Yazbek, who holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Technion and who is a senior researcher with the Regional Research and Development Center-The Galilee Society, stated in his expert opinion that in tests conducted on animals, different active ingredients contained in ROUNDUP have “shown acute toxic effects such as eye and skin irritation as well as affects on the circulatory system.” He also references an extensive scientific review conducted by the US-based National Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, which found a variety of human health and environmental problems associated with the product, as well as research done in California, which has found that “ROUNDUP exposure is the third most frequent cause of toxic reactions in farm workers.”
The petitioners argued that the ILA's spraying of the crops violates the right to life, the right to health, and the right to dignity under both domestic and international law. The petitioners also argued that the ILA has no authority to destroy the crops, regardless of the legal status of the land in question. The Law for the Protection of Plants - 1956 governs the issue of crop spraying. The purpose of the law is to protect health and the environment; it grants sole authority to the Minister of Agriculture to further this purpose. If the Minister grants a permit to another entity regarding these matters, it may only be given for this purpose; the ILA's purpose - to enforce the state's claimed right to land - and its actions in spraying and destroying the crops do not further this purpose. Moreover, the ILA is also violating regulations made pursuant to this law. These regulations prohibit the spraying of chemicals from the air if nearby plants could be damaged. They also mandate that if poisonous chemicals are sprayed, it must be done in accordance with the instructions and the warnings on the material. The petitioners also contended that the ILA's spraying of the crops constitutes criminal offenses. These actions violate the Penal Law - 1977, specifically, Article 336 (Use of a dangerous toxin) and Article 452 (Malicious damage).
H.C. 2887/04, Saleem Abu Medeghem, et. al. v. Israel Lands Administration, et. al.
