Two buildings and 37 acres of Palestinian agricultural land are designated to be expropriated for a planned waste incineration plant expected to reduce the amount of garbage sent to landfills in Israel. ‘I worked all my life to build this house,’ a resident facing eviction told Haaretz
Nir Hass. November 12 2025
Israeli authorities are planning to build a waste incineration plant in the village of Qalandiyah, which straddles Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The construction of the plant is expected to result in the demolition of two buildings that house dozens of Palestinians, and the West Bank separation barrier will also be torn down and rebuilt, plans which would require the expropriation of 150 dunam (37 acres) of agricultural land from Palestinians.
The legal opinion backing the relocation of the separation barrier was provided by Adv. Itay Offir, who was nominated last week to succeed former Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi as the military advocate general.
This planned plant will be one of five facilities expected to be built across the country in the coming years. Funding for its construction is to be provided by the Environmental Protection Ministry’s clean-up fund. As ruled by the cabinet decision, the fund will also finance the dismantling and transfer of parts of the separation barrier closer to Jerusalem’s municipal border. The Eden Jerusalem Economic Development Company will build the waste incineration plant.
The separation barrier bisects the village of Qalandiyah, and several houses belonging to the village were left on the Israeli side of it. When the construction of the barrier was completed in 2011, villagers petitioned against the location of the separation barrier. Following the petitions, the state committed to installing a gate in the barrier to allow residents of the village, some of whom hold Israeli identification cards, to reach Jerusalem.
Then-President of the Supreme Court Dorit Beinisch wrote in her ruling that the barrier’s route will include a gate for the villagers’ use.
However, 18 months later, the Border Police, which was responsible for opening the gate, forfeited that responsibility, forcing villagers on the Israeli side of the barrier to take a long detour to access the center of the village, visit their families and reach their workplaces. In the years since, land in the area has been expropriated for public use.
Now, marking the beginning of the project to construct the waste incineration plant, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has completed the expropriation process for the area.
The gate is currently opened twice a year for agricultural purposes. Two weeks ago, Israel Land Authority officials opened the gate for a third time to inform residents about the construction of the incinerator. They served eviction orders for two houses slated for demolition, and posted yellow notices in Hebrew and Arabic, which stated, “Entry forbidden. Anyone entering the area does so at his responsibility and will bear the results.”
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The main purpose of the planned plant is to reduce the amount of garbage sent to landfills in Israel. Supporters of the incineration method show it has been adopted by advanced countries, and if it is built under strict conditions, it will emit little air pollution compared with current alternatives.
However, the Atarot industrial zone, adjacent to Qalandiyah, already ranks among the most polluted areas in Israel. For example, on Monday afternoon, it received an air quality score of -144 – the lowest in the country – according to the Environmental Protection Ministry’s monitoring website. By comparison, the air pollution level near the Hadera power stations at the same time was rated -27, and in the Haifa Bay area, housing many petrochemical plants, just -8.
Hundreds of thousands of people, mostly Palestinians, live around the area of the Atarot Industrial Zone, in Jerusalem and in the Palestinian territories. The Israeli government has been planning in the past years to build a new ultra-Orthodox neighborhood, with thousands of housing units near the area of Atarot’s abandoned airport.
The severe air pollution doesn’t bother Qalandiyah’s residents as much as the plan to demolish houses and expropriate land for the incinerator does.
One of the houses slated for demolition belongs to the Hemed family, a large house that had just recently been finished. “We had the deed for the land from my grandmother and great-grandfather,” says Walid Hemed. “I am 59 years old. I worked all my life to build this house, and now I’ve been issued an eviction order within 20 days.”
In its statement to Haaretz, the Eden company stated that Qalandiyah residents received notices, as “this is land owned by the Israel Land Authority zoned for industrial use.” The company distanced itself from the enforcement of the notices, saying that it is “carried out in the matter of buildings that were built without a permit, and the buildings’ owners have no property rights to the land. The enforcement has nothing to do with the construction of the recycling facility,” the company added.
The chief scientist of Israeli environmental watchdog Adam Teva V’Din, Dr. Arye Vanger, said that the landfill solution is insufficient. “The problem of waste is real, and recognized, and solutions need to be found. However, the landfill solution is terrible,” he said.
“The optimal solution is to reduce the amount of waste and recycle whatever’s possible. Having no choice, I favor the construction of several energy recovery facilities, provided they are meticulously designed and adhere to the strictest standards,” Vanger added.
Hagit Ofran from Peace Now said, “The government’s lust for annexation and dispossession is insatiable. It’s as if there is nowhere else in greater Jerusalem to build the incinerator, except for the few remaining acres of Qalandiyah’s villages after the mass expropriations and fences built around them. This will be a gross breach of international law and the rules of basic morality – evicting scores of residents who live under occupation from their homes and land in favor of an incinerator intended to serve the population of an occupied country.”
Eden Jerusalem Economic Development Company said in response that the current global policy for waste treatment is the conversion of waste into “clean, green energy that replaces energy from polluting sources.” According to the company, similar facilities operate in residential areas in many cities around the world.
The company, in its statement, committed to build and operate the plant, “according to the strictest standards, using advanced technologies that ensure controlled treatment, reduce pollution and prevent environmental damage.” The company also added that the plant will improve the environmental quality in Jerusalem.
The Eden company statement added that the construction of the incineration facility in Qalandiyah is being advanced according to the policy set by the Environmental Protection Ministry and under the national waste treatment plan. “As mentioned, there is no problem with the distance between the facility and the existing neighborhood or the neighborhood planned in the future,” the company added.