RAMALLAH, November 12, 2025 (WAFA) – In recent weeks, Israeli authorities have notified owners of homes and agricultural lands in the village of Qalandiya, north of Jerusalem, of impending demolition and eviction to make way for a waste incineration plant.
A report issued by the Peace Now movement on Wednesday explained that an Israeli project to build a waste incineration plant in Qalandiya will lead to the demolition of two buildings housing dozens of Palestinian families, in addition to the confiscation of approximately 150 dunams of agricultural land for the demolition and reconstruction of the separation wall.
The report noted that the Israeli government tasked a development company affiliated with the Jerusalem municipality with identifying a site for the waste incineration facility. The company proposed a 130-dunam plot of land in Qalandiya, most of which is agricultural land and contains at least seven residential buildings housing hundreds of residents.
The report indicated that last April, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich signed a notice under Article 19 of the Israeli Land Law, activating two previous confiscation orders dating back to 1970 and 1982, covering the same area. The occupation authorities are now using this notice as the "legal basis" for eviction orders issued against the residents.
Last May, the occupation government decided to construct the waste facility at the Qalandiya site, as proposed by a company affiliated with the Jerusalem municipality. The decision also involved rerouting the separation wall so that the facility's location would be outside the wall.
The occupation authorities allocated millions of shekels for planning and construction, including approximately 12 million shekels (about $3 million) from the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection's sanitation fund to finance the relocation of the separation wall.
The report noted that this decision effectively means displacing residents from their homes and agricultural lands to make way for the planned factory.
For its part, the Israeli human rights movement Peace Now says, “The government’s appetite for annexation and displacement knows no bounds. It seems as though there is nowhere else in the Jerusalem area to build the factory, other than the few dunams remaining for the residents of Qalandiya village after the numerous confiscations and the walls that were built around it.
This constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and the most basic moral values, as dozens of residents under occupation are being displaced from their homes and lands for the benefit of a factory that serves the residents of the occupying state.”
