To what extent have criminal organizations in the Arab sector penetrated the heart of the regular activity of the local councils? The following story is an example of governmental and local helplessness in the face of those who terrorize residents, council heads and government officials.
Since last May, the Ministry of Environmental Protection has been trying to deal with Jadida Makr, a local council in the Western Galilee, which is defined as being in an "environmental emergency." The problem is that since May, the contractor who won the council tender for waste removal has not removed the garbage from residents' homes due to death threats from a criminal organization. In order to get rid of the garbage, residents began burning it, creating an environmental emergency that was reported to the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
Jadida Mecher,
The head of the council asked the clerk in the ministry (his name is withheld in the system due to fear for his life) and asked him to help remove the garbage piled up in the streets. The ministry instructed the mayor to ask residents to remove the garbage to one collection point in the council, from which it will be collected by the waste contractor to a nearby landfill.
Nor has this solution been implemented. A week after that report, there was a shooting incident at the contractor's home and he was forced to inform the council that he would not continue removing the waste, not even from the designated collection point. Again, in his distress, the head of the council tried to contact other contractors in the field of waste removal, but due to the threat from the same criminal organization, no one was found interested in the work.
Suspected double assassination attempt in the north: two men critically injured in Jadida Makr
The story isn't over yet. In an attempt to help the head of the council, the Ministry of Environmental Protection approached the Western Galilee cluster. And there, like others, they refused to put their heads in the threats of Jadida Mekar, and for fear of burning the garbage trucks, refused to join or bring the trucks into the council. In fact, appeals by the Ministry of Environmental Protection to the entire Northern District were met with fail for fear of harm to life or property. Last June, Environmental Protection Director General Guy Samet contacted the Director General of the Prime Minister's Office, Yossi Shelly, hoping that perhaps the threats of criminal organizations would be dealt with at the highest levels.
Samet wrote to Shelley that "the situation is serious and unacceptable when a criminal organization dictates conditions on the ground. There is a serious danger to public health. The Ministry of Environmental Protection has done everything in its power to deal with the situation, but this is a more general crisis in which the environmental part constitutes only one layer. The environmental crisis cannot be solved without solving the other issues related to the takeover of the criminal cartel and without joining forces of all government bodies. I call on you to convene an emergency meeting with the Director General of the Interior Ministry, the Police Commissioner and any party you see fit in order to bring about a solution to the situation."
Garbage in Arab localities (illustrative),
In the council's helplessness in the face of the environmental hazard, and after the government failed to produce a decisive response, its people turned to a waste contractor willing to collect the garbage from residents' homes. He, oddly enough, does not suffer from problems of threats to his life. And in order not to get caught up in the vortex of danger these days, we will not add more.
Earlier this week, Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman's statement was leaked from the cabinet meeting, saying that she would "not transfer a shekel to the Arab authorities." The background to Silman's remarks rests, among other things, on the incident in Jadida Makhar. Her office said the intention was for budgets to be transferred only under supervision, in order to prevent the next incident.
Minister Idit Silman, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Minister Silman told Israel Hayom: "We must protect public funds from being transferred to illegitimate elements. This case proves once again what I said – we need to help the authorities, provide a good garbage disposal service to civilians and fight an uncompromising war so that the citizens of the country will receive quality service – and this is what the state must intervene in. It's important that the money gets into good hands."
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