Assessment of environmental outcomes of Israeli settlements on lives of the Palestinian people: a case study of Salfeet District in west bank, Palestine.

The main objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the environmental outcomes of the Israeli settlements on the lives of the Palestinian people using Salfeet district in West Bank region as a case study. The study covered officials, villagers and people of different occupations. In particular, the study aimed at assessing the environmental outcomes and how it impacted on the lives of the people. The target population were farmers, herders, agro-herders and government officials. The study employed Key informants’ interviews, field observations, Focus Group Discussions, documentations and questionnaires. Both purposive and random sampling was used to select respondents for the study. The findings indicated that there were severe environmental outcomes from the Israeli settlements and thus the Palestinian people were affected in various aspects such as decreasing land productivity, deterioration of vegetation, pollution of water sources, health and many other damages. Among the listed outcomes by the respondents were disposal of liquid and solid wastes on the Palestinian land which affected the quality of their land. In addition, the indiscriminate cutting of trees for location of settlements was also another outcome. For the case of solutions, the study indicated that the international community and NGOs played a big role in exposing the deterioration and pollution of the environment in the study area. The study proposed that the settlements should be abandoned and demolished especially the industrial areas, factories and the waste drainage pipes that are on the Palestinian land. It is further proposed that the Palestinian authority should negotiate with the Israelis not to extend the construction of new settlements in their area.