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Greenpeace and the Basel Action Network

"By arguing for imports of hazardous wastes from rich countries, Israel is projecting itself as a garbage-led economy," said Kevin Stairs of Greenpeace International. "Not only that, the move threatens to derail a Ban which took the G-77 nations more than a decade to win." The proposal that has drawn criticism from environmental organisations is Israel's application to join the ranks of OECD and EU countries in order to receive hazardous wastes from them. Currently, a landmark 1995 amendment (known as the Basel Ban) to the Basel Convention prohibits the export of hazardous wastes from OECD to non-OECD countries like Israel. Israel has an abysmal track record of managing its own waste. At least 60,000 tons of hazardous waste of unknown composition and thought to have originated from Israel are currently stickpiled in a sea of leaking barrels in Israel's Negev desert dump of Ramat Hovav. The Israelian authorities have built an incinerator for this waste and started the polluting operation last year.

"Israel is among those countries which have demonstrated that they can't handle their own waste; its amazing that its proposal to import more hazardous wastes has not been clearly rejected by the international community," said Jim Puckett of Basel Action Network, a recently launched international network of NGO's.

A similar attempt by Israel in 1996 to import hazardous wastes from the OECD parties to the Barcelona Convention was rejected by the contracting parties. Israel is reported to be one of the last few countries that continue the universally condemned practice of ocean dumping of toxic sludge in the Mediterranean sea.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Nityanand (Niti) Jayaraman: +852 919 67174

Luisa Colasimone: + 31 6 53 6622970 (Interviews are available in English, French, Spanish Portuguese, Arabic, Hindi, Dutch, Chinese and German)

Jim Puckett, Basel Action Network: +60 82 415588