Peace activists and environmental groups are campaigning against an industrial zone to be established near the West Bank settlement town Beitar Ilit. They say that the project endangers water sources used by local Palestinians for traditional terraced agriculture.
The project was conceived some five years ago. The area is under direct IDF military control and considered diplomatically sensitive. Ultra-Orthodox settlers live there in the vicinity of several Palestinian villages. The plans for the industrial zone place it north of ultra-Orthodox Beitar Ilit and the Palestinian village of Wadi Fukin, and near two other Palestinian villages. And so, authorities were in no hurry to approve the project. It was ultra-Orthodox Interior Minister Aryeh Deri who pushed the plan forward. Anxious to offer the ultra-Orthodox residents of Beitar Ilit job prospects, Deri put the project on the top of his priority list.
