The New York-based research agency Forensic Architecture published a new report this morning to analyze Israel´s aerial spraying of herbicides along the Gaza-Gaza Strip border between 2014 and 2018. .
The report (as reported by the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights) relies heavily on field research and legal efforts by human rights organizations. The Center for the Defense of Freedom of Movement, Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Gaza Strip, "in which Israel admitted that in five years it had carried out 30 aerial bombardments near the fence separating the Gaza Strip from Israeli territory.
The research supports the findings of the associations and acknowledges that the spraying operations have severely damaged fields and crops within the territory of the Gaza Strip.
Al Mezan pointed out that since 2015, the associations have been warned of the severe damage caused by aerial spraying operations. They have petitioned the court and made other judicial efforts aimed at disclosing information about these destructive practices and forcing Israel to stop them.
The new research by Foreignec Architecher contradicts the Israeli allegations that it is taking the necessary measures to reduce the spread of chemical pesticides and the damage caused to them, as reflected in the response of the associations to the Israeli Minister of Defense and the Israeli Military Prosecutor.
According to an analysis of video documenting the spraying operations, it appears that these operations took place when the wind was eastern, and carried chemicals with high concentration and harmful, to the depth of the sector.
The report stresses that in these circumstances spraying leads to indiscriminate and indiscriminate damage. In addition, Israel does not use wind control techniques, but in any case it can not control the spread of materials or predict the extent of damage caused by crop spraying, grazing areas, land, farmers and the population of the region in general.
This year, for the first time since 2014, Israel has not sprayed pesticides from the air, and therefore positive projections of this can be seen on plantations clearly.
In a short video released today by the organizations Gisha, Masala, Adalah and Mezan, farmers and pastoralists express their satisfaction and hopes in the wake of a season without spraying and the positive impact on the fields and on the crops, which constitute their source of income.
The spraying of pesticides from the air violates basic human rights and is contrary to Israeli and international law. There is no justification or any legal basis for continuing this destructive practice, which causes severe and non-standard damage to the population of the Strip and agricultural crops.
The associations repeated their persistent demands for Israel to stop spraying from the air over the fence separating Gaza and Gaza, so that Gaza´s agriculture sector could recover.
