'Buds of Pollution': With EU complicity, Israeli Nitzanei Shalom industries are poisoning Palestinian farmland

By Filippo Taglieri and Alessandro Stefanelli, The New Arab, 23 June 2026

ISRAELI OCCUPIED WEST BANK, 23 June. - The Green European Journal, Irpi Media and Altraeconomia co-published a set of edited versions of this investigation.

Plastic sheets flap in the air, torn and battered, while weeds and fallow fields lie beneath the bare iron skeletons of the greenhouses. The mechanical hum of nearby factories marks time like a clock. Oday breaks apart a wooden crate, using the pieces to light a small fire and make tea. His mother, Mona, steps into a greenhouse where, months earlier, they had planted herbs to sell, but returns shortly after, disheartened - many of the plants have withered. They have only a few hours left before the soldiers return to patrol the separation wall.

After drinking the hot tea under the shelter of a tree, they move to another greenhouse to gather peppers. The harvest is meagre, barely filling a few plastic bags. Oday checks the time - almost ten o’clock - they need to leave soon to avoid being seen by Israeli soldiers. By 10:30am, mother and son set off along the road back. The young man carries the plastic bags of peppers, while the woman speaks on the phone with a neighbour waiting for them in a van hidden along a nearby side street. Their land, reduced to a third of its original size, is squeezed between the separation wall dividing Israeli territory from the occupied West Bank to the west, and an Israeli industrial complex to the east

The story of the Taneeb family did not begin there. It is part of a much longer struggle that dates back to the mid-1980s, when residents of the Irtah neighbourhood, south of the city of Tulkarm, in the northwest of the West Bank, first heard the name “Geshuri” - a factory planned just a few hundred metres from their homes. In the years that followed, Israeli companies specialising in waste recycling, plastics, cement, and chemical production were progressively relocated from Israel to the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). What began as a single facility occupying a few dunums expanded steadily into a cluster of 13 agro-industrial factories, forming the Nitzanei Shalom (lit. “Buds of Peace”) industrial settlement.

A prominent entity within this industrial hub is Geshuri Industries, an agrochemical company that relocated to its current 20–30 dunam site in Area C in the mid-1980s, reportedly with the encouragement of the Israeli government.

The factory was originally located in Israel in an area identified as Tel Mond, where it was the subject of intense legal battles and community protests over environmental violations, as reported in a 1999 Knesset document. While the factory owners, Ben-Zion Geshuri and Brig. Gen. David Shamir, along with senior manager Dr Raanan Geshuri, contended that the move had been motivated by a need for space and security issues, critics like former Member of Knesset (MK) Issam Makhoul stated that legal actions had forced the factory to suspend its operations at the original site due to public health harm, hence the relocation to a zone where safety and environmental standards could be bypassed more easily.

Over the past year, The New Arab (TNA) has examined how the Nitzanei Shalom industrial zone operates within a framework marked by fragmented jurisdiction, military restrictions, and weak or non-enforced environmental regulation.

Access to the area is restricted due to its designation as a “prohibited military zone,” limiting both independent assessment of soil and groundwater contamination, and farmers’ ability to reach and work their land. Through satellite imagery, TNA was however able to show that these facilities lack water treatment infrastructure for industrial discharge, washing water, and rainwater runoff, resulting in alkaline wastewater and sludge being released into surrounding Palestinian farmland and greenhouses. Over time, planning records and satellite imagery indicate that the site has undergone a substantial expansion despite formal objections from residents and the Tulkarm municipality.

Our findings also demonstrate how Europe-linked companies do business through or alongside local firms in the zone, while Palestinian environmental legislation is not recognised and lacks enforcement mechanisms. This investigation highlights a political and regulatory impasse: although the EU considers settlements illegal under international law, there is no binding legislation prohibiting trade with settlement-linked industries. Existing “differentiation” policies, which exclude settlement products from preferential tariff treatment, are applied inconsistently, creating a framework in which commercial links to these industrial sites are not uniformly regulated or constrained across European markets.

Environmental apartheid

Israeli settlements are established and administered through what is known as the Israeli Civil Administration in the occupied West Bank. Within this framework, the Higher Planning Council is responsible for issuing decisions and approving master plans, including those for the construction and expansion of settlements and the related road and infrastructure networks.

Murad al-Madani, legal advisor at the Palestinian Environmental Quality Authority, explained that Israeli factory owners find the West Bank a much easier environment for establishing industrial facilities compared to Israel. “To this day, Israel does not recognize the Palestinian Environmental Law issued in 1999; instead, Israeli authorities apply the regulations they deem applicable in the West Bank," he noted.

“Factory owners also benefit from additional incentives, including tax breaks, grants, and loans that may not be available within Israel. In addition, they face fewer restrictions when it comes to waste disposal and wastewater management, significantly reducing operational costs,” continued al-Madani.

These policies effectively shift environmental risks away from Israeli cities and onto Palestinian areas.

Over the past years, the industrial zone has been expanding steadily and now reportedly covers almost 180 dunums, according to the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s Environmental Quality Authority. Today, the presence of these industries in Tulkarm is linked to uncontrolled pollution that negatively impacts both the productivity of agricultural lands and the health of the local population. Residents living as close as 20 meters from the factories have reported a rise in respiratory problems, and parliamentary discussions have highlighted complaints regarding increased asthma rates among children.

Damage that can be seen from space

Assessing the environmental impact of the industrial zone is constrained by access restrictions that have, for over a decade, made independent field research difficult. Satellite imagery, however, provides a partial record. It shows the steady expansion of the industrial zone alongside a marked loss of biodiversity and the erosion of the area’s agricultural character. This decline accelerated after 1983, with the establishment of Nitzanei Shalom, and again after 2003, following the construction of the separation wall.

Between 2013 and 2021, the remaining green spaces within the zone were cleared to make way for new production facilities. In 2013, factory owners, through the Israeli Civil Administration, advanced a plan to expand the industrial zone. This prompted Bimkom, an Israeli human rights organization, that focuses on equitable planning policy, to file a formal objection on behalf of the Tulkarm municipality and local residents.

Diana Mardi, a field researcher at Bimkom, told TNA that the proposal “significantly expanded what could be built - raising [the maximum plot ratio] from 80% to 200% and allowing structures to increase from two to six storeys”. She argued that, given the proximity of the industrial site to Tulkarm, the plan had lacked justification, while overlooking jurisdictional issues and environmental deficiencies. “It wasn't just an expansion of the industrial zone, it was a way of legitimising dangerous and illegal structures," said Mardi. However, Bimkom's objection was ultimately rejected, and the expansion plan approved.

In recent years, three firms have taken the lion share of the industrial zone: Prima Cement - owned by Ciment IS and previously by Geshuri through Keshet Prima - together with its affiliated stone-processing plant; Tal El, which focuses on waste management; and Margal - formerly Pelegas - a manufacturer of pressure vessels and storage tanks for transporting natural gas.

The impacts most vividly engraved in the memories of local residents, and also captured in satellite imagery, are those linked to major incidents, particularly fires. The Civil Defense in Tulkarm documented five such incidents in the zone in 2009, 2013, 2015, 2020, and 2022. They described flames forming a cloud that covered the entire area - fumes, toxic gases, and thick black smoke that can last for days.

“It's suffocating and almost life-threatening. My children, my family, and even our relatives all leave the area until the fire and smoke have cleared,” said Adeeb Awad, a 63-year-old resident of the Irtah neighbourhood, whose house is only 20 metres away from the industrial zone.

Testimonies from former workers of the Yamit factory - which operated in the water treatment sector in Nitzanei Shalom until 2023 - also suggest that industrial waste is routinely being burned on site. “The burning happens two to three times a week,” said Ahmed al-Masri, who worked for Yamit for nearly 29 years. He explained that defective paint materials were regularly incinerated, adding that when the smoke plumes rose too high, the Israeli environmental authorities would come and inspect the industrial area, especially after receiving complaints from the nearby Israeli community of Nitzanei Oz.

If these factories were located in Europe, they would be subject to strict regulations, detailed environmental assessments, including minimum buffer zones separating them from residential areas - depending on production capacity and the materials being used - as well as studies of wind direction to limit pollution.

In Tulkarm, however, residential proximity remains shocking: around fifteen homes lie within 100 metres of the zone, with dozens more within a 500-metre radius. While silos equipped with structures resembling dust filters are visible, images show a widespread layer of white dust covering rooftops and courtyards - a common phenomenon in this type of industry.

For local farmers, the effects are visible. Fayez Taneeb described how dust from the factories settles on his land, burning crops in the open and killing those inside greenhouses, as it clings to the plastic and blocks out the sunlight; “when it is heavy”, he told TNA, “it ruins everything, leaving black spots and produce that cannot be sold.” Taneeb added that wastewater and sewage have a direct impact too, with runoff flowing onto his fields and forcing him to dig a canal to redirect it and limit the damage.

Satellite images show that these facilities most likely do not have an adequate wastewater treatment system - which would be mandatory elsewhere - including for rainwater runoff from the yards. It's also possible that some tanks are located under one of the roofs, but their dimensions would still be insufficient given the size of the area. Wastewater from cement factories and blending plants is particularly harmful to agricultural land because it is alkaline, which damages plants’ roots. The images - analysed by The New Arab - indicate that water is being discharged directly onto cultivated fields, with altimetric analysis confirming the extent to which the greenhouses are affected by the slopes.

Underresearched environmental harm

While researchers from the Universities of Tulkarm, Nablus, and Birzeit have sought to link industrial air pollution to disease, their work is significantly hindered by a lack of data and field limitations; these challenges are exacerbated by the Israeli army, which strictly controls access to the industrial area and adjacent fields.

In assessing the environmental impact of the Nitzanei Shalom industrial complex, The New Arab reviewed existing academic and environmental research; upon our request, a literature review was co-authored by associate professor Basel al-Natsheh and agricultural engineer and researcher Safaa Hamdan, who are both affiliated with the Environmental and Sustainable Agriculture Department of Palestine Technical University - Kadoorie (PTUK).

Evidence indicates environmental degradation affecting soil, groundwater, air quality, and plant diversity, as well as potential health risks for nearby residents. At the same time, al-Natsheh and Hamdan highlighted the persisting research gaps. “Many studies focus on individual environmental components rather than conducting integrated environmental assessments,” they explained. According to the two Palestinian scholars, the Environment Quality Authority remains one of the few institutions that has attempted to assess environmental, health, and socioeconomic impacts simultaneously.

Looking ahead, al-Natsheh and Hamdan warned that “the environmental situation in Tulkarm may worsen if current pollution sources continue without effective mitigation.” They emphasised the need for preventive measures, including continuous monitoring of water and soil, increased community awareness, safer agricultural practices, and the treatment of contaminated water before use.

In a written exchange with The New Arab, Prof. Nicola D'Alessandro, Associate Professor at the Department of Sciences of the University “G. D’Annunzio” of Chieti and Pescara in Italy, and an expert in green chemistry and environmental catalysis, aligned with the Palestinian researchers’ concerns about the lack of comprehensive assessments. “The number of detailed and accurate scientific reports on the West Bank area is scarce and the few at our hand were produced a long time ago," he wrote.

Prof. D’Alessandro warned of severe health risks due to the presence of persistent pollutants like dioxins, which are industrial by-products known to “cause serious health effects, including cancer, endocrine disruption, immune system damage, and developmental problems”.

The Italian scientist also emphasised that validating reports of toxic dumping “necessitate[s] a careful data acquisition that takes into consideration the most common environmental indices: ranging from the simple air and water checks to more detailed measurements of pests, metals, and dioxin contents”.

European complicity

Over the years, the Nitzanei Shalom industrial zone has maintained a range of commercial ties with European businesses and consumers. The companies owned by the Geshuri family are one example of these links: Prima Cement - now owned by Ciment IS - had their products pass quality control in Spain, meaning that they were cleared for marketing in the Eurozone, despite stringent EU regulations concerning human rights abuses.

The collusion is not limited to the Geshuri family: Pelegas (now known as Margal), manufactures gas tanks for military land and naval vehicles and exports its products to Romania, a member of the EU, as well as to Brazil, Georgia, and Turkey. Notably, Pelegas was the only company in the industrial zone that was included on a 2020 UN list of companies operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) for its “use of natural resources, in particular land and water, for business purposes”. The Office of the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) regularly compiles an analysis of Israeli violations in the West Bank; this includes industrial zones and individual businesses.

The New Arab sought comment from OHCHR on why other Nitzanei Shalom companies were not included on its lists, but we haven't received any response in time for publication.

Prima Cement, one of Israel’s leading cement producers, supplies Orbond and Tambour, which together account for 80% of the domestic gypsum product market.

One of the primary industrial inputs in the manufacture of cement is gypsum, a type of mineral deposit also used in the production of plaster as well as in agriculture. While the mineral was formerly mined domestically, production within Israel ceased in 2020. As a result, cement and gypsum used by the factories at the industrial site are imported from abroad. Much is imported from Greece but also Turkey, where Ciment IS’ parent company (Israel Shipyards Industries Group) acquired a majority stake in Onat Pan, a firm specialised in gypsum exports. Following the decline in Turkey-Israel trade relations caused by the latest war on Gaza, however, Ciment IS started importing raw material from Egypt.

Established in 1993, Orbond was acquired five years later by Knauf, a German multinational that produces building materials. Between 2024 and 2025, Knauf’s executive Christoph Dorn held the presidency of Eurogypsum, the Brussels-based EU association for the gypsum industry.

Despite Orbond’s ties to Prima Cement, neither sanctions nor restrictions have yet been imposed on the parent company, the German firm Knauf.

A Knauf spokesperson wrote to The New Arab: “We are committed to ethical, legally correct and socially responsible business management. We expect our suppliers to share this commitment and to make reasonable efforts to promote the compliance of their own suppliers and subcontractors with the principles laid down in our Code of Conduct for Suppliers.”

Although art. 1 of Knauf’s code stipulates that its suppliers should comply with “the applicable national, international laws, and regulations, including [...] the General Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations”, Prima Cement operates in a territory that is considered illegally occupied under international law, in clear violation of the human rights of Palestinians.

Art. 4.1 imposes an obligation on suppliers to observe environmental laws, whereas Israel does not recognise the 1999 Palestinian Environmental Law and Prima Cement operates in an industrial site that was reportedly moved to the West Bank to circumvent Israeli regulations.

While art. 4.2 stipulates that “sound measures must be adopted to avoid pollution and the generation of waste, sewage and air emission,” untreated alkaline wastewater and sludge are being released from Nitzanei Shalom into Palestinian farmland, and residents of Tulkarm have reported an increase in respiratory conditions.

Tambour, another company for which Prima Cement manufactures products, is registered in Israel but owned by Kusto Group, a Kazakh holding company incorporated in Singapore; its activities span multiple sectors, including fossil fuels, pesticides and construction materials.

Kusto’s activities through its Israeli subsidiary Tambour extend to Italy, and specifically to small-to-mid-sized firms in the Veneto and Tuscany regions. In 2018, Tambour acquired the Italian chemical company Colorificio Zetagi, through which in 2024 it went on to gain an 80% stake in Verinlegno, a manufacturer of industrial paints.

Despite the structural changes taking place at the corporate level - specifically regarding Prima Cement, whose ownership was transferred to Ciment IS in 2022 - trading relationships with European customers have not ceased, but have rather taken on more complex forms.

Ciment IS is partially owned by the SK Group, and manufactures products under its own branding in Israel and through Prima Cement at the Nitzanei Shalom site.

One of the SK Group’s subsidiaries, Israel Shipyards, is involved in shipbuilding, including military vessels, port management, and import and export; other SK Group companies are also active in the arms industry. Like other sectors of the Israeli economy, the construction industry is deeply integrated with the military apparatus.

According to The Database of Israeli Military and Security Export, Israel Shipyards has extensive commercial ties with Europe, exporting their products to countries such as Cyprus (Offshore Patrol Vessels - OPV), Greece (Sa’ar-class missile boats), and Romania (Shaldag-class FPC), as well as other countries around the world (Azerbaijan, Chile, Ivory Coast, Honduras, Mexico, Philippines, South Africa, and Sri Lanka).

Israel Shipyards’ Shaldag vessels play a key role in the Israeli blockade and destruction of the Gaza Strip.

The New Arab sought comment from the Geshuri family, as well as from all the companies that have ties to Nitzanei Shalom, but we haven't received any response in time for publication.

EU continues to trade with illegal settlements

The European Union recognises that Israeli settlements in the OPT are illegal under international law, yet it has not adopted union-wide legislation banning trade or economic ties with them, relying instead on limited regulatory measures. In 2025, EU member states Spain and Slovenia prohibited imports from settlements.

Speaking with TNA, Mahmoud Nawajaa, the General Coordinator of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, emphasised that the issue is not limited to settlements per se, but rather concerns all the territories occupied in 1967, which include the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. In fact, the European Union adopts a firm position of not recognizing Israeli sovereignty over these territories, in line with international law.

A spokesperson for the European Commission wrote to TNA that “a ban on trade and/or services with illegal settlements was not part of the package of measures proposed by the Commission in September 2025, which included the suspension of trade-related provisions of the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement between the EU and Israel, as a matter of special urgency.”

The EU Commission’s response made reference to the fact that goods originating from illegal Israeli settlements are not entitled to benefit from any preferential tariff treatment under existing trade agreements.

Commenting on the 2015 law that differentiates settlement products from others, Mahmoud Nawajaa highlighted that “not all European Union countries have complied with the law.” He also pointed out that “this law is insufficient, and there should be efforts toward criminalising the entry of settlement products into European Union countries.”

Danish MEP Villy Søvndal, a member of the Greens/EFA group, told TNA that, as a foreign minister, he had played a role in advancing the labelling of goods from illegal settlements - a measure that, he noted, fell short of its intended impact. Søvndal called on the EU to ban trade with settlements, adding that relocating polluting production to occupied territory is another way of making life harder for Palestinians.

“The EU should align its actions with its stated commitment to a two-state solution and human rights, including suspending the association agreement with Israel,” said Søvndal.

Resilient Palestinian farmers

The Israel Shipyards Group website states that the cement produced by Ciment IS “meets environmental standards and [offers a high] quality of performance and work comfort”. Our findings suggest that the same cannot be said of the factory where it is produced.

For some of the Palestinian residents, the area has become unliveable, prompting relocation; others remain, bound to their land despite the conditions.

In this landscape, the consequences settle into daily life. Farmer Fayez Taneeb no longer goes to his land to work. He developed a lung disease, likely caused by years of exposure to air pollution while trying to cultivate his fields organically. His farm, known as Hakuretna, which once hosted dozens of university students each year - buzzing with environmental activists from around the world, eager to learn about its biogas system and organic produce - today stands empty.

Still, every day at 6am, Fayez's wife and son walk along the perimeter of the Nitzanei Shalom industrial complex. From a dirt road, they scan the area for the presence of soldiers before attempting to reach their land. They continue to work it to keep it alive - even as the soil turns toxic and yields less each season. After a year and a half of severely restricted access, they recently received a demolition notice for two agricultural structures from the Israeli Civil Administration in the West Bank.

This investigation was developed with the support of JournalismFund Europe.

Fact-checking and copyediting:

TNA Investigative Researcher/Journalist Jonathan Cole.

Commissioning, editing and supervision:

TNA Investigative Editor Andrea Glioti.

For questions, comments and complaints please email Andrea Glioti This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or TNA Investigative Journalist Jonathan Cole This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Authors

Alessandro Stefanelli is a photojournalist, documentary photographer and reporter, who works at the intersection of visual journalism, field reporting, and investigative research. He focuses on conflict, migration and environment stories. Stefanelli's works have been published internationally by The Atlantic, Libération, La Stampa, Le Soir, La Repubblica, and Il Manifesto, among others.

Filippo Taglieri is a freelance journalist with a strong interest in environmental reporting. His work covers multinationals and agriculture in Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean and Latin America, as well as issues surrounding extractivism in Latin America and Italy.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the of CEMAS editorial team.