Forget politics, Danny Ayalon wants to effect change on the ground

The coronavirus pandemic has drawn attention to humankind's carbon footprint. More than ever before we ask ourselves, how can we become more sustainable? Can we prevent pollution? How can we minimize waste? What about lowering emission levels? Will there be enough food for everyone in the future? 

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Environmental issues in Israeli settlements

Municipal Environmental Associations of Judea and Samaria, an environmental awareness group, was established by the settlers to address sewage treatment problems and cooperate with the Palestinian Authority on environmental issues. According to a Haaretz study, settlers account for 10% of the population in the West Bank but produce 25% of the sewage output. Beit Duqqu and Qalqilyah have accused settlers of polluting their farmland and villagers claim children have become ill after swimming in a local stream. 

Legal action was taken against 14 settlements by the Israeli Ministry of the Environment. The Palestinian Authority has also been criticized by environmentalists for not doing more to prevent water pollution. Settlers and Palestinians share the mountain aquifer as a water source, and both generate sewage and industrial effluents that endanger the aquifer. Friends of the Earth Middle East claimed that sewage treatment was inadequate in both sectors. Sewage from Palestinian sources was estimated at 46 million cubic meters a year, and sources from settler sources at 15 million cubic meters a year. A 2004 study found that sewage was not sufficiently treated in many settlements, while sewage from Palestinian villages and cities flowed into unlined cesspits, streams and the open environment with no treatment at all.

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In a 2007 study, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection, found that Palestinian towns and cities produced 56 million cubic meters of sewage per year, 94 percent discharged without adequate treatment, while Israeli sources produced 17.5 million cubic meters per year, 31.5 percent without adequate treatment.

According to Palestinian environmentalists, the settlers operate industrial and manufacturing plants that can create pollution as many do not conform to Israeli standards. In 2005, an old quarry between Kedumim and Nablus was slated for conversion into an industrial waste dump. Pollution experts warned that the dump would threaten Palestinian water sources.

Danny Huston

Daniel "Danny" Huston (born May 14, 1962) is an American actor and director.

Huston has twice been married. His first wife was Academy Award nominee, Virginia Madsen. His second wife, Katie Jane Evans, to whom he married in 2001 and separated in 2006, committed suicide in October 2008 before the divorce was finalized. Together, they had one daughter named Stella.

His other film credits include Birth, Silver City, Marie Antoinette, The Number 23, The Kingdom, How to Lose Friends & Alienate People and 30 Days of Night. He most recently portrayed Samuel Adams in the award-winning HBO miniseries John Adams. He also portrayed Colonel William Stryker in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a prequel for the trilogy.

His 2009-10 roles include Boogie Woogie, The Warrior's Way, the thriller Edge of Darkness, and the adventure films Clash of the Titans and Robin Hood. Recently, he played the famous lawyer Geoffrey Fieger HBO's film You Don't Know Jack. Huston will also feature alongside Nicolas Cage in the Simon West directed film Medallion.

His father, John Huston, produced Danny's first feature as a director, Mr. North, an adaptation of Thornton Wilder's last novel, Theophilus North. In 1995's Leaving Las Vegas, he moved in front of the camera and has since acted in over 20 films. He gave his breakthrough acting performance in the independent film Ivansxtc. The Bernard Rose feature was nominated for several Independent Spirit Awards in 2003, including Best Male Performance for Huston’s portrayal of Hollywood talent agent Ivan Beckman. Huston has worked nonstop as an actor ever since.

Soon after Ivansxtc, he worked on Martin Scorsese's The Aviator alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Alec Baldwin, for which the ensemble cast was nominated for a 2004 SAG Award.

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