“Symbiosis, or mutualism, is a type of interaction between different species of organisms living together.” Settlers draw grey water from the sewage treatment facility of the isolated and violent settlement of Shima in the South Hebron Hills, and use it to irrigate hundreds of dunams that they recently seized after expelling the landowners. Aerial photo in the following tweet. Here you can see what is shown in the video: settlers taking over about 400 dunams of farmland south of the isolated and violent settlement of Shima. A water pipe draws water from the sewage treatment facility and irrigates the green area that settlers—apparently from one of the nearby farm outposts—are seizing violently after the landowners were expelled from the area."

The use of grey water by settlers is not just a water-saving measure; it is a tool to consolidate occupation (legally problematic) and a potentially polluting practice that denies the local population access to its resources.

Legal Issue:

Occupation and appropriation: settlers are using grey water from a sewage treatment facility built for their settlement to irrigate lands they illegally seized after expelling the Palestinian landowners.

According to international humanitarian law, an occupying power does not have the right to exploit the natural resources of occupied territory for its exclusive benefit, nor to deprive the local population (see the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute of the ICC).

Here, the use of grey water to develop settler agriculture on confiscated land therefore constitutes a violation of international law (resource appropriation + population transfer).

Environmental Issue:

Grey water, if not properly treated, still contains detergents, grease, and chemicals that can pollute the soil, contaminate groundwater and harm local biodiversity.

Its reuse can be positive (sustainability, water savings), but only within a regulated and fair framework. In this case, it is done exclusively for the settlers’ benefit and on seized land, adding an element of environmental injustice.