West Bank boys dig a living out of trash

He is a part of a loose-knit colony of scavengers, nearly 250 people who scramble over fetid hills of other people’s trash to eke out a living for their families and themselves. Most are younger than 16; some sleep here during the week to maximize the hours they can hunt for goods to sell. Many are related, from a few large clans, and they have a kind of organisation, with a bulldozer driver who settles disputes, and a code of conduct, so that every digger’s finds are respected.

For all the agonising about nearby Hebron—how far Israel should go to resolve competing Jewish and Palestinian claims to the city—this desolate spot is a symbol of the impact of Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank and of the dire economic state of the Palestinian territories, where about a third of adults are without work. This dump has become a lifeline, and informal workplace, for them and for the children helping to support poor families in the southern West Bank.