Israel’s Supreme Court Rules Manufacturer Must Pay Half the Cost of Asbestos Cleanup

JERUSALEM—Israel’s Supreme Court April 2 rejected an appeal by the country’s only asbestos cement manufacturer of a law holding it financially responsible for cleaning up waste material both buried and used for decades to construct buildings, roads, and park trails throughout the Western Galilee (Eitanit Construction Products v. The State of Israel).

The court ordered the company to fund half of the 300 million shekel ($82.8 million) cost of removing asbestos waste it buried and replacing the asbestos-based paving materials used widely within a 15-kilometer (9-mile) radius of its now-closed factory.

In so doing, the court also upheld ...