Jerusalem city hall says 15 municipal sanitation workers entered the Shuafat Palestinian refugee camp for the first time ever Tuesday to carry out trash removal and other cleaning services.
The move was ordered by outgoing Mayor Nir Barkat, who has outlawed the UN agency for Palestinian refugees from operating in the city and providing services to Palestinian residents.
A Jerusalem sanitation worker sweeps a street in Shuafat on October 23, 2018. (Jerusalem municipality)
According to the city, workers found hundreds of tons of untended garbage and construction waste. Workers will start entering the camp daily to take over what the city called UNRWA’s “inadequate services.”
It will also start to provide education, health, and other services to the area, to replace UNRWA.
While in the city limits, municipal workers, police, and others have refused in the past to enter the Shuafat camp and other neighborhoods beyond the West Bank security barrier, leading to charges of official neglect. Barkat, who has been mayor since 2008, blamed UNRWA, which has recently had its budget slashed by the US, for the shortfall in services.
The move comes a week before Jerusalem is set to choose a new mayor. Barkat, who visited Shuafat Tuesday, is not running for re-election and it is not clear if his successor will continue the services.
The Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
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