PHOTOS: For A 1st Time: A Jerusalem Mayor Orders The Introduction Of Municipal Services Into Shuafat Refugee Camp

(PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE)

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat ordered city sanitation workers to enter Shuafat refugee camp for the first time in history and to clean it regularly. Later, education, welfare and health services will also be replaced, until full sovereignty is exercised there.

As part of Barkat’s plan to remove UNRWA from Jerusalem and end the falsehood of the refugees, on Tuesday, 14 Marcheshvan, Barkat had fifteen sanitation workers enter Shuafat refugee camp for the first time in history and began to clean it, with the intention of continuing to clean it regularly. Instead of hundreds of tons of garbage and construction waste that will be evacuated gradually, as part of the plan, the municipality will evacuate the garbage from the refugee camp seven days a week, bringing in specialized, tractors, four-wheel drive vehicles, trucks with built-in garbage compactors and cranes, all towards alleviating the situation and to create a sanitary environment.

The mayor’s plan is to gradually replace the municipal services at the location, which are currently under the auspices of UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine), including education, welfare and health services, in addition to sanitation of course. This is part of the necessary realities that are needed to oust UNRWA from Jerusalem.

Barkat, who arrived in the afternoon to supervise municipal employees and to oversee the operation, noted that “the era of UNRWA in Jerusalem is over. The time has come to stop the lies of the refugees in Jerusalem. There are no refugees, but residents and they have to receive the services from the municipality like any other resident. We are implementing the first phase of the UNRWA evacuation plan from Jerusalem by taking responsibility for the cleanliness of the refugee camp, and later, together with the government, we will also provide the education, welfare and health services until full sovereignty is achieved. I do not want UNRWA and the people do not want UNRWA.”

The entry of municipal employees into the refugee camp for the first time was greeted by many sympathetic responses by the residents on social media, who are only protesting at the poor quality of UNRWA’s services, citing, “at last … Allah will help them. The stench of the rotting carcasses reached Amman. Outstanding. Good! Continue cleaning like this! The public must pitch in too! Inshallah and it should always be like that, well done. You have to give them a double salary to clean the camp. Well done, but people have to keep clean,” are some of the remarks posted.