Outgoing mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, criticized the European Union’s criticism of the program initiated by the Shuafat refugee camp:

“The residents of the Shuafat refugee camp are fed up with the hypocrisy of the European Union, which prefers politics at the expense of the residents’ interest. All surveys showed the residents of the refugee camp are fed up with the disgusting situation, the failures of UNRWA’s. The residents welcome the municipality’s actions, including the recent demolition of the buildings that endangered the camp’s students. Even the EU should understand that it is time to stop the lie of the refugees. Jerusalem is one unified and sovereign city, without refugees but residents, and they will now receive services from the municipality like any other resident.”

Barkat is referring to the decision by City Hall to take control over the Shuafat Refugee Camp and to clean up the situation literally, and to begin providing municipal services as UNRWA, which has claimed to run the location, has ignored it, preferring to permit the continuation of the unacceptably low conditions towards using it against Israel and thereby perpetuating the so-called refugee problem.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)