Palestinians protest living conditions in Jalazoun refugee camp

Dozens of angry Palestinian youth have protested on Sunday against the lack of services in the Jalazoun refugee camp near Ramallah. The protest marks a new phase of public discontent as a strike called by the Arab Workers Union of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) enters its 31st day. Workers accuse the agency of indifference to their plight.

The Palestinian news agency Ma’an said that protestors closed all the streets connecting Ramallah city to other Palestinian cities in the north and south of West Bank. They include the Ramallah-Nablus street, the Ramallah-Jerusalem street and Surda Street. Cars were forced to change their route as a result of the action. The youth started their protests on Thursday; closing streets for a while and dumping wastes to highlight the lack of sanitary services in the camp following nearly a month of strike action.

Ma’an reported activists from the Jalazoun refugee camp as saying that the camp’s popular committee will continue to organize protests to put pressure on UNRWA and the Palestinian government to initiate a dialogue with the agency’s Arab workers to resolve the crisis so that services would be restored in the camp.

Source: Al-Sharq