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Palestinians pay for own road repair, despite paying taxes to Israel

April 21, 2016 at 3:09 pm

Palestinians living in occupied East Jerusalem have paid out of their own pockets for a local road to be resurfaced despite paying taxes to the local Israeli-led municipality. The residents of Ras Khamis, next to Shoafat Refugee Camp, gave up hope of the local council doing anything for them so raised the money themselves.

Although it is within Jerusalem, Ras Khamis is on the “wrong” side of the Apartheid (“Separation”) Wall constructed by the Israelis ostensibly for security reasons but, in reality, in order to confiscate yet more Palestinian land. The Jerusalem Municipality has basically ignored the neighbourhood for the past ten years, since this section of the wall was built.

According to a report in Haaretz, “The infrastructure in the neighbourhood has severely deteriorated, and the residents suffer from a lack of roads and sewage pipes, only partial water supply, partial garbage collection and other ills.” In response, youths in the area have formed a local council to act on behalf of residents. “In recent months it has begun the project of paving a new road between Ras Khamis and the nearby Anata neighbourhood.”

The cost of the road project — two million shekels ($531,000) — was raised in Ras Khamis and paid to a local firm of contractors. “The broad new road stretches two kilometres with drainage and sewage infrastructure, also paid for at their own expense, laid beneath,” confirmed Haaretz.

Jamil Sanduka is a member of the council in Ras Khamis. “Someone paid 50, another paid 100, and we did it on our own,” he told the Israeli daily. He revealed that one person contributed 130,000 shekels for the project. “What are we to do? You’ve got to live. The state tossed us out. They just keep collecting municipal taxes. So what choice do we have? To let our children grow up amid garbage?”

A direct knock-on from the self-help project is that the local Palestinian residents have started to resurface another road and formed a domestic rubbish collection service.

“The Jerusalem neighbourhoods located beyond the wall have suffered for years neglect by all the municipal and governmental authorities, although they are entitled by law to all services and infrastructure,” attorney Anne Suciu of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel told Haaretz. “Despite the government decision a decade ago that promised that the wall’s construction would not hurt residents, in practice its commitments have remained on paper, and the residents live in inhuman conditions. The residents are forced to look after themselves because the authorities have totally shaken off this area.”