The Jerusalem Ministry announced on Wednesday that it had completed preparations to replace services in east Jerusalem previously provided by UNRWA, as a law to Israeli cooperation with UNRWA is set to come into effect on Thursday.
However, civil society organizations warned that the ministry’s preparation, which was carried out by the Jerusalem Municipality, was insufficient and would leave civilians in limbo.
UNRWA’s main operations in east Jerusalem are education, health services, and sanitation. The majority of its services are provided in the Shuafat Refugee Camp, which is under municipal jurisdiction but physically separated by the Separation Fence. Five-year programs to develop east Jerusalem and other programs largely do not operate in the camp, leaving it dependent on external services to a large extent.
According to the Jerusalem Ministry, there are 788 students at seven UNRWA educational institutions – approximately 650 of them in three UNRWA schools in the refugee camp. In the “immediate time frame,” these students will be “placed in schools near their homes” but on the other side of the fence. The municipality will provide busing, equipment, and renovations as necessary, according to the ministry.
In the medium-length timeframe, a new school will be founded in mobile caravans within the camp. This will take eight months. In the long-term, the authorities will construct an “educational campus” in the camp, and NIS 20 million has been set aside for that purpose, the ministry said.
A damaged sign is pictured at the headquarters of UNRWA following an Israeli raid in Gaza City, on July 12, 2024. (credit: Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters)
Replacing services
Regarding health services, the ministry noted that UNRWA runs two healthcare services in east Jerusalem – a healthcare center in the Shuafat Refugee Camp, and a healthcare clinic for infants (“Tipat Chalav”) at the Old City’s Flowers Gate. In order to replace these services, the ministry added personnel to existing healthcare and “Tipat Chalav” centers in east Jerusalem, but also on the other side of the separation fence.
In addition to a Jerusalem Ministry statement on Wednesday, these preparations were also laid out in the state’s response to a petition to the High Court of Justice by a number of east-Jerusalem residents against the law. The petitioners requested that it be cancelled, and requested a temporary injunction to delay it taking effect. The court had yet to rule on the injunction at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon.
According to the petitioners, “The respondents completely ignore the significant failings of the Jerusalem Municipality’s solutions,” which include restrictions on travel resulting from security checks at the Separation Fence, which would significantly lengthen the trip to school.
In addition, “The Jerusalem Municipality offers to build temporary structures in about 8 months, a temporary solution that cannot provide a real and adequate alternative to the essential educational services provided by UNRWA,” the petitioners wrote.
Regarding health services, the petitioners argued that the state did not provide solutions to “critical services, such as the provision of medications without copayments, which are part of the services provided by UNRWA and have no equivalent in the Israeli health system. Additionally, there is no reference to issues of social and nutritional security, which are a central part of UNRWA’s assistance.”
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According to a senior official in the Jerusalem Ministry, the Health Ministry had also issued a tender to the International Red Cross to provide health services within the camp once the UNRWA ban comes into effect. However, the Jerusalem Ministry did not mention this in its statement on Wednesday.
The law to stop UNRWA’s operations in east Jerusalem was published on October 30. It said that the ban would come into effect in three months. A second law passed to stop Israeli cooperation with UNRWA in all other regions, including Gaza and the West Bank. The laws were proposed after information emerged that some UNRWA employees had participated in the October 7 Hamas massacre, and as a result of claims that UNRWA in Gaza had been infiltrated by Hamas.
