Residents of Anata, Shuafat more concerned with municipal services than Barkat's plans to build new neighborhood.
By ABE SELIGnir barkat 88.224(photo credit: Courtesy)
Nearly a week after Jerusalem mayoral candidate Nir Barkat announced his plans, if elected, to build a new Jerusalem neighborhood on the Jewish and state-owned lands between French Hill and the Arab neighborhood of Anata, area residents' reactions were mixed.
While they were ambivalent as to how they might receive a new batch of neighbors, they said the most important thing to them wasn't new building in the area, but municipal services.
The land, which is also straddled by the Shuafat refugee camp, has been the scene of tense standoffs in recent months between Arabs from Anata and Shuafat and Jewish activists, who have made numerous attempts to seize the land in the name of its Jewish owner. Border police who patrol the area have staved off those attempts, but Barkat's announcement, which was endorsed by National Union-National Religious Party city council list head Aryeh King, was sure to win their approval.
Reactions from residents of the refugee camp and Anata however, were more complex. Officially considered residents of Jerusalem, but not Israeli citizens, Shuafat refugee camp and Anata pay taxes to the Jerusalem Municipality but suffer from a severe lack of municipal services. All of the residents who spoke to The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday highlighted this issue as their most pressing concern. Their neighbors, most of them said, could be either Jewish or Arab.
"I understand that the government wants to build over there," said Hamoud, who works at a car parts store in the Shuafat camp. "But why should we have to wait until they build over there to receive the services we already pay for?"
"I can't speak for everyone in the camp," he continued. "But I don't think that many people would mind if they built there. It depends whose land they build on, but we don't have any problems with the Israelis. All we're asking from them is that they fix our roads and fix our schools.
"If you want to talk about building, fine, but our situation needs to improve, regardless."
Down the road, in a small grocery store, Yasser said that he thought the new building might improve the situation of the camp with an influx of new customers.
"If there's enough land for both people, then why should it be a problem?" he asked. "The refugee camp and Anata have a lot of problems with drugs, but people here aren't very political. I think if the municipality put more money into the [east Jerusalem] school system, and municipal services here were as good as they're certainly going to be in any sort of new neighborhood, then it would be a positive development."
Barkat's plan does in fact encompass the situation in Anata and the refugee camp. As part of his tour of the area last Friday, Barkat met with members of Shuafat refugee camp and vowed to expand the representation of Arab residents and to raise the level of municipal services in the area.
"Nir Barkat has certainly made it clear that he plans to help the residents of east Jerusalem," a Barkat campaign spokesman said on Wednesday. "He has said numerous times that he plans to extend the much-needed municipal services to that area."
To that, however, some Shuafat residents scoffed.
"You know how it is with candidates in an election," one man, Imahn, said smiling. "While they're running, it's 'I'll do this and I'll do that'. But the second they get into office, they forget their own wife. Let's wait and see what happens."
Imahn also expressed apathy as to the outcome of a new neighborhood built next door.
"What's the difference?" he asked. "They already have us locked up in here like a prison. If they want to build there, fine. But they should handle it properly, and make sure it's done in a legal way."
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