Because of a mistake in the path of the Israeli separation wall
Kafr Aqab in East Jerusalem is marginalized and outlawed
Contiguous high-rise buildings without a license.
AFP
Kafr Aqab suffers from a lack of infrastructure.
AFP
A general view from the suburb of Kafr Aqab.
AFP
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In the middle of a main road in Kafr Aqab between Ramallah and Jerusalem, cars and a number of motorbikes are spinning and “difting”.
A year ago, a similar drift caused a family quarrel, killing four people in the area.
Kafr Aqab is about 10 kilometers north of the city center of Jerusalem.
To reach it, you must pass a military crossing and a concrete wall several meters high.
The city is located near Ramallah, behind the "security fence" that Israel erected in the occupied West Bank.
Israel occupied the area in 1967 as part of East Jerusalem, which it annexed and made it under its sovereignty and supervised by the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem.
But the area is neglected, and hearing gunfire has become a normal thing, whether during celebrations, fights, or just testing weapons.
Chaos in traffic, driving against traffic, and noise, according to residents.
"There is no authority, no police, no law," says Iman Al-Rajbi, 37.
The mother of four recounts, “There was an accident in January because one of our relatives, aged 19, was driving a car while he was getting into it.
He was asked to stop, and as a result a quarrel broke out between him and young men from our family.”
Then, “a clan agreement was reached to prevent the young man who got into the car from approaching our street, but he returned the next day, and a fistfight broke out between him and our youth, and members of his family came armed with M16 rifles.”
And she continues, "My husband came down, the dentist knew him, to clarify what was going on, and in less than a quarter of an hour, three people were killed in a heinous crime, including my husband, and one of his relatives who was also injured died two days later."
She points out that "the Israeli ambulance does not reach the area, while the Israeli police arrived a few days later to search for weapons."
The Israeli police rarely enter Kafr Aqab, and do not allow the Palestinian police to operate there except rarely, in coordination with them in major events, which creates a vacuum that allows the spread of crime and smuggling of weapons and drugs.
The Israeli police told AFP that it "arrested a number of suspects in the murder case in 2021 and indicted them were brought to court," noting that it "continually operates throughout Jerusalem, provides its services to the residents of Kafr Aqab, and acts firmly against the activities." criminality.”
The town of Kafr Aqab was considered one of the elite neighborhoods of Jerusalem before the construction of the “separation wall,” but after the construction of the wall, buildings rose like skyscrapers attached to one another, most of them without a permit.
Palestinian Jerusalemites live in it, and they cannot find homes to live inside the city, because of Israel's confiscation of all the spaces in which it can be built, the difficulty of obtaining building permits, and the exorbitant prices of housing.
Israeli Minister Ze'ev Elkin, who was in charge of Jerusalem affairs in 2017, acknowledged that the path of the "security fence" was a "mistake" and made Kafr Aqab an outlaw.
The teller, Ziad Shehadeh, whose shop is located on the main street in Kafr Aqab, describes the area as “floating, not affiliated with Israel and not affiliated with the authority, and there is no law or executive force in it.”
However, the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem confirmed that “Kafr Aqab is an integral part of the city of Jerusalem, and the municipality is doing everything in its power to provide its residents with the most services that they are entitled to and need, and allocated an additional budget of tens of millions of shekels to restore the sewage infrastructure in the neighborhood, build new roads and strengthen Cleaning and garbage removal.
The lands of Kafr Aqab extend from the "former Jerusalem airport" that Israel used after its occupation of East Jerusalem.
"After it stopped using it with the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada in 2001 and the construction of the wall, it was decided to get rid of Kafr Aqab," said Daniel Seidman, founder of the Israeli anti-settlement association, Ir Amim.
Israel separated part of the town of Kafr Aqab with a side street without defining borders, and considered this part to belong to the Palestinian Authority.
The deputy mayor of Kafr Aqab municipality, Ahmed Nimr Atta, said, “Israel deliberately neglects the area, as it has no infrastructure and is drowning in mud in the winter.
We are doing everything we can to solve the problems there.”
He describes Kafr Aqab as "marginalized and devastated."
He added, "Israel knows that there is a weapon and it knows with whom the weapon is, and 90% of it is suspicious and goes out to intimidate and intimidate people and stir up problems."
It is difficult to know how many people live in the area.
The Israeli municipality of Jerusalem estimated the population of Kafr Aqab at 24,000 in 2017. But Ahmed Nimer Atta says that their number is 120,000 Palestinians, "including those who hold the Israeli Jerusalem identity."
The Israeli authorities had previously considered separating Kafr Aqab from Jerusalem to solve the problem.
But any initiative of this kind may be seen as violating the borders of the Israeli municipality, and may open the way for the division of Jerusalem, which is a red line for Israeli governments.
The town of Kafr Aqab was considered one of the elite neighborhoods of Jerusalem before the construction of the “separation wall.” However, after the construction of the wall, buildings rose like skyscrapers attached to one another, most of them without a permit.
Israel separated part of the town of Kafr Aqab with a side street without setting boundaries, and considered this part to belong to the Palestinian Authority.
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