Nir Barkat, the mayor of Jerusalem, revealed his initiative to remove the UNRWA organization from Jerusalem and replace the services it provides with municipal services.
Since 1965, the organization has been responsible for about 30,000 residents in the Shuafat refugee camp and provides them with municipal services as well as education and welfare services.
According to the mayor, "UNRWA is a foreign and unnecessary factor that has failed miserably, and I intend to expel it from Jerusalem. Only one percent of parents choose to send their children to UNRWA schools and incitement there is rising, the cleanliness at these schools is deteriorating, their welfare services do not give hope to the residents, and the level of satisfaction with there services is very low. In every parameter, UNRWA fails. "
"I have instructed the municipality's professional staff to prepare a work plan that I will present to the prime minister for the evacuation of UNRWA from Jerusalem," Barkat said. "We will close their schools and allow students to find hope and grow up in the existing schools throughout the city. The time has come to stop treating these people as refugees and start treating them as residents. The removal of UNRWA from Jerusalem will lower incitement and terror, improve services to residents, increase the Israelization of the eastern part of the city, and contribute to unity between Jerusalems different communities."