Photos & text: Yotam Ronen, Oren Ziv, Shiraz Grinbaum /Activestills.org
A view of the Shuafat refugee camp covered with snow following a three-day storm, December 15, 2013. (Activestills.org)
Although it is hidden away from the view of most the city’s residents by a separation barrier, the Shuafat refugee camp is officially part of Jerusalem. Therefore, like every other neighborhood in Jerusalem, Shuafat’s residents (who pay municipal taxes) depend on the city for their infrastructure and sanitation services.
So what happens when the municipality simply ignores its own residents? They take matters into their own hands.
Three months ago, several young residents of Shuafat decided to take initiative and start an emergency response team (which they named “Taqam Taware’ Assalam,” or Emergency Peace Team) in order to fill in for the lacking infrastructural services. They began training in first aid and rescue skills and started to work together as a group.
Thus, when the biggest storm in years hit the region last weekend, the team quickly understood that they would be the ones to clear Shuafat’s roads of snow, as well as provide needy families with food and clean water.
Garbage piles up near the separation wall in the snow-covered Shuafat refugee camp, East Jerusalem. (Activestills.org)
A Palestinian youth walks past piles of garbage in Shuafat refugee camp, East Jerusalem, following an unprecedented three-days snow storm, December 15, 2013. (Activestills.org)
Members of the Shuafat emergency response team, Baha Nababta and Ismail Khatib, December 15, 2013. (Activestills.org)
Palestinians cross a checkpoint out of the Shuafat refugee camp, East Jerusalem. The area is covered by snow following a three-day storm December 15, 2013. (Activestills.org)
The emergency response team in class, Shuafat refugee camp, December 10, 2013. (from the group’s Facebook page)
The team uses a tractor from the camp to clear the roads from the snow, Shuafat refugee camp, December 16, 2013. (from the group’s Facebook page)
Palestinians cross a checkpoint into the Shuafat refugee camp, East Jerusalem. The area is covered with snow following a three-day snow storm December 15, 2013. (Activestills.org)
A bulldozer clears snow from the road near the separation wall outside the Shuafat refugee camp, East Jerusalem, December 15, 2013. (Activestills.org)
For more on Shuafat:
Jerusalem’s refugee camp: Abandoned by the state
Shuafat refugee camp: Walled Jerusalem ghetto gets more walls
Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war – the atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel and the massive retaliatory Israeli attacks on Gaza. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing violence.
We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed unleashed by these events has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Hamas’ murderous assault in southern Israel has devastated and shocked the country to its core. Israel’s retaliatory bombing of Gaza is wreaking destruction on the already besieged strip and killing a ballooning number of civilians. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to escalate their attacks on Palestinians.
This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 13 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, the entrenched occupation, and an increasingly normalized siege on Gaza.
We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives.
Can we count on your support? +972 Magazine is the leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists and activists can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.