Around 90,000 East Jerusalem residents live on the other side of the separation fence. After the fence started going up over a decade ago, a number of neighborhoods, including the Shoafat refugee camp and Kafr Aqab, morphed from Jerusalem neighborhoods into regions of anarchy lacking regular municipal services.Under agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian side, including its security services, is not allowed to operate in these areas, but the Israeli authorities also stay away due to security fears. Thus residents are ignored by Israel and the PA, and succumb to the whims and intimidation of local crime gangs.
No police force operates in these areas, nor is there any monitoring of construction. As a result, in recent years, a number of large, half-built structures have sprung up in these areas. Garbage is not collected and roads are not repaired.
For many weeks, a maternity hospital in Kafr Aqab has operated without telephone service, and these neighborhoods suffer dangerously from uncertain water supplies.