Discrimination in services and infrastructure

Although residents of East Jerusalem make up 40% of the city’s population and are charged municipal taxes like any other resident, they suffer from systemic discrimination in the provision of municipal services and in the quality of municipal infrastructure in their neighborhoods. Deficiencies covered in the previous State of the Occupation Report marking 58 years of occupation, continue to undermine quality of life for Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents, and in some cases, they have worsened. For example, a petition filed in August 2024 demanding that State authorities meet their legal obligation to ensure a regular, adequate water supply for residents of the Kafr Aqab neighborhood is still pending. The water supply has not yet been fixed, and the authorities continue to drag their feet and evade responsibility.

Meanwhile, in accordance with Knesset legislation, UNRWA operations in East Jerusalem were shut down, and its headquarters, located in the city, was demolished in January 2026 by the Israel Land Authority. UNRWA was targeted in response to allegations that employees in Gaza took part in the October 7 massacre. UNRWA schools were shut down in 2025, and in early 2026 a medical clinic the organization had operated in the Old City since the 1950s was also closed and barred from reopening. The Jerusalem Municipality is obligated to provide the education, health, welfare, and sanitation services previously provided by UNRWA.

Further reading:

Association for Civil Rights in Israel, East Jerusalem

Education

A total of 107,290 students attend Arab schools. According to an Ir Amim report, based on an analysis of Jerusalem Municipality data, East Jerusalem’s education system suffers from a massive shortage of about 1,461 classrooms needed to accommodate tens of thousands of students. Only 20 new classrooms were built ahead of the 2005-2026 school year, despite a municipality projection of about 1,200 additional classrooms in the coming years.

Opening new classrooms will require hiring hundreds of additional teachers, even as East Jerusalem already faces a shortage of teaching staff. Given that roughly 60% of teachers in East Jerusalem hold academic degrees from universities in the West Bank, the Law Preventing the Employment of an Educator Holding an Academic Degree from an Institution in the Palestinian Authority (Hebrew) passed by the Knesset in January 2026 will likely undermine the Arab education system and exacerbate staffing shortages in East Jerusalem.

The law, which stipulates that graduates of Palestinian academic institutions cannot work as educators in Israel, harms the entire Arab community. In East Jerusalem specifically, in addition to contributing to the teaching crisis, the law presents another hurdle, as many residents of East Jerusalem enroll in Palestinian academic institutions due to structural and economic barriers to access to post-secondary education in Israel. In addition to infringing on the right to education, including access to higher education, the law violates equality, freedom of occupation, and human dignity. The bill’s sponsors claimed, without offering factual support, that individuals who earn degrees in West Bank institutions are steeped in “neo-Nazi ideology,” “jihadist thinking,” and harbor “intentions to destroy Israel.” In February 2026, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), Ir Amim, and other organizations petitioned the High Court of Justice to repeal the law and issue an injunction forestalling its implementation until a ruling is handed down.

Further reading:

Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Repeal the Law Disqualifying Teachers with Degrees from the Palestinian Authority, February 2026

Waste collection

Tens of thousands of East Jerusalem residents, particularly in neighborhoods beyond the Separation Barrier, are still denied many public services, contend with poor infrastructure, and receive lower-quality, less accessible municipal services compared to the western part of the city. In the final quarter of 2025, waste collection in Jerusalem neighborhoods beyond the Separation Barrier was plagued by failures. The affected neighborhoods, Shu’fat Refugee Camp, Ras Khamis, Ras Shahadeh and Dahiyat al-Salam, are home to tens of thousands of Israeli residents and citizens. Mounds of garbage were left to collect on the streets, and public bins overflowed. Stray dogs attracted to the waste attacked residents, and rats proliferated. Mounds of garbage also blocked major traffic routes. This serious sanitary, environmental, safety, and aesthetic hazard violates residents’ fundamental rights to health, dignity, and equality.

The legal responsibility for garbage collection and for safeguarding public health lies with the municipality, which struggled to find a reliable waste removal contractor and failed to respond to repeated requests from ACRI on behalf of neighborhood residents. In February 2026, a final notice before legal action was sent, and since then, after months of suffering, the situation has improved somewhat following the implementation of a new contract.

Further reading:

Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Mountains of Garbage are being Allowed to Pile Up in East Jerusalem Neighborhoods, February 2026