The Separation Barrier and Neighborhoods Beyond

In 2002, during the wave of violence that marked the Second Intifada, Israel began building a separation barrier between its territory and the West Bank. The barrier, however, does not follow the 1949 Armistice Line (the “Green Line”), as international law requires. Instead, it cuts deep into East Jerusalem and the West Bank, carving up Palestinian territory and creating isolated enclaves of land and communities. In 2004, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that the barrier’s construction violates international law, citing its severe and harmful disruption of Palestinian space and daily life. Around Jerusalem, the separation barrier acts as both a physical and psychological barrier between the city and the West Bank. It also isolates and physically detaches several East Jerusalem neighborhoods—whose residents hold permanent residency status—from the rest of the city. Accessing essential services such as healthcare, education, and government offices requires passing through military checkpoints, often entailing long waits during rush hours, repeated inspections, arbitrary delays, and frequent infringements on residents’ dignity. Two of the areas most affected by this situation are Kufr Aqab–Semiramis and the Shuafat Refugee Camp and surrounding neighborhoods. Together, these neighborhoods are home to an estimated 150,000 people. Residents of these neighborhoods petitioned the courts to change the barrier’s route, but their appeals were rejected. In two key rulings, the Israeli Supreme Court acknowledged that the barrier infringes on residents’ rights, yet still upheld its route, accepting the government’s assurances that residents’ quality of life would be maintained. The government pledged to guarantee reasonable access to Jerusalem and to provide municipal and state services within the neighborhoods—but those commitments were never fulfilled. 

 One of the most striking developments in the neighborhoods beyond the barrier is the rapid surge in unregulated construction, particularly high-rise residential buildings of ten stories or more. This building boom has emerged largely because construction laws are not enforced in these areas—unlike in the rest of East Jerusalem (see Home Demolitions). As a result, many East Jerusalem residents, who face nearly insurmountable restrictions on legal building elsewhere in the city, have been effectively pushed into these neighborhoods, where infrastructure is poor, essential services are lacking, and legal housing options do not exist. 

Shuafat Refugee Camp 

The Shuafat Refugee Camp was established in 1965–1966 by the Jordanian government together with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to house Palestinian refugees who had been living in Jerusalem’s Old City since 1948. The camp was built in northeast Jerusalem, next to the neighborhood of Shuafat. After Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, the camp was incorporated into Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries, making it the only refugee camp under the jurisdiction of an Israeli local authority. Despite this, it has been administered by UNRWA and has more than doubled in size since 1967. However, following new legislation passed in 2025 that bans UNRWA’s operations in Israel and in areas annexed by Israel, the future of the essential services the agency provides—such as education, health care, and sanitation—has become uncertain. 

Next to the Shuafat Refugee Camp, three neighborhoods—Ras Khamees, Ras Shehadeh, and Dahiat a-Salam—were established. When the Separation Barrier was built, about 20,000 people lived in these neighborhoods. Like Kufr Aqab, these areas, which were left beyond the Separation Barrier, have seen a construction boom since the Barrier’s completion, with their population growing by more than 400%. Yet municipal and government infrastructure has not kept pace. Residents face chronic shortages of basic services such as water, sewage systems, internet access, electricity, roads, public transportation, and essential institutions for health, welfare, and education.