Mountains of Garbage are being Allowed to Pile Up in East Jerusalem Neighborhoods

Garbage in an East Jerusalem neighborhood beyond the separation barrier, February 2026

On November 13, 2025, ACRI contacted the Director General of the Jerusalem Municipality and the head of the Sanitation Department following numerous appeals from residents living in East Jerusalem neighborhoods beyond the separation barrier regarding mountains of garbage piling up in the streets. Tens of thousands of residents and Israeli citizens live in these neighborhoods: the Shuafat Refugee Camp, Ras Khamis, Ras Shahadeh, and Dahiyat al‑Salam. 

Although the municipality published a tender to hire a contractor for garbage collection in these neighborhoods, it did not find a suitable contractor in the first round and therefore extended the contract with the current contractor, who employs a subcontractor. Since the extension, there have been serious failures in garbage collection, and the result has been an accumulation of an enormous amount of waste. Trash bins are overflowing, piles of garbage are building up in the streets, stray dogs that come to rummage through the trash are attacking residents, rats are rampant, and residents are forced to burn garbage. 

In our appeal to the municipality, legal intern Yotam Rotfeld argued that the insufficient garbage collection services is a public health, environmental, safety, and aesthetic hazard that violates residents’ fundamental rights to health, dignity, and equality. The legal responsibility for garbage collection and for safeguarding public health rests with the municipality, and the disruptions in garbage collection in neighborhoods beyond the separation barrier are compounded by years of neglect and discrimination in the provision of municipal services. 

Our appeal went unanswered, and so we again contacted the municipality on January 6, 2026, we again contacted the municipality. After this appeal also went unanswered, we sent a final warning before taking legal action to the mayor, the legal advisor, and the head of the Sanitation Department. In the letter, Attorney Tal Hassin describes the situation in the neighborhoods after several days during which garbage collection services did not operate at all: major roads blocked due to mountains of garbage, students forced to make their way between piles of filth on their way to school, the inability to access the health maintenance organization clinic in Dahiyat al‑Salam because of the accumulation of trash, and more. As Hassin notes, “Garbage collection is not a favor granted by the municipality to residents. The municipality’s disregard for repeated appeals from residents on this issue, and for the photographs submitted to it, is astonishing. It is obvious that the accumulation of mountains of garbage in the city’s Jewish neighborhoods would have received urgent attention.” 

ACRI’s appeal, November 13, 2025 (Heb) 

ACRI’s appeal, January 6, 2026 (Heb) 

ACRI’s appeal, February 3, 2026 (Heb) 

The appeals were written with the assistance of field coordinator Muhannad Anati.