Strategies Of the Qalqiliya Municipality to Address Consequences of The Aggression

Prepared by: Qalqilia Municipality

Israel’s war of genocide against Palestine has cast a deep shadow over the entire Palestinian people. Since 7 October 2023, Gaza has experienced destruction and manslaughter, which a historian cannot overlook. Implications have extended well beyond the geographical boundaries of Gaza to the cities, villages, towns, and refugee camps of the West Bank. Sparing nothing, the aggression has targeted citizens, infrastructure, service providers, commercial premises, and all vital sectors. Owing to the intransigent position of Israel, clearance revenues have not been transferred to the Palestinian Authority. As a result, citizens have been unable to fulfil their financial obligations to service providers, mainly municipalities. 

Contrary to other West Bank cities, Qalqiliya has not seen large-scale infrastructure devastation. However, the city has been impacted by home demolitions and partial damage caused to some houses. Still, the major impact of the war has been in the realm of economy. Economic deterioration has resulted in a marked decline in citizens’ capacity to pay municipal service fees, including waste collection, wastewater treatment, and water supplies. Meantime, the National Zoo, a key income source of the municipality, registered a sharp drop in the number of visitors due to the unstable security situation, decreasing revenues by over two thirds. The municipality has also completely lost revenues generated from the northern Al-Awda Crossing, a lifeline of local economy. Thousands of workers used to pass through the crossing every day. Fees paid on the crossing provided a main source of income.  

Formation of the Emergency Council

In an urgent step, the Qalqiliya Municipality has applied a set of austerity measures in services and expenditures. Including managers of main departments, a standing emergency council was established and mandated to review purchase orders, monitor the overall situation, and submit recommendations that would lessen the burden on citizens and ensure response preparedness to possible challenges in the future. 

By creating the emergency council, the municipality sought to examine potential worst-case scenarios and impact on the city and its capacity to provide basic services, particularly in increasingly complex circumstances. The municipality paid particular attention to ensuring the continuity of water services, even in cases of abrupt or deliberate power outage. As water wells are operated by electric power, the municipality developed an emergency plan to run wells and pumping stations by fuel-fed generators to ensure uninterrupted water supply. This plan requires an adequate quantity of fuel to meet the city needs for a long time. 

الدعم والتضامن مع غزة

After the war erupted, since mid-October 2023, the municipality has faced a new challenge. Having been prevented from working inside the Green Line, Gaza workers were expelled and transferred to West Bank cities and villages near to their workplaces. At the same time, they were banned from returning to Gaza. Of these, some 1,600 workers arrived at Qalqiliya. Increased effort was needed to provide basic needs for workers, including food, water, shelter, and healthcare. In this context, the municipality established specialized committees to follow up on the conditions of and provide needed support to Gaza workers. 

The municipality demonstrated a considerable commitment to manage and host stranded Gaza workers by providing all possible support. It made a direct monthly contribution of NIS 30,000 to the Ministerial Committee for Management of Gaza Worker Affairs. The municipality also charged a monthly NIS 1 fee on electricity bills to finance a special fund in support of crisis management efforts. The municipality also monitored the conditions of, and provided all needed services to, workers at shelters, while ensuring accommodation and movement. 

Increasing economic challenges manifested themselves clearly in high unemployment rates, delayed salary payments, and high commodity prices. To this avail, the Qalqiliya Municipality strengthened the Social Assistance Fund to support humanitarian cases. Using their discretionary power in each individual case, municipal staff were instructed to operationalize and use the fund when delivering services to citizens. 

The municipality put in place facilitation procedures for citizens. To receive a clearance certificate, citizens were allowed to pay due fees in instalments. Meanwhile, it was stressed that services should continue to be provided to citizens even if they were incapable of immediate payment. 

In the context of efforts to reduce the financial burden and in view of the harsh economic conditions experienced by the local community, the municipality decided to suspend legal proceedings in cases involving due claims. The decision does not invalidate the municipality’s right to restore due fees in the future, however. These will only be put off until the economic situation improves.