RAMALLAH, December 13 (JMCC) - Israel has begun naming some 1,000 streets in the eastern part of Jerusalem as a means of improving services in the part of the city that it occupied in 1967.
The
Jerusalem Post reports that one of the streets will be named after legendary Egyptian singer Um Kalthoum.
The new Umm Kulthum street will be among 86 new street names authorized for the east of the city: 26 in Tzur Bachar, 34 in Beit Hanina and Shuafat and 17 in Isawiya.
For years, streets in the east part of the city lacked official names, making access to basic services such as mail delivery difficult for residents.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barakat said of the decision, We are operating in every sector to narrow the gaps of the city's citizens: in education, culture, infrastructure, transportation, planning and construction. Completing the street naming for all the streets in the east of the city will improve the quality of life, and each resident will have his own address.
City Councilor Meir Margalit (Meretz) who holds the east Jerusalem portfolio, estimated that there are at least 1,000 unnamed roads in east Jerusalem and the process of assigning names will take at least a year. In the first round, the community council at Beit Hanina was given aerial photographs and asked to assign names to the highlighted roads.