Name of City: Al Ram
Population: 60,000 (2017)
Area: 5.76 Km2
Al Ram city considered as the northern gate of Jerusalem, and it is 8 km away from its center. The city is bordered to the north by the Qalandia refugee camp and Kufor Aqab town, to the south by Jerusalem, to the east by Hizma and Jaba and to the west by Qalandia al-Balad and Bir Nabala.
Name of Mayor: Mr. Mohammed Shrouf Taim
Contact: ram_municipality@hotmail.com
Website: N/A
Main features:
The city has an important geographical location because it constitutes a regional center for 44 cities linking the north and the center of the West Bank, towns and villages in the governorate of Jerusalem, and has a significant number of governmental and development institutions.
Main economic activities:
Before 2007 Al-Ram was considered an economically and commercially active city due to its geographical location on the Ramallah-Jerusalem road. However, after the construction of the wall and the status of the military barrier, there was a decline and economic stagnation, despite the existence of a large number of commercial, industrial and service establishments.
Also, the city of Al ram was old in agriculture and was famous for olive cultivation, nuts and others, but currently is considered a low value agricultural land after the wall was built.
Conditions and environmental challenges:
The separation barrier surround Al Ram from three sides and obstruct even more the access to schools, universities, teachers coming from East of Jerusalem that leaves a pending issue in the educational sector increasing the obstacles to a having a good economy, where the actual unemployment rate in the city has reached more than 15%. Moreover, the city is facing serious issues regarding the improvement of the inadequate sewage system and the rehabilitation of the poor road network.
In addition to that, Al Ram faces other environmental challenges, such as the gradual increase in temperature that resulted in excessive use of water in domestic use, irrigation that left the city suffers from droughts in summer time as well as water scarcity.