Far from home

“I’m not proud to be a refugee, but I insist on it,” Nadal said, over a lunch of turkey shawarma, bread, humus, and bright pink turnip-like vegetables. Nadal was our guide for the first three days, and lives in the Far’a Refugee Camp, where we stayed one night.

When you think of a refugee camp, you probably think of some squalid place with people living in tents, something temporary, to be sure. In Palestine, this may have been the reality 60 years ago, but six decades on today’s Palestinian refugee camp looks much like any other village, at least to an outsider like me. While the Camps house small shops, schools, libraries, and community centres, overcrowding is a big issue, as is unemployment, and discrimination. And for those living in the camps, home is some place else.

So, why is it that millions of Palestinians are still living in these semi-permanent Camps, with the most basic of infrastructure? It’s shameful, really, but the answer is as complex as the forces that led to this situation.

The creation of Israel in 1948 has a complicated history, but essentially the United Nations agreed to partition Palestine, giving more than half of the territory to the creation of a Jewish State, and the rest would remain under Arab control. The Jews didn’t have a problem with this plan. Of course, they didn’t. The Arabs, on the other hand opposed partition, which led five Arab nations to attack Israel. Arab bravado quickly turned to ineptness, as the plucky Israelis defeated the Arab armies.

While Israel calls this the War of Independence (a bit of a misnomer considering they weren’t gaining independence from anyone, theirs is the only state that was created by the United Nations), Palestinians refer to this time as the Nakba, the Catastrophe, in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced from their land, or fled in fear. In an instant they became refugees. Some Jewish apologists will tell you that if the Arabs had just accepted the partition of their land, and integrated themselves into the newly created State of Israel, then there would have been no refugee issue. Of course they will. Would you mind if your Uncle lorded over your house, and then decided to allow some strangers to take up residence in more than half of the house?

In 1948, Nadal’s family lived in a small village near Jaffa, part of present day Tel Aviv. On the advice of a Jewish friend, his parents were encouraged to flee the area, when the conflict began. Others in the village that chose to stay were killed. When they left their village, for what they thought would be temporary, Nadal’s parents unknowingly became part of the 900,000 Palestinian refugees that resulted from the 1948 War. Today, the number of refugees in Palestine has swollen to more than four million, with more than a quarter living in Camps spread across the West Bank, Gaza, and in neighbouring countries of Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.

Nadal’s parents settled in the Far’a Camp, which was created in 1949. Sixty years later, the Camp is home to 7,600 people, with close to 45% of the population under the age of 14. In fact, only 5% of the population is over the age of 60; meaning most, like Nadal, were born in the Camp. Overcrowding, high unemployment and water shortages are the Camp’s main challenges.

What I found remarkable was that despite living his entire life in the Camp, Nadal talked as if his home was the village that his parents left more than 60 years ago. In fact, I heard this same strong and pervasive sentiment, from young and old, during my travels throughout Palestine.

Palestinian refugees want dignity, respect, but most of all they want the right of return. After six decades, most are under no illusions that they will ever return to their homes or villages, but at the very least, they want that right to return. Israel on the other hand is fearful of this given that if refugee status is hereditary, then potentially four million Palestinians would be able to settle in Israel, tipping the country from a Jewish majority, as it currently is, to one where Jews would be in the minority, and potentially erasing the entire raison d’etre for Israel’s creation.

With poor and crowded living conditions, staggering rates of unemployment, and a sense of despair, the future looks bleak as more and more young people are born into and grow up in these Camps. While I wouldn’t want to conclude that one person can speak for an entire population, one young guy put it this way, “all there is to do here [in the Camp] is smoke, have sex, and play video games.” Not the most optimistic future.

A good site to learn more about Palestinian refugees can be found at: www.unrwa.org