20th September 04
The refugee camp was nothing like I expected it to be. Maybe I’m the only one who thinks this way – but I hear “refugee camp” and I imagine stricken poverty, tents, food lines, etc. We went the largest camp (out of 10) in Jordan – which is only about 25mins outside of Amman. It was just a regular city – granted a bit less economically developed, but nonetheless, a city.
I dunno, I felt a little disappointed to be honest. I hadn’t really taken into consideration that the camp has been there since 1948 – so for many of the refugees this is the 3rd generation, and of course life just goes on and businesses/homes/streets are all built.
Hearing the history of the Palestinian refugees was really sad. The guy on our bus is himself a refugee and lives in the camp. Its essentially a very concentrated and fairly under-developed city within less than 2sq/km there are 110,000+ people living.. so its highly over-populated. There is one clinic that serves over 200,000+ people – with a staff of just 6 doctors and 18 nurses. But everything is free – education, all medical services/prescriptions, vocational training, etc. Its a really amazing service thats being performed there.
Brief history of the Palestinians:
Ok, so 15 May 1948 known as “al-Nakba” (catastrophe) to the Palestinians was when Israel became a nation again for the first time in roughly 2,000 years. The problem was that the region had been, and was still, populated with Arabs (known as Palestinians since they call the land from the Jordan to the Mediterranean: Palestine). They’d been living there since roughly 630AD and Jews were a small minority until a rapid relocation took place headed by Zionists that occured in the 1920’s-30’s.
Anyways after a few ugly/deadly battles and an embarrassing loss by the Arab nations that tried to fight Israel a mass exodus of Palestinians began -most moved to neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. Those who lost their homes and livilihoods were deemed “Palestine refugees” and Jordan ended up with over 1.8 million – the total still living here.
In 1967 the 6 day war took place, in which once again the Arabs were defeated by the Israelis – who continued to push their borders farther out into the West Bank and Gaza. The term ”West Bank” was coined as the area that Jordan owned at the time but that extended east to the Jordan river. After that another 1/2 million or so were forced to leave – however the 1967 group are called “displaced Palestinians”, not refugees. The reason for this is because the West Bank was apart of Jordan the Palestinians were Jordanian citizens – so it was seen as moving from one part of the country to another part.. even though Jordan ended up losing the West Bank as a territory.
That brings us to today where the conflict over the land continues. The Israelis have the military power and the U.S. backing, so the Palestinians realize that the chances aren’t very in favor of them getting all of their land back – but the resentment/bitterness towards Israel and the U.S. doesn’t waver. One thing for sure about Arabs is that they think much differently than Westerners. We are a show-me-now culture – whereas the Arabs are in it for the long haul. They believe their cause is just and right, and until the occupation of Palestine ends – they won’t be happy.
Its totally understandable though. Imagine if Native Americans had the power to kick us out of the states because hundreds of years ago it was their land. Granted – its far fetched and could never happen, thats essentially what did happen in Palestine/Israel 50yrs ago.
The situation is so complex and the longer a solution isn’t figured out, I believe, the worse the situation will get. With all the anger/frustration/loss the Palestinians have endured in the last 50+yrs its no wonder that it has become a breeding ground for fundamentalists – who then turn into terrorists and suicide bombers.
Today the young man on the bus told us “for every Palestinian who is killed (by the Israelis) there will be 1,000 more who rise up in his place”.
When I was in the states and I’d hear of the conflict here it was so abstract .. so illogical. Couldn’t they just get along? But being here puts things into a whole new perspective – especially living with a refugee family who was forced out in 1948. Palestinians are a huge percentage of the Jordanian population and everyone has a terribly sad story to tell as to how they ended up here. They’re an eternally optimistic group of people though – they see the future (if not for them, but for their kids or grandchildren) to be bright and to see a time when they’re allowed to return to where they’re from.
