Your nose tells you that you are entering a refugee camp. The stench hits you almost immediately, Kids run around the streets playing with old bicycle wheels and toy guns whilst men sit around watching on or chatting on the sidewalks.
playing with street kids in Brit Jibrin
it's all a bit smelly in AidaMy last day in Bethlehem is a visit to its two refugee camps – Aida and Brit Jibrin (Al-Azza). Both these camps have their origins on the inception of the Israeli state in 1948. It seems somewhat perverse that more than fifty years on why are there Palestinian refugee camps in Palestine? One has to wonder if this is just one big propaganda exercise. Money is clearly pouring in to the community through NGOs and at least Aida has had high profile visits most recently from Pope Benedict XVI in May 2009. Schools have been built, art projects sponsored and local initiatives paid for yet both these areas remain shoddy. Does the locally run Palestinian council want to touch these areas? Did Arafat cypher the money for his burgeoning Swiss bank accounts?
take the escalator up - Aida
local graffiti in Brit Jibrin
a school in Brit Jibrin sits emptyThere is some local resentment to both the area and its inhabitants. One taxi driver tells Elizabeth that most crimes in the area, including the 2002 hostage siege at the Church of the Nativity. They also are exempt from taxes despite given basic accommodation and amenities.
wall propaganda? - Aida
As of 2006 there were some 3260 refugees in Aida, and although i can’t find any statistics on Brit Jibrin, the site is much smaller in area.
Hardly what you would expect from a civilized country? Everyone knows Arafat was corrupt-- thats the hardly the problem. Fatah sold out which is why the Gazans elected Hamas.
ReplyDeletetrue story. But these camps are simply a joke - the ultimate propaganda tool
ReplyDeleteThey are truly living like dogs. Who was it who said that? It sounds too mild for Lieberman!
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't defend Arafat (nor Abbas for that matter). Can you expand on what you mean about the camps being a propaganda tool? Do you mean that they fulfill Israelis' low expectations of the Palestinians or....?
Not sure who said it but it is fairly accurate.
ReplyDeleteThis is a "preserved" refugee camp. Money has flooded in from NGOs as well as the potential funding from the Palestinian-run local county council and "Friends of Palestine" (Saudi Arabia immediately springs to mind). However it serves as a pawn to the Palestinian cause - look how Israel forces us to live!
Assuming that was true, where else could these people go?
ReplyDeletelike every neighborhood, city, town, whatever, the refugee camp is first of all a place were people live. these people have very little prospects, and the things they identify themselves with most of all as refugees (their lost homes) are unattainable. things like the graffiti and the old keys they have of the old houses back in the days are means to strengthen hope. These people can not simply quit being refugee, even though most have never seen their home town in their lives, because it is fully who they are.
ReplyDeleteBethlehem and the camps are completely closed in by checkpoints and a multitude of borders, which are not very good for the economy. Bethlehem has the highest unemployment rate of the West Bank. Funds coming in through the NGOs are indeed an important income for the camps and perhaps even the municipality; it is largely used for basic necessities.
But sure you could say that the images on the walls are propaganda, creating a money flow into a Swiss bank account if you wish.
For sure
ReplyDelete