I slept in a refugee camp, and other West Bank tales

I Slept in a Refugee Camp, and Other West Bank Tales
September 20, 2000

Well, if you saw an orange-shirted white girl on CNN over the weekend you know where I was. As you may know, a worldwide 'right to return' rally was held this last weekend. (The right to return is a UN mandate stating that it is a universal human right to return to one's native lands after a war or conflict. Palestinians who were forced into the refugee camps in 1948, for example, are still living there). And one of those rallies was held at the Dheisha refugee camp in Bethlehem, marching to a neighboring refugee camp in nearby Beit Jala.

I had started off Saturday expecting to go shopping in Jerusalem with my housemates, which I wasn't that excited about. (Mmmm...shopping...) So when three other friends unexpectedly jumped into our service (cheap shared taxi) and announced they were going to the protest, I changed my plans.

It turned out to be a most amazing weekend. We first went to a meeting of Palestinians from both sides of the Green line (West Bank versus Israel proper) discussing how to improve their solidarity with one another. Then we went to the camp. You simply cannot imagine the living conditions of what has become a permanent, confined ghetto of refugees. The tents of the original camp are gone, replaced by basic concrete structures. Even though the Israeli soldiers are gone, there is nowhere for these people to go. They aren't allowed to build new homes anywhere else.

We went to the children's center in the middle of the camp. Two weeks ago, it housed a computer lab, a children's library, a cultural exchange program, and places to teach dancing and other activities for the kids. Last week, arsonists came in from outside the camp, stole all the computers, poured kerosene over everything, and burned it all. They had just begun to clear out the debris. The structure is still standing, but of course none of the wiring is safe. I don't know what they are going to do. 400 children a day were using that center.

Even though the people in the camps haven't been able to leave, they have had more control over their camp since the Israelis left. So they have recently completed a youth hostel on the grounds of the camp, which will be staffed by the women who live in Dheisha. This serves the double purpose of bringing income and employment to some
of the Dheisha residents, and awareness about their conditions to the young people who will stay there.

The march, and the rally afterwards, were fantastic. We must have blocked traffic for maybe three miles, cautiously avoiding a clash with the Israeli border police (made a detour) There were hundreds of Palestinians, and many of the human rights workers from around the country. The children took the greatest part in the event, carrying the banners and singing solidarity and peace songs on a megaphone, and most impressively, speaking at the rally. I have heard impassioned political speeches before, but never by twelve year olds. The rally ended across from a cemetery and a memorial for some twenty refugee children who had been killed by soldiers.

We did a lot of walking that day, also because the service driver was Israeli and heard us talking about the rally. So he dropped us off in the middle of a Hasidic neighborhood (read: closed on Shabbat) and we walked two miles to the real service stop in Jerusalem.

That night we also went to this fantastic Bedouin style nightclub called 'Memories'. Strangely there were several Elvis photos on the wall. But I loved the couches and low tables and antique instruments hanging on the walls. My friends kept trying to get me to dance, but unfortunately my feet were on the verge of bleeding from the walking. So I made good use of that couch and nursed my one Danish beer.

Tell you what--this has been too long, and I promise to catch you up to date later. I should write shorter and more often instead. Hope all is going well in the States, and I appreciate all the notes I am getting.

Peace,
Le Anne