Revisiting the Idea of Refugees

The first time I walked into one of the three refugee camps in Bethlehem, I did not even realise it. The refugee camps are not what you expect. For starters there are no tents, secondly there was nothing separating the camp from the neighborhood next door. I was meeting Mohammed Al-Azzeh, a seventeen year old boy, who welcomed us into his family building.

 “I am born here in the Azza camp. My father is also born here, and so are his seven brothers. My mother comes from Aida camp, and it was my grandparents who fled from their land in 1967. We have never been able to go back, so I have never seen the land, but I am a refugee. I have the paper.”

Like Mohameed and his family, the refugees living here have lived here for their entire life, and many of them have never visited the land from which their parents or grandparents or great grandparents fled .According to UNOCHA and UNRWA the forced displacement of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs)  in Palestine, represent one of the largest and most prolonged case of refugees in the world. Most of them descend from groups of Palestinian refugees who were displaced or expelled from their places of origin as a result of the Nakba. Whether or not the people left by force or willingly, is not important for the case of argument, because UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees) define all of those who left their normal place of residency, and lost their homes and livelihoods as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict.

Palestinian refugees include those who became refugees following the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948 and the second Arab-Israeli war in 1967, as well as those who are neither 1948 nor 1967 refugees, but outside the area of former Palestine and unable or unwilling to return owing to a well-founded fear of persecution (see Badil for a more detailed discussion). Still Palestinians continue to be displaced, as houses are demolished, the wall is surrounding large areas of land, and the restriction of movement becomes more severe. Some refugees are even becoming IDPs, such as in the village of Al Walaja.

How can a young man who has never seen his land, who is born here in Bethlehem, and who’s mother and father was also born here,  be considered a refugee?

The rights of the Palestinian refugees have also been emphasized in UN resolutions the most renown being General Assembly Resolution 194. Article 11 stipulates that; " …the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property…"

Palestinian refugees are not necessarily poor people in need of cookies and school books. In Aida refugee camp Mustafa is a volunteer at Aida Youth Centre. He has a university degree, and is fluent in English. His main identification as a refugee is that their suffering has not been recognized. According to international law, you cease to be a refugee when you have been given the choice of recompensation or return, and it is widely accepted that it will not be plausible for all Palestinians to return to their villages. The villages have been destroyed, and replaced with Israeli communities. It is the idea of the right of return, rather than the real logistics that is of the essence.

Yet Mustafa would prefer to go back to the 25 acres of land lost by his grandfather. When I ask him how the family of 64 would sustain themselves on this plot of land, he is determined this would still be possible. As my colleagues and I remain doubtful, I ask him if the compensation for his grandfathers land would be sufficient for all of them. He answers that this is not an option, it would not be enough.

Others such as Mohammed’s uncle, Abdullah, are more open about the difficulties related to the idea of return.  He explains the reluctance to give up their land: “the land is our mother, would you abandon your mother? The land is our blood, it holds our ancestors, and it represent our future, where our children will one day roam free. Without our land, there would be no hope, would you willingly give up your future? Where would our children play?”