Immersion Day 9: Refugees Since 1948

Our next day began with a meeting with the Y.W.C.A. in Palestine.  Their work is impressive.  They do much to empower young women in Palestine and work to create hope among Palestinian youth, who often feel like there is no future for them or their people.  After meeting with some of their leadership and learning about some of the work that they do, they took us to a preschool they operate in a refugee camp.

We next visted Jalazone, a Palestinian refugee camp.  The conditions there were terrible and they lacked basic infrastructure.  There was severe overcrowding and unemployment.  This, like many camps, has been here since 1948.  This community has been displaced for a very long time and has been living in poverty and under oppression the entirety of most of their lives.

In Jalazone, we visited a preschool started by the W.Y.C.A. in Palestine.

Above:  (at جلزون Jalazun)  Y.W.C.A. has created an oasis for children in the midst of the terrible realities of life for refugees. The bright paint against the backdrop of wires and dirty, falling-apart buildings illustrates how hope and determination are in and of themselves forms of resistance.

Above:  Hope inside the YWCA preschool (at جلزون Jalazun)

 Images from inside the camp:

One of the community leaders gave us a power point presentation on the experience of this community.  They offered us coffee and gave us a tour of the community, where we met many people and were followed by a group of children.  We were clearly the excitement for the day.  As you can see, the conditions here are terrible.  The air quality is noticeably different.  Homes are small and crowded and there is no community space.  Everything is taken up by buildings.  

Despite the oppressive conditions and political realities that face this group of people, they are trying their best to meet the community's needs while advocating for change.  The people are under constant threat of violence, lack basic necessities, and have few prospects for mobility or agency.

Much of Western news media paints communities like these as extremist and terrorist.  Nonviolent protests are often met with police violence.  People in these communities should have the right to resist this kind of oppression.  We encountered nothing but hospitality and kindness.

Above:  Clearly they are raising children to hate Americans, right? (At Jalazone Refugee Camp)

"Our religion teaches us not to kill. We don’t kill children,“ says the mother of a child who was shot in the head and killed by Israeli forces during a nonviolent protest (to be clear, Judaism also preaches the sanctity of life). All he had on him was bread and a bag of chips in a backpack. They say they "accidentally” shot him in the head when he bent down to pick up a rock– they were aiming for his leg. As if it somehow makes sense to shoot a child with a rock, even if it is true. Her son is lost. Her land is lost. Her everything is lost. They have no justice for any of it. 

Above:  (at Jalazone) This child was also shot, simply walking to his U.N. school for refugee children. His ear is also bandaged. He wants me to take a picture (though not of his face), to show people what it is like to be under Israeli occupation.

After our time in Jalazone and a lunch in Ramallah, we met with a Quaker leader in Palestine, Jean Zaru.

This was on the wall at their facility:

Above:   This imagery is so intense. Over the past couple of days, we have spoken with Jewish, Christian, and Muslim activists, all of whom are disappointed with leadership on both sides. What is clear, however, is that all of them believe, although they disagree on many things, that continuing expansion and human rights abuses must stop.