[news] The Geneva Accord and the Right of Return: Reported from Al-Baqa'a Palestinian Refugee Camp in Jordan

[Stefan Christoff]

The Geneva Accord and the Right of Return:
Reported from Al-Baqa'a Palestinian Refugee Camp in Jordan

Al-Baqa'a is Jordan's largest Palestinian refugee camp, located on the
outskirts of Amman and home to more than 100,000 refugees. In the heart of
one of Jordan's many desert valleys, at night, Al-Baqa'a is a beautiful
array of lights sparkling below the wealthy hilltops of Amman. But, when
visiting Al-Baqa'a during the day, it emerges as an impoverished
Palestinian community of countless markets and shops lining small crowded
streets of makeshift homes.

The Palestinian refugees who make up Al-Baqa'a are from throughout the
1948 lands of Palestine, displaced by force from their homes during both
the 1948 and 1967 Arab-Israeli wars. The residents of Al-Baqa's are just
one manifestation of the millions of Palestinian refugees scattered
throughout the world.

Al-Baqa'a was established during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war that saw
hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees fleeing deeper into Jordan.
Many of the refugees at Al-Baqa'a fled from the town of Karameh in the
Jordan Valley, just a one-hour walk from the Israeli border.

Karameh is famous for a 1968 battle when over 15 000 Israeli infantry,
supported by tank units and helicopters, marched over the Allenby Bridge.
At the time, Karameh was the political and military headquarters of the
Palestinian al-Fatah movement. At the Battle of Karameh, the
technologically-advanced, better-equipped and larger Israeli army was
forced to retreat, leaving Karameh to the Palestinians. The Battle of
Karameh represented the Palestinians greatest military victory up to that
time, and sent a surge of optimism through the Palestinian community, as
well as helping establish the Palestinian claim to being a genuine
national liberation movement.

However, the Israeli incursion left behind a destroyed village, forcing
many Palestinian refugees to leave Karameh and re-settle deeper into
Jordan, many at Al-Baqa'a.

The history of Palestinian resistance -- as well as the struggle to keep
alive the right of return -- is apparent in any conversation with the
residents of Al-Baqa'a. If you walk through Al-Baqa'a camp today and ask
people on the street about the right of return, you will find a similar
response:  that like most other Palestinian refugees around the world,
they are waiting, struggling and fighting to return to Palestine.

Most residents of Al-Baqa'a view their community as temporary. When you
stop to ask a child born in Al-Baqa'a where they are from, they will say
Haifa or Jerusalem, naming the cities and towns from which their
grandparents or parents were displaced.

As Abu Nayef, the camp's representative to the Palestinian Liberation
Organization (PLO) explained to me:  "Palestinian refugees throughout the
world have lost the three elements of life at the hands of Israel: their
land, their blood and their dignity".

For Abu Nayef a highly respected community leader displaced from his home
in 1948, life in Al-Baqa'a is defined through the struggle to return to
Palestine.

The daily conditions in Al-Baqa'a are a dramatic contrast to the modern,
urban environment of Amman, just a 20 minute drive away. Al-Baqa'a
originated in 1967 with tents and makeshift shacks, but now constitutes a
community of small crowded homes, businesses, mosques and schools, all
hastily constructed.

The Palestinians of Al-Baqa'a are historically self-reliant, having
received minimal assistance from UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and
Works Agency) or the Jordanian government. Like most Palestinian refugee
camps throughout Jordan, the residents of Al-Baqa'a have been left to
build their community independently, with little external economic
support.

The small crowded streets of Al-Baqa'a make it impossible to for two cars
to pass each other. The small markets and stores facilitate the little
internal economy within the camp. The bulk of the camp's economy is based
on providing cheap labor to the more privileged areas of Amman. Dozens of
buses leave Al-Baqa'a in the early hours of the morning, where thousands
of Palestinian refugees clean the toilets and cook the food of Amman's
economic and political elite.

As Dr. Nabil Hirsh, a Palestinian refugee from Al-Baqa'a who founded a 24
hour health clinic more than 30 years ago, explains, "Many older women
from the camp go to work in Amman as cleaners and maids for families and
companies. Many men from the camp go to Amman to work in construction.
This camp is Amman's greatest supplier of workers".

Given the poor living and working conditions, many of Al-Baqa'a's youth
are becoming increasingly disenchanted with life at the camp. As the
manager of the Al-Baqa'a youth club, who asked not be named, explained,
"Life is not good, our biggest problem is poverty. At this club we take
care of over 120 children whose families can't provide for them. The
poverty here is so bad, there are no jobs, no employment. When visiting
some families in the camp you will find that they have no food and clothes
for their children".

The millions of Palestinian refugees who are living in Jordan do not have
the same economic and social opportunities as Jordan's political and
economic elites. Very few Palestinians hold positions in Jordan's
Parliament, where political decisions are made for a country whose
Palestinian population is estimated at more than 60%. Jordan's political
and economic future, as well as its political stances towards Israel, are
not determined by the majority of Jordanian residents who are displaced
Palestinians.

Jordan's ruling monarch, King Abdullah, recently launched a national
campaign named "Jordan First" which has been presented publicly as a plan
to end Palestinian-Jordanian tensions. However, making efforts to improve
the conditions of refugees, and attacking the origins of the refugee
problem, seems last on King Abdullah's list of priorities.

In light of the structural political and economic disadvantages defining
life for Jordan's Palestinians, especially those living in refugee camps,
it is the claim of "right of return" to Palestine that keeps people's hope
for a life of dignity alive.

The manager of the Al-Baqa'a youth club explained the right of return from
the perspective of Palestinians living in the camps as follows: "Being a
Palestinian refugee in Al-Baqa'a means that you are looking for Jerusalem
daily; if you can't see Jerusalem when waking in the morning, you see it
in your dreams. We always look to Palestine our homeland."

Al-Baqa'a is a living reminder of the tragedy of the world's millions of
Palestinian refugees. The right of return has been the central issue of
the Palestinian struggle for liberation throughout the world, and it is
likewise the central issue in the lives of the residents of Al-Baqa'a.

When you ask about the Geneva Accord on the streets of Al-Baqa'a, people
answer with disgusted looks as they see it as nothing but the further
dismissal of the history of the Palestinian struggle in its failure to
recognize that the right of return for Palestinian refugees. For the
residents of Al-Baqa'a, the right of return is not something that can be
negotiated away by corrupt politicians of the Palestinian Authority, or by
any government or nation-state.

The stark contrast between the pronouncements of Israeli and Palestinian
politicians in Geneva, and the words spoken by the people on the streets
of Al-Baqa'a, are a reminder that liberation struggles cannot be defined
by politicians, and that the principles of the Palestinian struggle are
kept alive by those living on-the-ground in Palestine and in the refugee
camps throughout the world.

As Khaled Ramadan a political activist with the Amman based group the
Popular Committee in Support of Iraq and the Intifada explained,
"Political agreements such as the Geneva Accord are an attempt to jump on
the right of all Palestinians to return to all of Palestine. The Geneva
initiative will meet many obstacles because the Palestinian people will
struggle to return not only to 1967 territories but will struggle and
fight to return to all of Palestine, this is our right."

The terms by which the world views and supports liberation struggles must
be set by those directly effected; in the case of the Palestinians, the
majority of those directly effected are the refugees who make up 2/3 of
the population. Palestinian refugees -- the majority of which are
scattered throughout the Arab world -- continue to live as second class
citizens in countries such as Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, where they endure
impoverished living conditions in camps such as Al-Baqa'a waiting to
return to Palestine. In the face of this fact the Geneva Accord is
bankrupt, as it fails to recognize the loss of dignity, land and blood,
which defines the history of Palestinians and their struggle for freedom.

Written by Stefan Christoff in Amman, Jordan December, 2003.

{Stefan is a member of the International Solidarity Movement. The
International Solidarity Movement is a Palestinian-led movement of
Palestinian and International activists working to raise awareness of the
struggle for Palestinian freedom and an end to Israeli occupation. Stefan
also works with the No One is Illegal Campaign and is an independent
journalist working with CKUT Radio Montreal & Free Speech Radio News.
You can reach Stefan at christoff at tao.ca}

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