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Port of Call |
LAST UPDATE July 18, 2008
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| June 8, 2008 |
Aqaba, Jordan – A glimpse of Palestine |
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| Jordan is popularly known for its majestic towering mountains, golden dessert and Lawrence of Arabia. |
“Every year, visitors come from all over the world to see how we live. They tell us they are sorry we have suffered so much. They tell us they want to help us. But what have they done about it since? Nothing.”
These were the words of a 19-year old Palestinian boy at the Baqa'a refugee camp. They were words of anger, frustration and sadness, a reflection of the reality for all Palestinians as the bloody struggle for their land continues.
The Baqa’a camp is home to over 140 000 refugees in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. It is one of ten official Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan. Jordan itself has over 320 000 Palestinians living as refugees, after fleeing the violence of the 1948 and 1967 Arab-Israeli wars. It is the only country that gives citizenship to Palestinians. |
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| Originally a sprawl of tents, Baqa'a camp has developed into a small city with trade, schools and services. |
The mammoth task of caring for the administrative and security matters of these refugees lies in the hands of the Department of Palestinian Affairs (DPA). However, despite partnerships with the UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) and the international community, funds are not sufficient to accommodate the needs of the thousands of refugees, adding to their frustration and anger. It was in the hope of learning about these refugees and such issues that Peace Boat participants visited the largest of the camps, Baqa’a. |
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| The boys said their families left their homes carrying nothing but the hope that they will return one day. |
At the camp, participants broke into five groups to take part in exchange activities which included a visit to a centre for visually and aurally impaired people, playing sports with children, painting a mural on the wall of a children’s home, visiting the women’s centre and a discussion forum with Palestinian youth. |
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| Peace Boat guest educator and artist Eiji Moribe painted a mural of leaves with the help of the locals |
The Palestinian youth in the discussion group were aged between 19 and 20 and were all university students. The group of 11 students spoke of their experiences and dreams with the Peace Boat participants, of their cramped living conditions, of their frustration towards the failed Israel-Palestine peace negotiations and of their struggle with the Jordanian government to improve the camp’s social services and infrastructure. The students expressed feelings of hopelessness in their everday lives, but pinned their hopes on a future in which Palestinians could return to the lands they had left. One of the youth, 19 year old Omar said “Of course we believe it. Everyone living here and every Arab and Muslim outside will believe that Palestine will be back someday. |
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| The Women’s Centre, run by the ‘United Nations Relief and Works Agency’ (UNRWA), teaches life skills such as sewing. |
In statements that revealed to the Peace Boat participants the seemingly intractable depths of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the students insisted that historic Palestine would one day be theirs to return to, and that they may support an armed struggle to achieve this. Omar said, “we are not terrorists, we don’t like war, but if war is necessary we will go to war. We have had peace negotiations for 60 years and nothing has happened”. Most surprising to many participants was the rooted hatred the youths expressed towards Israelis, although none of them had ever had a chance to meet with a person from Israel. |
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| Participants were able to visit homes in the Baqa’a camp and see firsthand the squalor of the refugee camp. |
Upon further discussion, Peace Boat participants learnt that these were viewpoints passed down through the generations from those who had suffered the loss of loved ones, or torture and eviction at the hands of the Israelis, and who had lost their dignity, and were angry and humiliated. For the Peace Boat participants, most of whom were Japanese, it was a sobering insight into how the crimes of the past resonate in the present and how the young people in countries such as Korea and China that had suffered past invasions by Japan might feel on hearing testimonies from their grandparents. |
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| Peace Boat's GET programme donated 100 children's books to a children's centre in the camp. |
The visit to Baqa’a offered only a brief glimpse into the struggle of the Palestinian people and the desperate complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, it was a profound experience for many of the participants, highlighting the reality of war and its effect on people and the damage that is passed on generation after generation. |
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| The day finished with a performance of Arabic dancing and a presentation by Peace Boat’s Article 9 dance team. |
Having lived in Japan, a country which has constitutionally renounced violence, meeting young men ready to bears arms was a shock for participants and a visceral reminder that, for many in the world, peace is unfortunately a far-off concept. As participants left the camp and caught a glimpse of the disputed land in the setting sun across the Dead Sea, their thoughts were immersed in the reality they had just witnessed and what small steps they could take to turn the hatred into compassion and turn the suffering into justice. |
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