Port of Call LAST UPDATE June 18, 2009
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May 18, 2009 Aqaba, Jordan – Visiting a Palestinian Refugee Camp
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Children from the Palestinian refugee camp were extremely excited to meet Peace Boat participants and have their photos taken. Peace Boat was the first group to ever visit the camp in its 61-year history.
For the two weeks that Peace Boat travelled west across the Indian Ocean, participants learnt from guest educators’ lectures and interactive workshops about conflicts in the Middle East, particularly that of Israel and Palestine. As a mark of international solidarity and in conjunction with Peace Boat’s philosophy of learning through direct experience, upon arriving in Aqaba a group of participants visited a Palestinian refugee camp to learn directly about the way of life and the Palestinians' opinions and feelings surrounding their present situation.

Established on the outskirts of the central Jordanian town of Madaba, the Palestinian refugee camp visited by Peace Boat's 66th Voyage was established in 1948 after the United Nations mandated the creation of the Israeli state that in turn led to the expulsion of millions of Palestinians from the country then called Palestine to their bordering neighbours. In its entire 61-year history, this was the first time the Madaba Palestinian Camp had ever received a group of visitors, quite apparent from the reactions that greeted participants as hordes of children lined the streets eager to meet them and have their pictures taken.
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Peace Boat Projects Coordinator Goda Shigehiro presents the Madaba Palestinian Camp President Dr Hassan Hasanain with a memorial photo of Peace Boat during the welcoming ceremony to honour the occasion.
Peace Boat staff and participants were received by the local leaders of the refugee camp at a welcoming ceremony held at the camp’s community centre. Community leader Dr Hassan Hasanain, president of the Madaba Camp Committee, told his audience of the importance the visit to the camp held for him and his community. ‘We meet today to break the barriers between all sects, creeds, races and nations…and indulge our minds in dialogue that goes beyond differences to think rationally for the future of mankind and for the rights for a better life.’

Leading up to and during the 66th Global Voyage, Peace Boat and the Global English / Español Training (GET) program conducted a variety of events in order to raise awareness of the Palestinians' cause and to raise funds and collect goods to donate to the camp. Through Peace Boat’s Sanaa project and various fundraisers to sell home made Palestinian goods at fair trade prices throughout Peace Boat centres in Japan and onboard the ship, participants and volunteers were able to raise more than $3,000 USD, whilst the GET book project also succeeded in donating 150 English books and raising USD$185. The onboard Peace Ball project not only fielded its very own soccer team to play against the local team in an act of solidarity, it also collected soccer balls to be donated to the local community.
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Participants stayed in the camp overnight at local homes and received a taste of Palestinian hospitality. Traditionally, meals are eaten on the floor and the men and women eat separately.
Participants stayed overnight in the refugee camp at local Palestinian’s homes and, as according to Arabic custom, were treated like members of the family by their hosts. Many participants stayed up until the early hours of the morning drinking mint tea and Arabic coffee whilst sharing stories about themselves and discussing Palestinian issues with their hosts. In most houses, English was used as the common language, although participants were also eager to practice the Arabic that they had learnt on Peace Boat leading up to the visit.

Waleed Omar Jaber, a 27 year old Palestinian radiographer, said that ‘all the people in Madaba were glad that people came to visit.’ He was ‘very happy Peace Boat came to visit the camp and [that participants] got to see Palestinian life first hand.’ He also hopes ‘Peace Boat will visit again’ and that ‘more people come to visit the camp to see the Palestinian’s current situation and then relay that message to the rest of the world.’
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Peace Boat participants and staff members listen to the testimony of Imam Abraham Isah, a first-generation Palestinian refugee in Jordan. Afterwards, participants asked the Palestinians questions about the future of Palestine and what it meant to be Palestinian.
The next day, participants regrouped to hear the testimony of Imam Abraham Isah, a first-generation Palestinian refugee who shared his account of what happened in 1948. Imam Isah gave a vivid recount of the treatment his family received at the hands of the Israeli soldiers, including bloodshed, rape and murder. He concluded his testimony with a message for the world. ‘We as Palestinians want to live in peace and I hope you can all transfer what you have seen, that we as Arab people love freedom and respect others and that we think we can live together in peace.’

However this opinion was not uniform amongst those present, and many Palestinians feel extreme animosity towards Israelis for the ongoing violence that has been taking place in the region since 1948. One camp member stated, ‘how can we forget what the Israelis have done and why should we forgive them? They have taken our land with guns and killed our people.’ It became apparent after further conversation that the Palestinians are at present, if nothing else, a people forced outside of their own land and that forgiveness will be difficult until they can return.
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Graffiti outside a Palestinian home. The picture on the left is a Palestinian soldier and a symbol of Palestinian resistance and nationhood.

The Japanese participants voiced their own opinions about their personal experiences and interpretations of war, in particularly those participants who were old enough to remember World War II and the effect that it has had on the national psyche. One participant stated that ‘there needs to be flexibility and compromise in order to obtain the end goal of peace.’ The Palestinians agreed with this concept in principle, however, due to the nature of their conflict and the ongoing violence even today, the memory of killing is too fresh for many to put into practice.

Peace Boat participant Nakamura Gentaro, 23, said it was very interesting for him to visit the camp and actually meet the people and understand how they themselves think.

‘The Palestinians are a people who want nothing more than to return to their land. I just wish that they could achieve this peacefully. I was glad that I could tell the people in the refugee camp the concept of peace from a Japanese perspective. The Palestinians should forget about retaliation. They should educate their children about what happened in order to remember what happened but the children should be taught to be peaceful in order to stop the cycle of violence. I was glad to be able to convey this message.‘
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The refugee camps perpetuate the Palestinian national identity through the fostering of national pride and the retention of their historical past from storytelling. This Palestinian youth wears his patriotisim in ink for all to see.
The Madaba Palestinian camp was first initiated in 1948 and granted official refugee status by the UN in 1950. The current population of the camp with Jordanian citizenship is approximately 60,000, while a further 15,000 people have temporary citizenship. All camp members are Palestinian nationals. Before the Zionist movement and the creation of the Jewish state, Palestine was a centre of the Arab world in terms of education, technology and medicine. Now, within the refugee camps, education is sufficient to provide literacy, however education beyond middle school it is extremely limited. Professional job opportunities are also limited without having to commute for hours each day or even live in a different country. One camp member stated that there is ‘no home, no future and no life for Palestinian kids.’

Not all the Palestinians refugees are poor and there may in fact be Israelis living in Israel that are poorer than the Palestinian refugees; however, they choose to remain within the Palestinian camp so as to protect their national identity. The refugee camps persist as a symbol of this identity and will most likely continue to persist until they receive the right to return to their land.