Nakba Refugees and the Continuing Humanitarian Crisis In the West Bank: Interviews in Al-Arroub Refugee Camp

By News Editor David Twomey

As the Israel-Hamas war continues into 2024, the ongoing humanitarian crisis is expected to deepen as funding is pulled by the international community.

On 31 October 2023 news broke that the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza was hit by an Israeli airstrike, in response to the earlier Hamas attacks of 7 October, reportedly killing 50 people. UNICEF stated that the area surrounding had become ‘a graveyard for thousands of children’ and a ‘living hell for everyone else’. The camp was hit by yet another airstrike the very next day.

Arroub refugee camp. Photo courtesy of © 2015 UNRWA Photo by Dominiek Benoot.

The recurring news of such camps has quickly brought them to international attention. Jabalia is the largest refugee camp in Gaza, with over 100,000 residents in just 1.4 square kilometres. However, this camp is not of recent origin in the ongoing conflict; it is one of many throughout Gaza and the West Bank which were established in 1948 and where over 1.5 million refugees in the region are now situated. Generations of refugees remain in limbo since the 1948 ‘Nakba’, and this event continues to have far-reaching effects in the history and future of the Palestinian people. The fear and hope of over a million displaced lie restless in these camps, and interviews from generations past detail the painful reality of the human cost in this conflict.

‘Al Nakba’

Hassan in Arroub Camp, 2022.

In 1948, Israel expanded its sovereignty by military means through Palestinian territory in what they call their ‘war of independence’. In Arabic, it is deemed a year of ethnic cleansing known as the ‘Nakba’ or ‘catastrophe’. About 530 cities and villages were destroyed by Israeli forces, causing the people living in most of historic Palestine to flee. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) estimates that they were responding to the needs of 750,000 Palestine Refugees when they began operations in 1950. Today, 5.9 million Palestine refugees are eligible for their services.

These refugees were placed in camps throughout the Middle East, and many have remained there ever since. On the outskirts of Hebron, the largest city in the West Bank, lies the Arroub Camp, home to over 15,000 refugees. Gazed over by an ISF (Israeli Security Force) watchtower, it is one of the most concentrated areas of search operations outside Gaza, leading to regular harassment and frequent detainment of children. In 2021, a 17-year-old refugee was shot and killed by security forces.

This camp was first established in 1948; four generations of refugees live in the camp now, almost all in the 3x3 meter houses built by the UN and Jordanians from 1959. Other than electricity, taps and families’ handywork (mainly constituting pallets and iron), little renovations have been made to the structures.

In one of these rooms lies Hassan, a 62-year-old who has lived all his life in the camp. His uncle (also Hassan) arrived after fleeing his village and three other towns. Hassan senior, born in 1932 (many illiterate refugees at that time did not have the privilege of knowing their date of birth), is still alive, sporting an old cane and a surprisingly affable humour.  When he was a teenager, his town fled during the Nakba from village to village, being pushed out by Israeli forces until they came to this camp. The path to Arroub has clearly left an indelible mark on the elder:

‘There was no safety and security… we slept between olive trees, walking barefoot. Landmines were common.’

The refugees’ anguished flight lasted over three months, before arriving in Aroub where they were told it would be ‘two or three days’ until they would leave the tents and return to their homeland. The family lived in their tent for eleven years. Another refugee of the Nakba, 87-year-old Muhammad, solemnly remembered the cold of five winters in his family’s cloth tent. Another issue was childbirth: they were given ‘slightly larger tents if families increased, but no change in supplies’.

The Arroub Camp Today

Population growth is still a critical issue in the camp. Housing constitutes aforementioned 3x3 metre rooms. When asked how this tiny space was like for his family, Hassan senior chuckled fondly, saying that,

‘I lived like a king in that room compared to the tents.’ He now has 61 grandchildren, all of whom live in the camp other than one son working in Amman, Jordan.

With over 15,000 people now living in the camp, generations of people live in these run-down houses. The camp was established due to the location’s initial water supply; taps were installed in the 70’s; residents were charged for water by authorities. Almost a third of the current camp are children, increasing the issue of other support necessary. Refugees stated the UN helps in two sectors, education, and health.

Healthcare is a central issue in the camp, with services declining in recent times. The UNWRA have a limited private healthcare service building. Residents state that medical assistance for diabetes and blood pressure is only for the older generation. ‘From 2000 they started pulling the medication from the stores and then were providing painkillers. Somebody (younger) with diabetes takes Advil’.

Children here have free access to the first nine years in school. High school is government supported, but the people still must pay. ‘Most people can’t afford it so sometimes if you are gifted you might get a scholarship.’ Hassan started working in 11th grade to support the family; this was later than most who started in 9th. During the conversation, Hassan’s grandson entered; with learning difficulties and a severe speech impediment, no services were available for the family in the area. After waving a smiling greeting his guests, he silently sat as close to his uncle as he could.

Here, ‘Education is a weapon’, stated Hassan, and his pride in his children arming themselves with this hopeful opportunity is abundantly apparent: seven of his twelve daughters have graduated from university. ‘The children used to work while in school to put themselves through university. Five of my children got scholarships.’ One of his sons has also become a doctor.

In order to work, many apply for a worker application in Israel, something which wasn’t possible until the turn of the century. This costs 2500 shekel a month (€590) out of a normal wage of around 6,000 shekel (€1,416). ‘This is still considered very lucky’ stated Hassan, as the net income is still higher than most work in Palestine.

As well as Israeli interference, Government support, or lack thereof, is widely condemned in the camp. Most of Al-Arroub lies in area B of the West Bank (in the 1990’s, the Oslo Accords divided the area into A,B and C), where the Palestinian Authority (PA) administers civil matters (but not security, this is only in area A). A poll in 2021 found that 80 per cent of Palestinians wanted Mahmoud Abbas, the PA’s President since 2008, to resign. The PA’s decline in popularity, based on their inability to offer support structures and rabid rumours of corruption, has been a key influence in the rise of Hamas in other areas.

‘Most people think we have a government. We don’t.’

When asked how the PA assisted those in the camp, Hassan replied; ‘They don’t. They take taxes off us’, adding the only way they assist is if your son gets a job. The people in the camp are despondent towards the PA; after more than 70 years little has been done to nurture any prosperity.

Talking about the future of the people in Aroub camp, Hassan declared

‘We want better education, better healthcare, and to be finally returned to our village.’ Returning to his families’ village is what he dreams about. However, lamenting on this dream, he added ‘I have visited, but I want to live there again. I don’t know if it is possible now.’ The village which Muhammad fled from as a teen has been destroyed, overtime replaced by an Israeli settlement of over 80,000. A dream return to his homeland is no longer a conceivable reality.

Cork calls for a ceasefire. Photo Courtesy of Cork Palestine Solidarity Campaign (CSPC).

These refugee camps stemming from the Nakba of 1948 can be a painful reminder that this conflict has affected generations of families and still are underfunded and unsolved. This underfunding has recently severely worsened: based on Israel’s allegations that a dozen of the UNWRA workers were involved in the 7 October attack, eighteen countries (including the US, UK and Germany) have pulled their funding for the UNWRA’s support of refugees. Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur, has warned that this suspension of aid may be a violation of the Genocide Convention.

Both Palestinians and Israelis hold an ethnocentric memory of history of the 1940’s, yet both share in the pain of conflict and forced migration. For Israelis, this era of sovereign expansion post-holocaust was vital for the security of their homeland, and to millions of Palestinians the Nakba was the demise of theirs. Currently, with two million Palestinian’s now being in ‘catastrophic living conditions’ and the number of refugees rapidly rising, pulling UNWRA funding may plunge this massive humanitarian crisis into even grimmer circumstances.

With similar Nakba-era camps in Gaza having been bombed, and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians currently fleeing south of central Gaza during the ongoing and rapidly escalating situation, the dream of returning to your true home will become a haunting hope for countless more refugee families who attempt to flee from conflict.

Note: These interviews were conducted in May 2022. Names have been changed for safety reasons.