Don't Leave Your Land: NPR
Palestinian refugees burn Israeli flags during a 2017 demonstration at Jaramana camp on the edge of Damascus, Syria. At that time, they protested President Trump's decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Today, they oppose Trump's call for Gaza residents to relocate.
Louai Beshara/AFP via Getty
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Damascus, Syria – Khadija al-Ali was only 3 years old when her family fled her home in the Arab-Israel War in 1948 and came to the Palestinian refugee camp in Syria.
“The Arab army is saying, 'We are going to fight for you. Leave eight days and we will liberate the land.' “People kept the keys to the house and locked the door. So people thought they would return within eight days. ”
In the crowded Jaramana refugee camp on the edge of Damascus, these eight days have become 77 years.
The original tent camp had long been transformed into a permanent cinder house, with children walking through narrow, muddy streets and tangled with a wire overhead.
Most residents spend their entire lives in camps.
Al-Ali, 80, is one of the few people born here. However, there is still no prospect of returning to her old house or the Palestinian state.
Al-Ali said this painful experience was a cautionary tale of Palestinians in Gaza.
“My advice to the people of Gaza is to stick with it. Don't leave, even if it means they all become martyrs,” she said.
A worker crosses the muddy streets of Jaramana camp on the edge of Damascus. About 13,000 Palestinian refugees live in the camp.
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Trump says US should control Gaza
President Trump calls on the United States to take over Gaza and relocate more than 2 million Palestinians who have just suffered a devastating war with Israel, which has put the territory in ruins.
Trump's vague proposal overturned U.S. policy toward Gaza, a territory that has long been part of future Palestinian states, which will also include the capitals of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Many regional experts say the president's plan is completely unrealistic.
“That's the pie in the sky. It won't happen. There are a lot of reasons why it won't happen,” Hussein Ibish said at the Arab Gulf State Institute in Washington. But it can be said that this won't happen.”
Trump did not provide details on basic issues such as who will remove rubble, who will rebuild territory and who will provide security. Meanwhile, Palestinians in Gaza say they won't leave. Arab countries persist, they will not be forced to take Palestinians from their homes.
The war that caused the original crisis
The Middle East War broke out in 1948 during the founding of Israel and brought Israel to rival several Arab countries. The war spread about 750,000 Palestinian refugees throughout the Middle East.
In December 1948, the war was still underway, and the United Nations adopted a 194 resolution that said refugees should be able to return to their homes at the “earliest viable date.”
But this has never happened, and now nearly 6 million Palestinians (primitive refugees and their descendants) are registered with the United Nations agency dedicated to Palestinian refugees. Many live in camps like Syria, and others live in Lebanon, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza. Many people feel deeply betrayal.
“I have the right to return. It's both an individual and a collective right. I, my children, my grandfather and my grandmother – all of us have the right to return,” said Fadi Deeb, 52, a resident of Jaramana Camp.
Israel opposes refugees' return
Israel has been rejecting the massive return of Palestinian refugees, saying the Jewish state will be submerged demographically. Israel has been closely linked to near-outsiders for decades, saying it is a cycle of dependence as refugee status is passed from one generation to the next.
A new Israeli law that recently operates in Israel. The agency said this would bring many challenges, but near-out areas are still operating in Gaza, the West Bank and Arab countries.
There is no realistic prospect that the Palestinians in the camp will be able to return to the old family homes within the borders that are now internationally recognized by Israel.
Perhaps their best situation is to leave the camp and move to a future Palestinian state. Today, however, the Palestinian state seems to be a distant dream.
Despite this, the Pastoral Party and other refugees remain hopeful.
“We are unwavering. We are like an olive tree,” he said.
He then quoted the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, who wrote: “My home is not a suitcase, I am not a traveler. I am a lover, and the land is a loved one.”
Trump said in his proposal that the huge damage to the Gaza war made the territory impossible and that Palestinians would live better lives elsewhere.
But Khadija al-Ali said Trump is not for the interests of Palestinian refugees.
“If you want to deal with this from a humanitarian perspective, return them to the original villages,” she said. “If you really care about humanity, go rebuild and return them. But don't deceive people with false claims.”