Gaza's refugees live a perpetual Nakba
Reageer (0)By Mariam Hamed
26-5-2010
Gaza - More than 1.5 million people are crammed into the Gaza Strip, and three-quarters of the population are Palestinians registered with the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. More than half of those refugees live in eight camps across Gaza.
25-year-old Hanan Alfesis a refugee whose family was forced out of the coastal city of Jaffa in 1948.
Hanan couldn't help but cry when she talked about her home village in Jaffa (Yaffa). Now living in Alzaytoon City east of Gaza City, she said, "I did not know the meaning of the land and the value of the soil, [until] I lived in Gaza as a refugee." Hanan and her family have a lovely home, but, she tells me, "in Gaza, there is a big difference between a refugee and citizen; I am a stranger in my own [land]."
31-year-old Yousef Khattab lives in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza. "I have not lived the suffering of my father and my grandparents," he told me. "I feel I am a guest in Gaza. My hometown is Bir Saba [Be'er Sheba], and there is no hope for me to go back to my [home] country. All these agreements [and talk] about the borders of a Palestinian state within 1967 territory still means that [my] village is not [included] in the negotiations. I am a refugee forever."
Wageh Hammad, 46, lives in Gaza's Beach refugee camp. In our conversation, he told me: "[In 1948] my father was sent to a big prison called the Gaza Strip. Before that we lived in the Hamama village. Now we live in a tragic situation, [beset by] poverty and dependent upon UNRWA aid. There is nothing available to us as a result of the Israeli siege." Nothing could be sweeter for Wageh than seeing his family's home again. "If the world gave me a mountain of gold," he said, "[in exchange for] my home in that small village, I would never accept."
68-year-old Om Salah Abood lives in the Maghazi camp in central Gaza. "I'm from the Majdal village," she said. "I emigrated with my family in '48, and now I'm in Gaza living the new Nakba," she told me referring to the perpetual state of exile and expulsion felt by Palestinian refugees. "I expect to die at any time, and my wish comes back to Majdal for one day. There are trees, grapes, many farms and a beautiful life. And today, here, I do not have anything."
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