26th July
Lajee Centre, Bethlehem. Lajee means refugee in Arabic and this centre serves the refugee camp. Rick Wiles tells us about his life and his relationship with the camp. He is a photographer from England. He arrived in Palestine to take photographs, fell in love with the place and the people and moved here. We get a history of the camp. Set up in 1948. All descendants of refugees are also refugees. There was a period from 1967 when they were not registered as refugees. Jordan had control of the West Bank and the UN designated people who moved from the West Bank to Jordan as moving between Jordan and Jordan; they were displaced people but not refugees. Rick said that there are 8 million Palestinian refugees with 4 million being officially registered.
The camp was originally tents and we saw some of the pictures in the hostel. In 1956the UN started building concrete boxes which were homes. The building continues. We are told that the ethnic cleansing started in 1947 prior to the establishment of the state of Israel. People slept in the streets at that time, especially in Nativity Square. Now the Wall surrounds the camp. From the roof we are told that the area beyond the Wall was open land with olive trees and 2 football pitches. It was were people played and picnicked. There is a lack of open land in the camps, everything is built on. The Wall cut of access to the open land. The Green Line is 3 to 4 km from where the wall I built. Bethlehem land stolen, is how it is put, and again it is emphasised that the wall is about land grab and not security. And we can see the wall snake round settlements which are illegal but now are on the Israeli side. And again we hear about water. Water is delivered to the camp every 7 days for 3 hours. The water pipes were laid by the UN 30 years ago. To get the water to the tanks on top of the houses is done in these 3 hours. But the pipes have no pressure to get the water to the houses at the top of the hill, so people buy their own generators. At $200 each families club together and share the use each getting 30 minutes each. If a family runs out of water then that is it. Last year people went for 6 to 8 weeks with out water and nearer 3 months in the houses at the top of the hill. Yesterday pole were walking round the camp with buckets. I had noticed them. They were trying to get the last of the water left in the bottom of the tanks. Before the UN provided water people had to walk 4 km with their water in buckets. 61 years later they are still walking round with buckets looking for water.
The wall makes a difference in surprising ways. People worked illegally in Jerusalem before without too many problems. Now the checkpoint and the Wall and the watchtowers and the CCTV, and the extended security zone behind the wall makes life more unpredictable. Before soldiers came into the camp in jeeps. Rick told of how he would be working with kids outside and they would just get up and head home. He asked why and they said because the soldiers were coming. How could they tell? Their ears were attuned to the jeeps, a sound Rick could not hear. When the wall was built there was an expectation that the soldiers would not come into the camp and they didn’t need to. From each watchtower they can cover the entire camp.
In 2006 a child was shot in his bedroom from a watchtower. Didn’t see the soldiers, hear the jeep, it just happened at noon on a Friday.
The children’s stories are what the centre works on. They are taught photography and that way their stories can travel behind the wall. And it gives them skills, keeps them busy, builds self-esteem. Of the 5,000 in the camp 50% are under 18 years old. Their form of resistance is staying here, living, dancing, taking photos, telling their story.
There is a new project “Our Voice”, funded by the EU and Belgium. It is working with 6 refugee camps (none in Gaza: the Palestinians can not move between Gaza and the West Bank). And the workshops focus on human rights, gender equality, photography and journalism, with the aim of the kids producing their own magazine this December. They all met, 90 kids, last week for the first time.
Rick told us of some of the children’s stories and showed their videos, and artwork where they tell their own stories. He tells the story of the youngest child he knows who has been detained. A 13 year old, kept himself to himself, a bit of a loner. He was not allowed dogs in the house so he kept dogs in the woods where he would go to feed them. He disappeared and was not seen for 6 months. He was arrested, blindfolded and hand and feet cuffed and taken to Rachael’s Tomb military compound. There were 8 children in a cell and he said that they were beaten and not fed. The children protested by going on hunger strike, the youngest was 10. Tear gas was fired into the cell. He was taken to a zinzana, a punishment cell. A metal box put in the sun, with 6 children inside. The children protest again but this time by self-mutilating themselves with torn tins. They were put back into a bigger cell. A knife was produced and the child was charged with trying to stab a soldier. He would be released for a payment of $2,000, which his family did not have. But he said no anyway, no money would be paid and he served 6 months. On his release he was taken by army jeep and dumped 120km from the camp.
Administrative Detention is another strange law. People can be kept for 3 months and then the detention renewed. We hear the longest detention is 12 years. There are no court cases. The details are considered to be secret and therefore cannot be heard in court. There are 400 held on administrative detention.
The centre produces the children’s stories in many formats. There have been exhibitions around the world, some with the children. It is easier for children to travel out of the camps before they are processed for identity cards. When they cannot go their stories go in their place, telling of their hopes and dreams and nightmares. And there are nightmares here. Children are damaged and we hear of older teenagers who wet the bed, cannot sleep, have flashbacks. Depression appears to be hidden, just under the surface. But here there is also an opportunity for a role in the camp and responsibility. The centre has 5 teenagers on the administration board and youngsters also act as volunteers once they reach 18 passing on the skills they have learned to the next generation. The power of art is more evident here than anywhere else we have been. On the walls are portraits of Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian poet. On one of the murals, round the picture of an olive tree are his words; “If the olive trees knew who had planted them their oil would become tears”. And pictures of Hanthala, the cartoon by Naji al-Ali, appear everywhere. Pictures and words and ideas are dangerous.
One photograph project involved children going back to the homes their family originally came from. Pictures were taken and stones, water, mementos brought back for grand parents. Of the 9 villages they visited 7 were deserted. The claim that settlements are about a land without people for people without a land becomes hollow and the claims of the refugees for the right to return grows.
We will leave Bethlehem tomorrow morning. The IBDAA Hostel uses sport in the same way Lajee uses art. At the hostel trophies, cups, pendants and photos line every wall and space. On the window of the hostel reception is a sticker with the words of Martin Luther King: “We must accept finite disappointment but never loose infinite hope”. And hope comes from football and basketball, poems and cartoons, photographs and stories. Resistance from existing.
Lajee Centre, Bethlehem. Lajee means refugee in Arabic and this centre serves the refugee camp. Rick Wiles tells us about his life and his relationship with the camp. He is a photographer from England. He arrived in Palestine to take photographs, fell in love with the place and the people and moved here. We get a history of the camp. Set up in 1948. All descendants of refugees are also refugees. There was a period from 1967 when they were not registered as refugees. Jordan had control of the West Bank and the UN designated people who moved from the West Bank to Jordan as moving between Jordan and Jordan; they were displaced people but not refugees. Rick said that there are 8 million Palestinian refugees with 4 million being officially registered.
The camp was originally tents and we saw some of the pictures in the hostel. In 1956the UN started building concrete boxes which were homes. The building continues. We are told that the ethnic cleansing started in 1947 prior to the establishment of the state of Israel. People slept in the streets at that time, especially in Nativity Square. Now the Wall surrounds the camp. From the roof we are told that the area beyond the Wall was open land with olive trees and 2 football pitches. It was were people played and picnicked. There is a lack of open land in the camps, everything is built on. The Wall cut of access to the open land. The Green Line is 3 to 4 km from where the wall I built. Bethlehem land stolen, is how it is put, and again it is emphasised that the wall is about land grab and not security. And we can see the wall snake round settlements which are illegal but now are on the Israeli side. And again we hear about water. Water is delivered to the camp every 7 days for 3 hours. The water pipes were laid by the UN 30 years ago. To get the water to the tanks on top of the houses is done in these 3 hours. But the pipes have no pressure to get the water to the houses at the top of the hill, so people buy their own generators. At $200 each families club together and share the use each getting 30 minutes each. If a family runs out of water then that is it. Last year people went for 6 to 8 weeks with out water and nearer 3 months in the houses at the top of the hill. Yesterday pole were walking round the camp with buckets. I had noticed them. They were trying to get the last of the water left in the bottom of the tanks. Before the UN provided water people had to walk 4 km with their water in buckets. 61 years later they are still walking round with buckets looking for water.
The wall makes a difference in surprising ways. People worked illegally in Jerusalem before without too many problems. Now the checkpoint and the Wall and the watchtowers and the CCTV, and the extended security zone behind the wall makes life more unpredictable. Before soldiers came into the camp in jeeps. Rick told of how he would be working with kids outside and they would just get up and head home. He asked why and they said because the soldiers were coming. How could they tell? Their ears were attuned to the jeeps, a sound Rick could not hear. When the wall was built there was an expectation that the soldiers would not come into the camp and they didn’t need to. From each watchtower they can cover the entire camp.
In 2006 a child was shot in his bedroom from a watchtower. Didn’t see the soldiers, hear the jeep, it just happened at noon on a Friday.
The children’s stories are what the centre works on. They are taught photography and that way their stories can travel behind the wall. And it gives them skills, keeps them busy, builds self-esteem. Of the 5,000 in the camp 50% are under 18 years old. Their form of resistance is staying here, living, dancing, taking photos, telling their story.
There is a new project “Our Voice”, funded by the EU and Belgium. It is working with 6 refugee camps (none in Gaza: the Palestinians can not move between Gaza and the West Bank). And the workshops focus on human rights, gender equality, photography and journalism, with the aim of the kids producing their own magazine this December. They all met, 90 kids, last week for the first time.
Rick told us of some of the children’s stories and showed their videos, and artwork where they tell their own stories. He tells the story of the youngest child he knows who has been detained. A 13 year old, kept himself to himself, a bit of a loner. He was not allowed dogs in the house so he kept dogs in the woods where he would go to feed them. He disappeared and was not seen for 6 months. He was arrested, blindfolded and hand and feet cuffed and taken to Rachael’s Tomb military compound. There were 8 children in a cell and he said that they were beaten and not fed. The children protested by going on hunger strike, the youngest was 10. Tear gas was fired into the cell. He was taken to a zinzana, a punishment cell. A metal box put in the sun, with 6 children inside. The children protest again but this time by self-mutilating themselves with torn tins. They were put back into a bigger cell. A knife was produced and the child was charged with trying to stab a soldier. He would be released for a payment of $2,000, which his family did not have. But he said no anyway, no money would be paid and he served 6 months. On his release he was taken by army jeep and dumped 120km from the camp.
Administrative Detention is another strange law. People can be kept for 3 months and then the detention renewed. We hear the longest detention is 12 years. There are no court cases. The details are considered to be secret and therefore cannot be heard in court. There are 400 held on administrative detention.
The centre produces the children’s stories in many formats. There have been exhibitions around the world, some with the children. It is easier for children to travel out of the camps before they are processed for identity cards. When they cannot go their stories go in their place, telling of their hopes and dreams and nightmares. And there are nightmares here. Children are damaged and we hear of older teenagers who wet the bed, cannot sleep, have flashbacks. Depression appears to be hidden, just under the surface. But here there is also an opportunity for a role in the camp and responsibility. The centre has 5 teenagers on the administration board and youngsters also act as volunteers once they reach 18 passing on the skills they have learned to the next generation. The power of art is more evident here than anywhere else we have been. On the walls are portraits of Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian poet. On one of the murals, round the picture of an olive tree are his words; “If the olive trees knew who had planted them their oil would become tears”. And pictures of Hanthala, the cartoon by Naji al-Ali, appear everywhere. Pictures and words and ideas are dangerous.
One photograph project involved children going back to the homes their family originally came from. Pictures were taken and stones, water, mementos brought back for grand parents. Of the 9 villages they visited 7 were deserted. The claim that settlements are about a land without people for people without a land becomes hollow and the claims of the refugees for the right to return grows.
We will leave Bethlehem tomorrow morning. The IBDAA Hostel uses sport in the same way Lajee uses art. At the hostel trophies, cups, pendants and photos line every wall and space. On the window of the hostel reception is a sticker with the words of Martin Luther King: “We must accept finite disappointment but never loose infinite hope”. And hope comes from football and basketball, poems and cartoons, photographs and stories. Resistance from existing.
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