By Dalia Labadi
Walking down the street of a refugee camp is a trip that can rupture your heart. Each house holds a story within, a story that is carried through generations, a story that tells of an old life that our ancestors lived and a new life that the younger generation is fighting to achieve.
I was sitting in the car with my colleagues when we reached an area with ugly buildings, dirty streets due to sewage and broken water pipes, and narrow passages only the width of one car. Welcome to Askar refugee camp!
The camp, established in 1950, lies outside the West Bank city of Nablus and houses 15,887 refugees in a tightly packed area, according to UNRWA. More than 44 percent live in poverty.
I’d been to refugee camps before to visit family friends, but never in my role as town hall meeting coordinator for OneVoice Palestine. It was a vastly different experience entering as an outsider giving a talk about the hard issues of the conflict, many of which are considered taboo in Palestinian society and especially among refugees.
People were waiting for us at the front door of the hall where we were holding out event to help us carry equipment. Everyone was welcoming. Despite this positive energy from the crowd, I couldn’t help but feel disturbed and filled with burning emotions, as I witnessed the miserable conditions residents of Askar were living under.
Sitting aside and watching one of OneVoice Palestine’s youth leaders conduct a session on border issues, I carefully observed the audience. At that moment, I felt that I was able to see through their eyes their stories, misery, questions, and skepticism.
The residents of Askar refugee camp know that the only way to end the occupation and achieve a permanent peace with Israel is by adopting the two-state solution. But, they find it hard to accept because they’d have to abandon their ideals and retire the image of the map of Palestine they knew their whole lives.
The session was very difficult to conduct, but its rewards greater than our other events. The audience was honest and expressed themselves clearly. Our team felt comfortable sharing ideas and thoughts about the future of Palestine.
In such an open forum for dialogue, we were able to sense the confusion the refugees live in. They don’t know how to get out of their quagmire while preserving the needs and wants. They are full of hope and expectation, but it’s a constant struggle in the face of their daily lives.
Discussing taboo topics with them yields complicated response and conflicting ideas. You can sense the internal battle each is going through in trying to balance the need for pragmatism with holding on to cherished ideals. Despite this, I can say with confidence that I walked away that day convinced of their will to end the conflict through non-violent actions.
At the end of a long two-hour discussion, I stood by the entrance, wondering how can a nation that has been under occupation for more than four decades, facing incursions, assassinations, arrests, and curfews have such a big heart and willingness to change the current situation.
It challenging, intellectually and emotionally, to persevere in the work we do. It’s easy sometimes to feel like I’m running on empty, but meeting people like the Askar refugees gives me all the fuel I need to deal head-on with the different kinds of obstacles we face daily.
Every meeting and activity we organize in such places as Askar refugee camp renews my commitment to end the occupation and the conflict in order to establish a sustainable Palestinian state for the people of Palestine.
Dalia Labadi is the Program Coordinator of OneVoice Palestine’s Town Hall Meetings.