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'We want to live side by side with the Jews' By GRACE HOUSHOLDER A continuous, bleeding wound.
We visited the camp on Nov. 16. After A/Qader Shahin Hussein spent about half an hour with our group in his office, he invited all 21 of us to his home, about a five-minute walk through the camp's winding streets and tiny yards. The brown-eyed and blue-eyed children we passed gave us big smiles and several of us remarked how much they reminded us of a niece, nephew or neighbor child back home. Forty-five years ago the camp director was born in the camp. He became a father and grandfather there. His dream is to go back to the village of his parents and build a small home. He says he doesn't care what flag flies over his village.
Today the camp has 11,000 inhabitants in the same small area. The United Nations provides educational and health services and help for special hardship cases. The camp, which is south of Bethlehem on the main road between Jerusalem and Hebron, is one of 19 on the West Bank.
The residents of the camp are not imprisoned there but - as
with all Palestinians - their travels for shopping, work and
pleasure are restricted by the Israeli government. A few families
have moved from the camp because donations from family and friends
enabled them to purchase land. But most are economic prisoners. When we entered his home the camp director instructed one
of his children (he has six, but not all are still at home) to
prepare tea for us. He said his wife was in Jordan obtaining
a bride for their oldest son, who is 20 and employed as a policeman. Our entire group managed to find seats on three large rose-colored
sofas and a few stools and chairs. The room, with clean white
walls, was lit by two lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling. There
were three small tables and one large one. On the wall was a
picture of the camp director's brother-in-law. We learned he
died a violent death, leaving seven children "and a miserable
wife." Every family in the camp has at least one member who was killed
or who is in prison, the director told us. He said about 5,000
Palestinians are in prison. We asked the director if he had ever been in prison. He said
he was imprisoned at age 18 for four years because he was a member
of the Palestinian General Union, a student group. He showed
us scars on his leg caused by prison beatings with an iron pipe. His son, very tall and strikingly handsome, entered with glasses
filled to the brim with boiling hot tea. The glasses were too
hot to hold, but when they cooled we enjoyed the tea, which had
lots of sugar. The camp director called for a cigarette which his son, who
was smoking, brought to him. He told us about his daughter and son-in-law who were shot. Her life was saved by a doctor who just happened to be in the area.
"Peace must be between people," the director told
us. "You are in my home. There is no fear. But if I go to
Tel Aviv, five minutes after I arrive I'll be surrounded by Israeli
soldiers ... We want to live side by side with the Jews. We are
not against the Jews." As we left his home and walked back to the entrance of the camp, the director told me about the stress he is under. He has many responsibilities "but no authority whatsoever." He is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A vacation or foreign travel is impossible.
"There is no difference between you and me," he
said, "and you are living in human being conditions ...
"If you imprison a cat, this cat will be changed to a lion. Any violence will be on the shoulders of (Israeli Prime Minister) Netanyahu himself. He needs the peace far more than we need it. I hope America will take more and more of a role in facilitating the good results we are waiting for." |
very difficult." In March
1993 when the Israelis declared the area a military zone, unemployment
rose to 85 percent and the director feared starvation was around
the corner.
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