The Aida Camp is one of the three  which are in Bethlehem and around 4.500 people live in the houses that UNRWA gave them after the Nakba, in 1950, with the idea of  returning and repatriating the Palestinians who had been expelled from their homes under the Israeli occupation

Three different generations have growed up in Aida refugee Camp, one of the most famous camp in Bethlehem because it is located right next to the wall which separe the West Bank from Jerusalem. At first, they believed this would be temporary. However, ten years later these thents were replaced by houses of a few square meters. “Some of them are still preserved. Whole families, with seven or ten persons live in a small room where eat, sleep and make their life”, explains Ahmed, one of the members of the AIC.

The main entrance of the Aida Camp has a big key which show the hope of palestinian people to return and it is located in front of one of the israeli check gates. “These gates are opened many times and soldieres start coming to the camp” says Ahmed about the violencia situation in Aida Camp. More than 75 years have passed and many of the families continue keeping the key as the most precious treasure of their homes. Ghassan Zboun is the third generation who lives in the camp. His maternal grandfather. He and his wife, Rahaf, have just finished their university studies, but like many of the young people who live in Aida, there are no job opportunities for youth, so they dont have the opportunity to move.

“They refused building and living in houses in the refugee camps for ten years because it meant they had lost their homes”, adds.  However, despite the fact they have not stand up their houses since 1948, they continue keeping the keys to return there some day. Despite the fact they have now a new home, they dont forget the place the had to leave because of the Israel occupation. “My home is not here, my home is in Elaar. This is not my town”, explains Ghassan keeping the key of his family’s houses like a heirloom.

The sentence “we will return” can be read in many of the walls around this refugee camp.  In another of them, appeared the names of all the towns where the refugees lived. "Here life is very simple. Streets are narrow. You cant see trees and you don't hear birds singing" says Manar, a women who was living in the camp for more than 20 years.   However, life goes on inside this streets and there are children playing around the military wall and attending to school and cultural lessons in the center. Moreover, they organize each summer markets with and shows about Dabke, the traditional dance in Palestine.  

 



Despite the fact that UN Resolution 181 established a division of territory between Israel and Palestine, the Palestinian territory is shrinking. "We live an Apartheid in a roundabout way. The situation we lived in 1948 and the one we live in now is very similar. Before, we were forced out of our homes, now we have to leave because they won't let us live,'' says Ahmed. According to UNRWA, 5.6 million people live in besieged camps in the middle of the conflict with very limited basic services.

 "We have been living here all our lives. My mother was born here and my daughter was born here, what is going to happen now?" says Ghassan. A question that all the Palestinian people are asking themselves, since the land tenure contract for the refugee camps established by the UN has a duration of 99 years and they are now in their 70th year. However, they recognize that they live in the midst of uncertainty where a distant future is hard to imagine. says the coordinator of the Aida Youth Center. "Come in 20 years and you will discover with your own eyes what has really happened in the Palestinian refugee camps", they say in front of the wall that surrounds the city of Bethlehem, surrounded by 7 Israeli army watchtowers.


Writers : Belen López, Sandra Martínez and Judith E. Castaneda