From 48 villages cleansed from their Palestinian inhabitants, such as Beir Ama’in, Saris, Ashu’, Birfilia; and the four cities of al-Lidd, Jaffa, ar-Rmala and Jerusalem originate the residents of this camp, who mostly shared blood ties before the Nakba. Also to be found in this camp a Lebanese family by the name of “al-Beiruti”, who had come to pay a visit to some relatives in Palestine before the Nakba and was destined to remain in a state of forced asylum that continues to the day. 53 familes joined the camp after the 1967 Naksa, from the villages of Yalu, Beit Nuba and ‘Amwas, who were not recognized as refugees by UNRWA.
These form part of the 168 families resident in the camp, but do not figure in UNRWA records. This has driven many officials in the camp to question UNRWA statistics, particularly those relating to the demography of the camp. Many are refused recognition as refugees by the Agency, because they happen not to meet one of its criteria. Many have moreover become increasingly reluctant to register their new- born in the Agency’s records following its reduction of its services in 1982, which meant that from 5000 cases, only 250 were covered in very arduous times. Experts maintain that at least 10 to 15 per cent must be added to any Agency estimate of the size of the refugee population, amidst a 2-3 percent annual demographic growth rate. The gulf between the official figures and reality became evident after the dramatic rise in the number of registered births following the eruption of the Al-Aqsa uprising and the distribution of some emergency aid by UNRWA. The people of Qalandia camp spent decades before being provided with fundamental services. Electricity and water were only supplied in 1971, after tremendous efforts by the local camp committees, which collected the necessary costs from the residents themselves.
The population’s economic situation improved after the 1967 Naksa. A variety of occupations were available to them thanks to the camp’s location between Ramallah and Jerusalem. From agriculture, they moved to paid employment in numerous fields. The more senior residents relate that when they settled in Qalandia they had to rent land plots from neighbouring villagers to survive. This gradually changed with the spread of education, which the refugees saw as a way out of their arduous economic situation. Now the camp benefits from a high percentage of university graduates.
The camp is situated close to Qalandia Airport, which had been constructed during British Mandatory rule and administered by Jordanians. Many residents worked in shifts at the airport for 15 cents a day. When the Zionists usurped the airport, it became a source of terror for the population, with the constant movement of military aircrafts and the continuous presence of occupation soldiers.
There are even strong indications that the airport is currently being used to manufacture Apache helicopters. A mere two kilometers away lies the Qalandia checkpoint, which was constructed following the al-Aqsa Intifada to separate Ramallah from Jerusalem. A few kilometers away, opposite an area called “Al-Kasarat”, is another military checkpoint (al-Liwaa’) situated at the foot of a mountain overlooking the camp. Next to this military point lies a chain of settlements that reaches up to “At-Taweel” Mountain surrounded with barbed wire and lined with death traps all along. The residents are thus besieged from every direction and chased by the settlers and soldiers’ bullets that target children in particular.
Everyone in the camp vividly recalls what happened a few months ago when the UNRWA run surgery was showered with 800 mm missiles. If it hadn’t been for the grace of God the tens of residents cramped up inside would have all been massacred. The toll of martyrs from the camp has reached 23; 8 of whom met their deaths during the first Uprising and 15 in the recent one. The list includes three cases of martyrs from the same family, Yasin and Ahmad Hamad, martyred in 1994 and 1995, Yassir al-Kibsa, an 11 year old and his 15 year old brother Samir who were killed in 2001 and 2002 only 40 days apart and Isma’il Shhade and his brother Yasin in 1998 and 2002.
The number of those wounded has reached 825 in the period between the beginning of the current uprising and the end of the year 2002, 18 of whom have been permanently disabled in various parts of their bodies. 42 have been arrested and imprisoned since the beginning of this uprising and the number is escalating by the day. Many of their sentences are very long, such as Muhammad as-Salhi, sentenced to 27 years imprisonment. Three of the detainees are girls arrested in 2002 during house aids .
In addition, the camp suffers from the same problems as all other Palestinian refugee camps. Garbage is scattered across the camp’s neglected streets, drains remain unattended and exposed, acting as a principal source of pollution. The problem is accentuated by the constant closures that isolate the camp from surrounding areas and transform it into a large overcrowded prison. Overcrowding is in fact the main problem the residents confront.
They exhausted every possible vacant inch in the camp and have raised their buildings as high as they could go. The inhabitants recall the situation 20 years ago when every dwelling had an adjoined small plot of land where vegetables were grown. Today, no green spaces are to be found in the suffocated camp, with every scrap of land used to accommodate the rising population. Since the eighties, the residents have even struggled to find room to bury their dead. To solve the problem, the refugees have had to scrape up enough money to purchase 30 dunums of surrounding land to house their dead. The main civil society institutions active in the camp are: the Qalandia Youth Centre (founded in 1954), Qalandia Charity Association (1992), the Popular Committee (1995), The Child Club (2002) and the Local Committee for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled (1992). Qalandia is also home to the General Union of Palestinian Youth founded in 1992 and the Popular Committee, which inspects the running of projects inside the camp and works to improve its infrastructure.
In addition there is the Qalandia Women’s Co-operative, one of the first societies to have been established since the Naksa, which runs various training courses for women as well providing mothers with a children’s nursery. All these institutions are highly critical of Palestinian Authority institutions which, according the residents have done very little, if anything to help the camp, locating a mere 138 Shekels to martyrs families. What is truly uplifting is that all the residents identify themselves with the villages thence they had been displaced in 1948 and insist on organizing themselves along those lines.
This is indeed a wonderful cause of optimism and hope, since no matter how long they remain displaced, these will always see themselves as refugees and will never forget their home villages and towns.
