60 years without a country

Kjersti Berg walking in Jerusalem. February 2009. Foto: Privat

Text: Hilde Kvalvaag

Kjersti Berg is one of very few researchers to have been given access to the vast UNRWA archives in Amman. ‘This is a unique source of Palestinian history. They document 60 years of the Palestinian refugee problem,’ she says. UNRWA is a unique UN organisation in terms of its size, mandate and organisation. The organisation has built up camps and a welfare system and serves as a lifeline for the Palestine refugees. ‘UNRWA must maintain a balance between the refugees at grassroots level, the big aid donors who fund our activities and the host countries in which they operate – Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Gaza and the West Bank. The organisation is constantly in need of funds, and the schools it runs have to run on double shifts to provide schooling for all the children,’ says Ms Berg. Every year UNRWA needs 10,000 new school places. UNRWA has helped to establish a certain uniform and common identity among the refugees in the region, through the schooling system in particular. It is easy to recognise a refugee camp by the UN flag and UNRWA’s white administration buildings with blue window frames.

Citizenship in Jordan

Tensions run high among Palestinians, both politically and socially, and between non-refugees and refugees; the low number of marriages between these groups is just one example of this. There is also less gender equality and fewer women have jobs among the refugee population. All the same, the experiences of three generations of Palestine refugees are very diverse. There are 58 refugee camps in the region, and a third of the refugees live in them.

In Jordan, they were granted citizenship, but they do not have the same rights as Jordanians. In Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, they are regarded as a destabilising factor and a potential danger. Conditions are probably most difficult in Lebanon, Gaza and on the West Bank, where differences in living conditions and opportunities for refugees vary greatly, and most of them are both stateless and refugees. UNRWA has given the refugees an education and many have managed to pull themselves out of poverty as a result.

 ‘When the exodus began in 1948, they lived in tents. Small brick and concrete houses were gradually built, always under the fear of losing their right to return if they put down too deep roots in their host country,’ say Ms Berg, who has written a thesis on aid and the Oslo Accords.

A controversial organisation

Little research has been done on UNRWA, but the organisation has been surrounded by controversy. The pro-Israel lobby in the USA and various groups in Israel often claim that the Palestine refugee organisation represents an obstacle to solving the refugee problem. UNRWA was originally formed to integrate the refugees in the region, but when this met with strong opposition from the refugee groups and the host countries, the organisation shifted its focus to education, health and welfare. Most of those who work there are themselves Palestine refugees but they work under international leadership. Kjersti Berg’s research focuses on developments in the refugee camps, how they were built and their development up to the present day. Another question is what the refugee camps mean in such a politicised landscape: ‘UNRWA’s humanitarian mandate has had political consequences for the way in which this landscape has been shaped,' she says.

Sceptical towards researchers

Because the handling of the Palestine refugee problem is highly sensitive, UNRWA is concerned that researchers will criticise their work, and it has therefore been difficult to gain access to the archives. To achieve this, Kjersti Berg had to build up trust over a long period of time. She has also conducted 60 interviews with UNRWA personnel.

Accused of smuggling bombs

UNRWA is frequently accused by the Israelis of housing terrorists, most recently during the war on Gaza this year. In 2001, it was accused of smuggling bombs into Gaza in ambulances. The accusation was denied by UNRWA and it was subsequently documented that the alleged bombs were a stretcher. ‘UNRWA’s leadership promotes the humanitarian cause of the Palestine refugees and also acts as a humanitarian organisation through its programmes. While UNRWA cannot offer political solutions, it is clear that both its activities and the role it plays at different levels are political and have political implications. ‘UNRWA is a collective movement for refugees in exile, and no other organisation plays anywhere near as important a role for Palestine refugees,’ says Ms Berg. She sees the organisation as a state within a state, though it is not elected by the refugees and has no police powers. Aid to refugees is both a token of the West’s bad conscience over the plight of the Palestinians because of the founding of Israel in 1948 and a means of preventing destabilisation in the region.

‘In this region, aid has functioned as a painkiller for 60 years. The aid represents a belief that improving living conditions will create peace. But so far it hasn’t worked.’

Israel wants control

UNRWA’s archives give a clear picture of Israel’s goal of achieving control over the Palestinian territories in Gaza and the West Bank. The refugee camps were regarded as terrorist hideouts. Since the 1970s, the Israeli military has repeatedly destroyed houses and other buildings in the densely populated refugee camps. When one area is destroyed, orders go out to move house and, with the help of aid, they are rebuilt with wider streets and better organised infrastructure. UNRWA has the impossible task of choosing between humanitarian considerations and reconstruction and thereby indirectly easing the occupying power’s responsibilities under the Geneva Convention. Israel’s policy is blatantly clear, and it has pursued it particularly intensely in Gaza,' says Ms Berg. She believes that a two-state solution is becoming increasingly difficult because land areas are so fragmented. The entire West Bank is dotted with Israeli settlements, tunnels, safety zones and exclusively Israeli motorways. The refugee issue is highly politicised, but we do also see signs of pragmatism,' she says.

The article is published in Hubro 1/2009

DISTRIBUTING FOOD RATIONS: An old man collecting rice from a UNRWA food depot in Gaza on 16 January 2009. Foto: UNRWA