On the Footsteps of an Elusive Peace
Perhaps the outcomes of suffering and refugee crises are one commonality. We conclude our hotel visit and take a five minute drive to Aida refugee camp. “You won’t see what you expect to see,” Nael says, “there are no tents, it looks like a city but they live in very poor conditions.” He tells us that Aida was intended to be a temporary camp. However, over the years, people settled here permanently.
Another graffitied entrance welcomes us under an archway in the shape of a keyhole. On top of it rests a human-sized sculpture of a key. “A return to the homeland,” Nael points to it, “the key back to land stolen from us.” To them, stolen is everything— land, opportunity, water. Homes have water barrels on crumbling roofs.
“Israel controls our water supply, they have the coast and our city is inside. They leave us with the bare minimum,” he points to the village in the distance.
We park a bit further up the road. I hop out of the car and to my right is an United Nations Refugee Works Agency sign. The UNRWA school is directly behind. It’s clear where any investment in this place goes: The building is top tier. “For the new generations, we need education,” Nael says. My jaw drops, knowing something about what this education entails.
Kids flood the slums in 1948 t-shirts. I wonder if it’s an UNRWA program; it would make sense if it was. Nael says that it’s a summer program for kids run by local activists, on the same premise as UNRWA.
My heart breaks as young kids, aged five through early teens, sardine these slums and surround me. They don’t know me, but already hate me. They might have thrown stones at me if they did. These children are taught math by counting martyrs who have killed people like me. Then they are taught to praise them, chanting tunes of the Jihad, and pledging to shed blood on evil Israelis for their motherland. I ask about the teachers. “Teachers believe and teach children to reclaim the whole Palestine, nothing less, no matter what it takes.” This here, exactly, is the problem. A one-sided narrative, kids know no other story. No freedom of mind— indoctrination— makes for easy manipulation. Acts of terrorism explained.
This beautiful UNRWA building is anything but “hope for the new generation,” as Nael claims. I feel it’s just the opposite: It is an incubator for violence that derails any prospects for peace. It is an echo chamber of extremist rhetoric that gives a false sense of any hope at all. While all these children have is this hope to return ‘home,’ teaching them that their victory will be a product of violence against Israelis is nefarious. My heart bleeds for these kids. To me, hope is shattered.
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You’re probably expecting me to suggest a solution to this conflict. Education is usually my answer, but I won’t go there this time. Some ideas bobble around in my head. I cannot formulate them into a full-throttled, sensible equation yet. Too complicated: What I learned is that this issue is not only an Israeli-Palestinian one. It is like a chess board where democracy and peace in the Middle East are king, and there are all sorts of pieces with different moves targeting it: Water, borders, culture clashes, socio-economics— the list goes on.
