Monday, May 20, 2024

Palestinian refugees in Gaza- AFSC Defending a displaced people

                                            American Friends Service Committee

When the 1948 Arab-Israeli War left nearly 250,000 Palestinian refugees stranded in Gaza, the United Nations turned to AFSC to help organize relief services. Early in 1949, 20 AFSC staffers faced a sea of people and began distributing food, clothing, tents, and blankets. Ultimately, a renowned African-American physician, Dr. Jerome Peterson, came to manage medical care.

While staff from other relief agencies lived apart in guarded houses, the Quakers “lived as close as we could … open and present and among the people all the time.” By 1950, when the United Nations took over, more than 100 AFSC staffers had worked in Gaza—most of them in their 20s and early 30s. They had managed to help Palestinians create schools, maternity centers, metal shops, and recreation clubs.

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Camps were roughly grouped around three cities: Gaza (the largest), Khan Younis, and Rafah.   
The cold, rainy winters in Gaza made adequate shelter essential.
Even with donated blankets, nights were so chilly that people often huddled together to stay warm.

 
Lentils and beans supplemented flour and oil in the refugees’ meager diets.

Initially, children had no writing tools. They learned by reciting aloud and sat on the mats, sacks or the ground.

Even in these surroundings, “they had the boundless eagerness of school children everywhere,” wrote one volunteer. 
 
 [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

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