The Evolving Infrastructure of Palestinian Refugee Camps: Perpetuating the Temporary

Fawwar camp, 1950s, UNRWA Archive.

UNRWA's Shelter Program

Broadly speaking, three types of camps existed in the 1950s: camps that evolved by refugees' efforts alone, camps where UNRWA replaced tents with huts or shelters or assisted refugees in this undertaking, and camps built fully by UNRWA. By 1955 UNRWA's approach moved from ad hoc to a more organized shelter program, the main objective of which was to replace tents with shelters in existing camps. By 1959 most tents were replaced with concrete huts. UNRWA shelters in all locations were based on a generic model: a small hut on a relatively large plot to which the family could add rooms and amenities as they found necessary and could afford. According to UNRWA, camps inhabitants generally built a kitchen, latrine, and additional living room as soon as they could, followed by a wall to enclose the plot.

The second objective of the shelter program was to provide grants of materials or money to encourage camp inhabitants to construct their own shelters, often presented as self-help. The practices, however, varied greatly. On the West Bank, East Bank , and in Gaza, UNRWA contractors constructed a large number of shelters. In Lebanon, UNRWA mostly distributed roofing material to refugees who constructed their own shelters. In Syria, it distributed roofing grants and cash grants to refugees, with parallel grants from the Syrian government.

The third objective of the shelter program was to build new camps. One central aim of camps was to bring order, low population density, and improved hygiene to the site. The layout plan (reproduced below) included twin shelters (black squares) with adjoining plots (white squares). There were specific zones for shelters, water sources, latrines, and open spaces and for installations like schools, clinics, and centers, connected by a system of circular roads.

Despite the disciplinary powers of both UNRWA and the host state, the refugees' own agencies imprinted their own meaning on the space and meaning of the camps. In some camp quarters, refugees reconstructed the pattern of organization in their lost village in Palestine. Settling in such microclusters helped establish belonging, familiarity, and security. Camps symbolized loss and defeat but became a powerful field to organize and express national identity and sentiment.

UNRWA established camp regulations, and one aim was to regulate refugees' building. In this undertaking, it relied on host country enforcement. Lebanon placed the most restrictions on refugee construction and refugees, but the degree of host country involvement varied. By the 1960s, UNRWA reported that camps were already overcrowded and in need of repair and maintenance. Shelters and camps had been built at low standards, and refugees' needs were higher than could be met by UNRWA, which was strained by limited funds and refugee and host country attitudes, both... READ MORE https://www.palquest.org/en/highlight/22473/evolving-infrastructure-palestinian-refugee-camps

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"The movement restrictions imposed by these checkpoints and gates severely disrupt the access of nearly 90,000 people to their lands, healthcare, education, and livelihoods." Between olive groves and gates: A Palestinian’s struggle for land and livelihood September 27, 2025 by Fareed Taamallah

Group of Palestinian children in Bureyc Camp raise the Palestinian flag over the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli strikes following announcements of recognition of the State of Palestine by Canada, Australia, the UK, and Portugal, on September 22, 2025, in Gaza City, Gaza. [Moiz Salhi – Anadolu Agency]

As a Palestinian living in Ramallah, with ancestral roots in the village of Qira in the Salfit Governorate, life has long been intertwined with the land. For generations, my family has cultivated olive trees in Qira, a tradition that sustains both livelihoods and cultural heritage. Yet this year, the olive harvest faces unprecedented threats—not only from seasonal droughts or pests, but also from the systemic obstacles imposed by the Israeli occupation.

Each time I want to visit my hometown — to see my family, to walk the streets where I grew up, or to tend to my olive groves — I am confronted by gates and checkpoints. What used to be a 30-minute drive can now take hours, or be impossible. Like thousands of other Palestinians, I feel my life narrowing, not by chance but by design.

Checkpoints and gates: Tools of dispossession

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), up until 2024 the Israeli occupation has established a total of 849 checkpoints across the occupied West Bank, with gates blocking roads constituting a third of these obstacles. The number has dramatically increased in 2025. Approximately 1,000 military gates and checkpoints massively fragment the West Bank, which covers an area of no more than 5,000 square kilometers, meaning there is a gate or checkpoint every five kilometers. For Palestinians, these statistics are not abstract. Each gate is a choke point in our daily lives.

Gates mean more than inconvenience, they mean economic collapse, and deprivation of basic services and cutting social life. Villages once connected to markets now see their shops shuttered, their youth unemployed. When access roads are blocked, workers cannot reach cities or Israel for employment. Farmers cannot reach groves or sell their produce.

In Salfit governorate, where Qira is located, the situation is particularly dire. The movement restrictions imposed by these checkpoints and gates severely disrupt the access of nearly 90,000 people to their lands, healthcare, education, and livelihoods. Gates have severed rural communities from Salfit city, where hospitals, administrative offices, and markets are located. The entrance to my hometown has been closed for months due to locked gates, forcing residents to take long, unpaved, and rough roads to reach the village.

Perhaps worst of all, gates break families apart. Weddings, funerals, and daily visits that once required a short drive now become logistical nightmares or impossible journeys. The feeling of unpredictability — never knowing if a road will be open or closed — has seeped into the fabric of Palestinian life, a constant reminder of powerlessness.

Settler violence: A growing threat

The challenges posed by checkpoints and gates are compounded by the escalating violence from Israeli settlers. These incidents include physical assaults, threats, and the destruction of olive trees.

OCHA documented over 200 settler-related incidents during the 2024 harvest season, in which more than 1,600 olive trees were vandalised, burned, or cut. Tools and harvests were stolen; farmers were assaulted.

Between January and March 2025, settler violence increased by an estimated 30 per cent compared to the same period in 2024. This surge in aggression is often carried out with impunity, as Israeli security forces frequently fail to intervene or even provide protection to Palestinian communities under attack.

My village has witnessed numerous settler crimes, the most recent of which occurred last March when a number of settlers sneaked in under the cover of darkness, attacked a house on the outskirts of the village, and set fire to a farmer’s vehicle. The occupation authorities did not bring any settlers to justice and the incident was recorded—as usual—as an unknown person.

The olive season is approaching, and it is unclear to me and my family – like many Palestinians – whether we will be able to reach our olive groves.

The olive grove: A symbol of resilience

For Palestinians, olive season is part of our heritage, identity, and resilience. The harvest season is a time of family gatherings and collective labour, a ritual passed down for generations. These trees have witnessed centuries of history, bearing witness to our ancestors’ toil and perseverance.

The olive tree, a symbol of Palestinian identity and resilience, has become a target in the broader strategy of displacement and dispossession. A report issued by the Palestinian Land Research Center revealed that the Israeli army and settlers uprooted more than 59,000 trees and confiscated approximatel 50,000 dunams of land in the occupied West Bank during 2024.

The numbers are staggering: between 1967 and 2011, over 800,000 trees were uprooted. From 2010 to 2023, another 278,000 were destroyed. Each tree takes years to grow; each uprooted grove... READ MORE  https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250927-between-olive-groves-and-gates-a-palestinians-struggle-for-land-and-livelihood/

 AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]   

Israeli home demolitions, family fragmentation, and forced displacement of Palestinians began in 1948 with the Nakba and continues to this day- Sept. 15th 2025

Israeli home demolitions, family fragmentation, and forced displacement of Palestinians began in 1948 with the Nakba and continues to this day- Sept. 15th 2025

Mike Hanini Odetalla: When I was a small child living in our ancestral village of Beit Hanina, Palestine, I used revel in the stories my late aunts and the elders used to tell... Kharareef... We would fall asleep after a night of kharareef, comforted in the knowledge that good always triumphed over evil, the monsters vanquished.

PALESTINE: Children from the nearby village are shown by vegetable crops in a field, wearing the traditional dress of the villagers at that time. In the background, the Mosque of Nebi Simwail could be seen to the west of the village.

Mike Hanini Odetalla

 When I was a small child living in our ancestral village of Beit Hanina, Palestine, I used revel in the stories my late aunts and the elders used to tell. 

 

These stories could be summarized as a cross between folk tales & what they call in the West as "fairy tales", and Greek myths. 

 

The tales were often handed down orally through the generations of Palestinian fellaheen, or rural villagers, hundreds of which had existed in Palestine for millennia, each one with it's unique traditions and culture, all bound to the land of their forefathers.

 

Kharareef was the name given to these mesmerizing tales that my aunt used to tell us. 

 

Because our village, like many Palestinian villages in the mid 60's, had no electricity, we relied on the oral stories of our elders for our entertainment. 

 

We would sit around the flickering light of a lantern and listen intently, hanging on every word, and in the case of late aunt Zahiya (may God bless her soul), she was a master story teller, having memorized hundreds of ancient tales, all told in such an entertaining manner that always left us hungry for more. 

 

All these tales always had a happy ending with good triumphing over evil and the hero defeating the bad, whether people or creatures. 

 

We would fall asleep after a night of kharareef, comforted in the knowledge that good always triumphed over evil, the monsters vanquished...  

 

Which brings me back to the children of Gaza. For over 17 months they have been living a nightmare that no story teller could have ever dreamed of...

Palestinian women wearing traditional dresses (thobe), each different design represent different Palestinian villages and cities.

Palestinian women wearing traditional dresses (thobe), each different design represent different Palestinian villages and cities. This photo was taken in 2007 and was selected as the winner of a photo competition - ALECSO

 

Palestine Remembered - Traditional Costumes Map

Eurovision 2019 was in Israel ?!!!!!!

Palestinian born Basil Harb with his beloved daughters Nancy & Barbara- Christmas in Bakersville, California

Nancy Harb Almendras at 19, 46 years ago visiting her Aunt Jameela in Ramallah, Palestine

"Forty-six years ago I was nineteen and doing my junior year abroad in Heidelberg. I wanted to see my late Aunt Jameelah in Ramallah so I flew in to the Tel Aviv Airport (Lydda is Palestinian town that was there before). Although I had an American passport, my last name was Harb so I was interrogated; at least one of the interrogators was a young Russian girl. They wanted to know my grandfather's name. Three hours later after being strip searched and having every candy bar that I'd brought from Germany for my aunt and uncle opened up and scrutinized, I was free to go to the terminal. Nineteen year-old Nancy Harb from Bakersfield, California,was no threat to the Israeli government. Its purpose was to humiliate me so that I wouldn't return to the place where my father was born. 

I got off relatively well. Maysoon Zayid, the Palestinian comic who is disabled, wrote about the time she was menstruating and the Israelis wouldn't let her have her pads. It's all orchestrated to humiliate us so that we won't return. Some of us have too much pride to return. I will never forget the late Palestinian renowned artist, Vladimir Tamari, whose family hails from Jaffa, telling me in Tokyo, that he would not return because he did not want to endure being humiliated by some immigrant to Israel. We are well off and have done well for ourselves in Asia, America, and Europe. Our humiliations pale compared to the suffering, occupied people of Gaza and the West Bank. Think of this when you tune in to Eurovision this week." Nancy Harb Almendras on  May 14th 2019

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Eurovision 2019 was in Israel ?!!!!!!

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Israel’s Eurovision: ‘Dare to Dream’ Unless You’re Caged in Gaza- Just an Hour’s Drive Away, Palestinians Yearn for Freedom & Equality Abier Almasri 

This week, Israel hosts the international song contest Eurovision in Tel Aviv, under the slogan of “Dare to Dream.” Many across Europe have come hundreds of miles to Israel for the festivities but, even though I live less than an hour’s drive away in the Gaza Strip, I’m not allowed to make the trip.
Israel, in coordination with Egypt, has turned Gaza into an open-air prison, caging in the two million of us Palestinians living in the small territory. For almost 12 years, Israeli authorities have largely limited travel to “exceptional humanitarian cases” – an unlawful generalized travel ban not based on any individualized assessment of security risk. The number of people travelling out of Gaza in 2018 via the Erez Crossing in was about 1 percent of what it was in September 2000, before the closure was imposed.

Despite our difficult reality, I dared to dream for years of traveling and seeing the world and nearby Jerusalem, also just a short drive away. Last year, the Israeli army permitted me to leave Gaza for the first time in my life, as a 31-year-old, to attend meetings for Human Rights Watch in New York. I later received another permit to visit Israel and the rest of Palestine for the first time, taking in every moment, knowing I may never have the opportunity again.

I am more fortunate than most people in Gaza, 80 percent of whom depend on humanitarian aid and more than half of whom are unemployed.

I wish those attending Eurovision could visit me in Gaza and experience our reality, such as rolling power cuts that last most of the day, and the psychological torment of feeling trapped and unable to travel through no wrongdoing of your own.

We Palestinians of Gaza may not be able to attend Eurovision, but we will never stop daring to dream.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/05/16/israels-eurovision-dare-dream-unless-youre-caged-gaza?fbclid=IwAR3QqI4EduN5ZNtliG03Ihe68JFFiwuLoFJVhU4wGRBaN7TFB5IxREeeDr0#

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Haidar Eid

17 May 2019

Dear Madonna and Eurovision 2019 contestants.....

"Let me tell you what supporting peace really means. 

It means affirming the fact that Palestine is under occupation and that Israel has violated numerous UN resolutions calling for the withdrawal of its troops from Palestinian territories. It means recognising that Israel and its illegal settlements operate under apartheid, where Palestinians are segregated, surveilled, oppressed, and killed into submission. It means acknowledging that Israel was built on a land whose original native population was violently ethnically cleansed and dispossessed.

The very venue your hosts are having you sing at, the Expo Tel Aviv, was built on the ruins of the Palestinian village Al-Shaykh Muwannis, which like 530 others were completely razed to the ground in 1948 to make way for settlers coming from your countries in Europe. We, the six million Palestinian refugees scattered around the world, are the living proof that Palestine was a thriving and civilised land before the arrival of the European Zionists. 

Those few Palestinians who were able to remain in their land and were given Israeli citizenship, face more than 50 discriminatory laws which make them non-equal citizens. In fact, last year Israel finally officially acknowledged the apartheid it had imposed for decades on the non-Jews within its borders by proclaiming itself a Jewish state. But even before this declaration, anti-apartheid fighters, like Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, had repeatedly compared Israel to South Africa and said that the parallels are clear. 

If Europe took action and boycotted the racist murderous regime of apartheid South Africa, why aren't you doing so with Israel? Why do you insist on rewarding the perpetrators of the second-gravest crime against humanity, apartheid?

Why are you pretending not to see the colonisation of Palestine? Over the past few days, you have been singing just a few kilometres away from a vast network of segregated infrastructure and checkpoints that separate some 650,000 Jewish settlers who live in illegal settlements built on occupied Palestinian land from the Palestinian population. Meanwhile, the true owners of the land in the West Bank have no state to protect them, no rights to the resources of the land, including water, no real freedom of movement, and no real economic prospects to live a dignified life."

https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/indepth/opinion/eurovision-2019-appeal-gaza-190517175251271.html?fbclid=IwAR0XvzncsihoO1cF0IvYDBaDWvFfOg_uSOHa_zGdLW5Zjatu3olMcM7gPXc

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