After 1948, and throughout 1956, and 1967, the society of Gaza was divided, sharply, into two sections, two classes, two distant societies: Those who are from Gaza, the families that have been there for the longest time, and those who "immigrated", "forced" or "left" from different parts of the historic Palestine due to the war that surrounding Arab rulers and their Palestinian collaborators waged against the State of Israel after the *United Nations established the two state solution- and ended up in Gaza, in refugees camps.
The distance between the two societies maybe was nothing, few feet, few meters, but in actual integration, the distance was by thousands of miles or kilometers. TheGaza society and the surrounding Arab countries that the refugees ended up residing in- Jordan , Egypt , Syria and Lebanon-
InGaza
The Refugees as they are called were put in tents first in different parts of the Gaza strip, some on fabulous real estate alongside the Mediterranean Gaza beaches, the most well known camp, called the “ Beach Refugees Camp” you kind of think of it as if we are talking about a resort for the refugees.
Most of the residents of these camps later on found refuge in working in Israel, learning new language, Hebrew, learning other skills in all fields that the original people of Gaza did not allow them to learn nor did they have the required skill at to start with. They, the refugees, were never accepted as normal human beings and part of the society.
The politicians in theWest Bank and the Gaza Strip took their cause, not to help, but to advance certain regional agendas, some worked for the Jordanians Hashemite and some worked for the PLO and other Palestinians organizations, even the terrorist, Abu Nidal, had few followers- mercenaries.
Basically the refugees became a commodity for all the fractions in the Arab countries to use, to trade and to bargain. From that point on, the issues of the Palestinian refugees started;Israel had nothing to do with it; it has been and still is a Palestinian- Arab issue that will be resolved inside the West Bank and Gaza and in the neighboring Arab countries, Egypt , Lebanon , Jordan and Syria
The commodity that is still traded in until this moment is aware of its being the merchant’s tool to bargain and sell around and it has accepted to be like that, maybe out of no other choices. The refugees are treated like tenth class citizens everywhere. In Gaza right now, I believe, and I need to get more details, they have been given citizenship, or passports; Israel did the same when it provided the whole population, whoever asked for, with Travelling documents- laissez-Passer - actually I was one of those people that came to America on an Israeli travelling document. I was not a refugee, I’m originally fromGaza , from a Gaza West Bank had Jordanian- and many in the Gaza Strip- passports and Jordanian citizenship; the lucky ones there, had the full Jordanian citizenship. Jordan makes distinction as of the class of passports it provides.
In Jordan there is a war between those who are called the Jordanians or the original Jordanians, including Palestinians and those who are called the not so original- Palestinians- and it depends on what kind of document you have; are you originally Jordanian with regular passport, or are you one of those who have a Jordanian passport that you need to renew every two years.
I recall well. every Saturday, walking the streets of Gaza, the main two streets, al-Wehda (Union)- and El-Mokhtar- named after the Libyan leader who fought the Italians in the last century- you would see waves of humans, workers, refugees, the forgotten Palestinians, the rejected Palestinians by their own brethrens, walking the streets, dazed, looking suspicious because the society is looking suspiciously at them.
We (the original people of Gaza) looked down at them, as if they were animals and they looked at us with eyes of fear and sometimes disgust. We did not talk to each other, they were different- not sure how- we did not visit each other and God forbid we would give our daughters to any of them to marry; they were on the fringes, the very far fringe; now they are rulingGaza
We used to go to Tel-Aviv, and Ashkelon, few miles away from Gaza and we would see them there, cleaning bathrooms, working; of course later on I realized that cleaning bathrooms to make a living is an honorable task in life, to collect garbage to feed your family is not humiliating, on the contrary, the opposite is of that is humiliating.
Israel needed the refugees and the refugees needed Israel Palestinian State in the West Bank and Gaza, t
Now, The Palestinian refugees must be given full rights in the Arab countries according to normal laws of citizenship; the so called right of return, is nothing but a political bargain and ploy that countries are using to offset the settlements in the West Bank, at this moment.
So you can imagine, the right of return might continue to be used politically as maybe the State of Israel is having the settlements in theWest Bank as a political bargaining chip.
The final word is, those who live in "refugees camps" in the West Bank and Gaza must move on, instead of calling them camps, call them cities, new places to embrace the future, and to look forward and not as breeding pockets of despair, humiliation and terrorism.
The Palestinians must rise, now, and reject all those Arab regimes, including their own that continue to use them as a commodity. The Palestinians must demand elections, must start the full integration in the West Bank, and once a new leadership is elected, the Palestinians must pick up the phone, or jump on facebook, or text, the Israeli prime minister's office in Jerusalem and the defense department in Tel-Aviv and demand to sit together and talk. Talk as humans talk, negotiate as clever business people do, talk freely and discuss. The world cannot but accept you, the new Palestinians, the civilized and smart Palestinians.
The distance between the two societies maybe was nothing, few feet, few meters, but in actual integration, the distance was by thousands of miles or kilometers. The
In
The Refugees as they are called were put in tents first in different parts of the Gaza strip, some on fabulous real estate alongside the Mediterranean Gaza beaches, the most well known camp, called the “ Beach Refugees Camp” you kind of think of it as if we are talking about a resort for the refugees.
Most of the residents of these camps later on found refuge in working in Israel, learning new language, Hebrew, learning other skills in all fields that the original people of Gaza did not allow them to learn nor did they have the required skill at to start with. They, the refugees, were never accepted as normal human beings and part of the society.
The politicians in the
Basically the refugees became a commodity for all the fractions in the Arab countries to use, to trade and to bargain. From that point on, the issues of the Palestinian refugees started;
The commodity that is still traded in until this moment is aware of its being the merchant’s tool to bargain and sell around and it has accepted to be like that, maybe out of no other choices. The refugees are treated like tenth class citizens everywhere. In Gaza right now, I believe, and I need to get more details, they have been given citizenship, or passports; Israel did the same when it provided the whole population, whoever asked for, with Travelling documents- laissez-Passer - actually I was one of those people that came to America on an Israeli travelling document. I was not a refugee, I’m originally from
In Jordan there is a war between those who are called the Jordanians or the original Jordanians, including Palestinians and those who are called the not so original- Palestinians- and it depends on what kind of document you have; are you originally Jordanian with regular passport, or are you one of those who have a Jordanian passport that you need to renew every two years.
I recall well. every Saturday, walking the streets of Gaza, the main two streets, al-Wehda (Union)- and El-Mokhtar- named after the Libyan leader who fought the Italians in the last century- you would see waves of humans, workers, refugees, the forgotten Palestinians, the rejected Palestinians by their own brethrens, walking the streets, dazed, looking suspicious because the society is looking suspiciously at them.
We (the original people of Gaza) looked down at them, as if they were animals and they looked at us with eyes of fear and sometimes disgust. We did not talk to each other, they were different- not sure how- we did not visit each other and God forbid we would give our daughters to any of them to marry; they were on the fringes, the very far fringe; now they are ruling
We used to go to Tel-Aviv, and Ashkelon, few miles away from Gaza and we would see them there, cleaning bathrooms, working; of course later on I realized that cleaning bathrooms to make a living is an honorable task in life, to collect garbage to feed your family is not humiliating, on the contrary, the opposite is of that is humiliating.
Now, The Palestinian refugees must be given full rights in the Arab countries according to normal laws of citizenship; the so called right of return, is nothing but a political bargain and ploy that countries are using to offset the settlements in the West Bank, at this moment.
So you can imagine, the right of return might continue to be used politically as maybe the State of Israel is having the settlements in the
The final word is, those who live in "refugees camps" in the West Bank and Gaza must move on, instead of calling them camps, call them cities, new places to embrace the future, and to look forward and not as breeding pockets of despair, humiliation and terrorism.
The Palestinians must rise, now, and reject all those Arab regimes, including their own that continue to use them as a commodity. The Palestinians must demand elections, must start the full integration in the West Bank, and once a new leadership is elected, the Palestinians must pick up the phone, or jump on facebook, or text, the Israeli prime minister's office in Jerusalem and the defense department in Tel-Aviv and demand to sit together and talk. Talk as humans talk, negotiate as clever business people do, talk freely and discuss. The world cannot but accept you, the new Palestinians, the civilized and smart Palestinians.
*UN Resolution 181 for 1947 to establish two states in Palestine
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Check related:
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Hamas Role Part 1
Hamas Enemy not Friend of Palestine
Israel and Palestine, PLO and Hamas
