VARIOUS: PALESTINIAN REFUGEES AT BAQAA CAMP PESSIMISTIC ABOUT OUTCOME OF PEACE TALKS IN US

Record ID: 275342

  • Title: VARIOUS: PALESTINIAN REFUGEES AT BAQAA CAMP PESSIMISTIC ABOUT OUTCOME OF PEACE TALKS IN US
  • Date: 11th July 2000
  • Summary: BAQA PALESTINIAN REFUGEE CAMP, JORDAN (JULY 11, 2000) (REUTERS) 1. GV BAQAA CAMP BETWEEN MOUNTAINS 0.07 2. VARIOUS ROOFS OF CAMP (4 SHOTS) 0.30 3. SLV MAIN VEGETABLE MARKET/ PEOPLE SHOPPING (2 SHOTS) 0.45 4. SV SOUNDBITE (Arabic) HABEIB ABDUL FATAH SAYING: "As a Palestinian refugee, I do not care about the Camp David summit beca
  • Embargoed: 26th July 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAQAA CAMP, JORDAN/ RAMALLAH, WEST BANK/ GAZA/ JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVAAE5ALB19R9BBQ2R3V1PLIBFEU
  • Story Text: Palestinian refugees in Baqaa camp, the largest
    Palestinian camp in Jordan, are pessimistic about the outcome
    of the Middle East summit at Camp David in the United States,
    expressing fears that their dream of returning to their former
    homes in occupied Palestinian territory and what is now Israel
    are no closer.

    Meanwhile, Palestinian children, residents of refugee
    camps in the West Bank, have marched in support of the Camp
    David summit due to open on Tuesday, while in Jerusalem,
    Jewish settlers have started a hunger strike, protesting the
    summit which will determine their future.

    But a Hamas spokesman has said his group will never
    recognise the state of Israel.



    Many of the refugees in Baqaa camp believe that the
    Camp David summit on Tuesday (July 11) is doomed to failure
    and that it will not resolve the fate of Palestinian refugees
    who have lost their homes and have lived in exile since the
    state of Israel was created in 1948.

    Habeib Abdul-Fatah, a Palestinian refugee who fled his
    home in the West Bank town of Faloja during
    the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, said: "As a Palestinian refugee, I
    do not care about the Camp David summit because it's hosted
    by the American administration to serve the Israeli interests
    and not the Palestinians'."
    Said Halema Adnan: "We are refugees and we are asking for
    our legitimate rights to go back home...we will not accept
    compensation.. the only thing we accept is to return to
    Palestine."
    Doctor Abdullah al-Hirsh, who fled Palestine after 1948 and
    opened a clinic in the camp in 1968, said he feared the
    Palestinian leadership would make concessions on refugees in
    Camp David Summit and Israel will not give displaced refugees
    the chance to return back.

    "Discussion is going in this way.. that is not to let
    refugees go back to their homes because you cannot put
    Palestinians and Jews in the same place," he said.

    Jordan, which hosts the largest group of Palestinian
    refugees, is home to more than 1.2 million registered refugees
    who were forced out of their homeland in successive
    Arab-Israeli wars since the creation of Israel in 1948. Baqaa
    camp hosts 120,000 refugees.

    In Gaza on Tuesday (July 11), Hamas spokesman Mahmoud
    al-Zehar said:"If the present situation after agreement
    prevented us from attending our goal, the next generation will
    continue, but we are never going to recognise Israel as a
    legal state in our area."
    In Ramallah in the West Bank, meanwhile, Palestinian
    children marched in support of President Yasser Arafat, hours
    before a crucial U.S-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian summit was
    due to open in Camp David near Washington.

    "I think this is a peaceful demonstration for supporting
    President Arafat in the summit and it is a message for the
    summit 'don't make any compromises in the issue of the
    refugees,'" said one demonstrator.

    The summit is intended to help settle differences before a
    September 13 deadline for a final peace accord on issues
    including the future of Jerusalem, the status and borders of
    Palestinian areas and the treatment of Palestinian refugees.

    The demonstrators, residents of Qalandia, Amari and
    Jilazoun refugee camps near Ramallah, were holding banners
    delcaring their desire to return to the homes they fled in
    Mandatory Palestine, now towns within the state of Israel.

    In Jerusalem, Jewish settlers have started a hunger strike
    to protest the Camp David peace summit.

    Settlers have held a series of protests against Prime Minister
    Ehud Barak's positions in the Israeli-Palestinian
    negotiations, aimed at reaching a peace deal by September
    2000.

    More than 140 settlements sit like modern-day fortresses on
    top of West Bank hills and in Gaza, land the Palestinians want
    for a state they plan to establish this year.

    The Palestinians, together with the international
    community, have long complained the settlements are illegal
    and built on occupied Arab land.


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