Art in Aida.

A twenty minute walk or so from where I live in Bethlehem, right up against the separation barrier/apartheid wall, stands Aida refugee camp. There are 19 registered refugee camps in the West Bank [plus many more in neighboring countries], housing Palestinians who were forcibly removed from their homes during the Nakba of 1948. According to the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, "A Palestinian refugee camp is defined as a plot of land placed at the disposal of UNWRA by the host government to accommodate Palestinian refugees and set up facilities to cater to their needs" (http://www.unrwa.org/palestine-refugees). The residents of these camps hail from villages all over historic Palestine [for example, one of the camps in Bethlehem called Dheisheh house refugees from 45 different villages in the western Jerusalem and western Hebron areas]. 

The living conditions in these camps are typically poorer than surrounding areas--with severe overcrowding, lack of infrastructure, and limited access to resources. For example, Aida covers only 0.71 square kilometers, yet is home to over 4,700 registered refugees. This particular camp is located immediately behind one of the nicest hotels in the area, complete with an expansive swimming pool enjoyed by tourists in the hot summer months. However, residents of the camp often go days and days without any water, which of course serves as an understandable source of tension. In general, refugee camps tend to experience more clashes, highly exacerbated by arbitrary Israeli military raids, often during the middle of the night. It is not unusual for hundreds of soldiers to enter the camp in search of one person to arrest, harassing and seriously harming many others in the process. 

The Wall at the Edge of the Camp 

Entrance to Aida: Through a Symbolic Art Installation 

The other day, a few friends and I visited Aida with an artist who has painted many murals in the camp. He showed us a few of his most recent works, located near the only playground in the area. I recognized this playground from a news report depicting the Israeli military firing tear gas into this play area for children, for literally no reason at all. If this sounds hard to believe, you can watch this video in which the incident was caught on tape: IDF Tear Gas Playground I was surprised to hear our guide explain that he was actually working on the murals when this occurred. 

Here are pictures of a few of the finished murals:

Portrait of famous Palestinian poem Mahmoud Darwish 

The poem reads: "You might be living, you might be dead, you might be like me without an address... There is no value for a human without a homeland, without a flag, without an address." 

The Arabic script translates to: "If we were losing fighters for the cause, then it is better for us to change the fighters not the cause."

"We won't raise the white flags [of surrender], we won't raise but the Palestinian flag to protect the camps."

On one last note, I felt it was really important to hear the artist's rationale for painting on these walls, rather than the wall (how most people refer to the separation barrier mentioned earlier). He explained to us how many international artists come to paint beautiful murals of solidarity and struggle on the wall, but that many Palestinians don't actually support this. In their view, this wall is something extremely ugly that they are aiming to see destroyed. Therefore, it does not really align with their political goals to put effort into making it beautiful. He then told us the story of an international artist who heard this Palestinian perspective halfway through working on his mural on the wall, then decided to paint over it to make a statement to international art activists. Wow, what a meaningful response, demonstrating how important it is to consider the needs/desires of the community as they direct their own struggle of resistance.