Palestinian youth look toward a binational state

In the Deheishe refugee camp near Bethlehem, not much has changed in 30 years, except for some of the mindsets

By Avi Issacharoff 25 April 2014, 4:27 pm Edit

Avi Issacharoff, The Times of Israel's Middle East analyst, fills the same role for Walla, the leading portal in Israel. He is also a guest commentator on many different radio shows and current affairs programs on television. Until 2012, he was a reporter and commentator on Arab affairs for the Haaretz newspaper. He also lectures on modern Palestinian history at Tel Aviv University, and is currently writing a script for an action-drama series for the Israeli satellite Television "YES." Born in Jerusalem, he graduated cum laude from Ben Gurion University with a B.A. in Middle Eastern studies and then earned his M.A. from Tel Aviv University on the same subject, also cum laude. A fluent Arabic speaker, Avi was the Middle East Affairs correspondent for Israeli Public Radio covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war in Iraq and the Arab countries between the years 2003-2006. Avi directed and edited short documentary films on Israeli television programs dealing with the Middle East. In 2002 he won the "best reporter" award for the "Israel Radio” for his coverage of the second intifada. In 2004, together with Amos Harel, he wrote "The Seventh War - How we won and why we lost the war with the Palestinians." A year later the book won an award from the Institute for Strategic Studies for containing the best research on security affairs in Israel. In 2008, Issacharoff and Harel published their second book, entitled "34 Days - The Story of the Second Lebanon War," which won the same prize.

Deheishe, WEST BANK — David Grossman’s book “The Yellow Wind,” published on the eve of the First Intifada, opens with a description of the Deheishe refugee camp near Bethlehem: “On a day of turbid rain, at the end of March, I turn off the main road leading from my house in Jerusalem to Hebron, and enter the Deheishe refugee camp. Twelve thousand people live here in one of the highest population densities in the world; the houses are piled together, and the house of every extended family branches out in ugly cement growths, rooms and niches, rusty iron beams spread throughout as sinews, jutting like disconnected fingers.” Grossman goes on to describe the water problems facing the camp.

Twenty seven years later, and it doesn’t seem like much has changed at Deheishe. Yes, the camp no longer sits on the main road from Jerusalem to Hebron (there’s a bypass road for that). The number of residents has gone up to around 14,000. But the houses still look like a stack of cement growths. Water continues to be a problem.

Unemployment is high, and 60% of the residents are under the age of 18. They wander the small alleyways, spending their time in small conversations or big clashes, like one that erupted here on Wednesday afternoon.

And yet, amid all this despair, there are other voices, young and original. Aysar, a camp resident, is trying to start an art project in the camp’s open spaces. A sort of renovation and preservation effort that will include a presentation about the history of the camp and will improve the quality of locals’ lives. “I have a twin brother, Ayman, meaning right, and I am Aysar, like left. Israel let Ayman enter its territory, but I, the ‘left hand,’ was left here,” he said smiling.

I asked him about the Palestinian unity agreement, and there was no excitement in his voice. He’s even more skeptical about talks with Israel. “I don’t think it’s serious. The PA is stuck in the past. The solution is not negotiations over a two-state solution. With all the settlements built here, it’s no longer possible. One state for two peoples is more realistic. It has already happened elsewhere. Look at Bosnia-Herzegovina.”

Graffiti and banners are seen in Deheishe refugee camp, near Bethlehem (photo credit: Maya Levin/Flash90/File)

On one of the camp’s walls, there is a graffiti drawing of a young girl patting down a soldier, whose hands are pressed up against the wall. Above, the Hebrew words “Fork Junction” are written, a memento of the many IDF operations here, and below it in Arabic, “Think outside the box.”

I asked him about the refugees’ desire to return to their families’ previous homes in Israel, and if they still see them as such. “During Ramadan, there were tens of thousands of Palestinians in Israel,” he said. “From here as well. Do you think that during their visit to Israel they went to see where their homes once were? No, they went to have fun in the sea, to relax, to have a vacation.”

Aysar is not an exception in the camp. Many other young residents see things in the same way. They are not seeking an intifada or conflict with Israel, but are waiting for the reality on the ground to determine what type of state they will live in, together with the Jews, but as full citizens. And as time passes and a peace agreement is nowhere on the horizon, their idea becomes more and more realistic.