This last summer I travelled to Jordan and to Palestine, after being informed that a program where I was to teach English in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon -had been cancelled because of the increase in fighting in that country.  It had been many years since I had previously travelled to this region.  Following you have the messages that I sent out to my contacts as I was overseas.  I have since edited what I had written and I have added a few more thoughts.  I am also including photographs that I took and which I received from Mr. Nizar ALayasa of the Dheisheh refugee camp.

On 24 Jul 2013:

Hello everyone.  I made it to Jerusalem today coming from Amman, Jordan.  At one of the areas, the third stop at a center to cross the border, I was asked if I had another passport -I presume because I have U.S. passport but I have a Spanish first name and a Spanish middle name.  I was also asked why I did not get my passport stamped and I responded -because I might travel later on to some Arab countries. I was finally asked if this was my first time in Israel, and I answered that it was my second time here.  The official  then looked through my passport to see what places I had been to previously.  Anyway I made it to this side.

Sincerely,

Jaime C.


Friday, July 26, 2013 9:49 AM

Today I went to Isawiyya

Hello everyone,

kids in the town of Issawiyya waiting to get their names written in Chinese characters
kids in the town of Issawiyya waiting to get their names written in Chinese characters

I hope that everyone is doing well.  Over here at the place where I am staying in a Palestinian neighborhood of Jerusalem, I made a friend from Taiwan.  He told me that previously he had gone to an area where he met a kid and that that kid asked him to bring him a souvenir.  So I accompanied him to this village named Isawiyya on the outskirts of Jerusalem.  There we were greeted by many kids and my friend was very popular among them because they all wanted him to write their names in Chinese.  I took photographs of the outside of the mosque there and of the apartheid wall which can be seen from this town.  It was somewhat overwhelming to have many kids coming towards us asking us questions, -a few of these kids that insisted that I go visit the mosque.  Even when we had left the area where all of the kids were, we also found some adults that wanted my friend to write their names in Chinese.  I found this to be a very impressionable experience.  I only had one ball to leave these kids, I wished that I could have given them more.  I still have some things to take to a refugee camp when I get back to Jordan.

Ibrahaim Abu el-Hawa
Ibrahaim Abu el-Hawa

Over here I have been staying at the home of the well known Ibrahim Ahmad Abu El Hawa.  If people do not generally know about his work here, I hope to inform many individuals about what he does.  I learned that he had been influenced by the Sufi beliefs of his parents.

Today I bought a bottle of a cold drink made of almonds which I thought was going to be similar to the horchata of Spanish speaking countries.  It was good but it had something spicy hot in the aftertaste which made it different from the varieties of horchata that I am familiar with.


Sunday, July 28, 2013 2:16 PM

Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem
Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem

Hello everyone,

Today I went with a friend (the one that I referred to in my previous message) to the Dheisheh refugee camp near the city of Bethlehem.  One of the first things that we did there was -to go to the Ibdaa Cultural Center, where children are taught the Palestinian dabke folk dance, where sports teams are organized and where other subjects are learned.  There we met Mr. Nizar ALayasa, whose exact title I have forgotten, but he is one of the directors there.  He explained to us how the Dheisheh camp was created from Palestinians from various villages that had to flee their homes back in 1948 when the state of Israel was created.  ALayasa showed us photographs of the different villages from which the people came.  He said that they would like to return to their villages some day.  He mentioned that his family is from Zakariah and that now there is an Israeli settlement there.  The mosque building is still there as is an old school building.  We purchased some Palestinian art crafts at this center and according to a sign at the shop, this money is used to purchase eye glasses for the children..  Later we walked around the camp to take photographs and we had an opportunity to meet and talk to some of the people.  On the way back to “Al Quds” I saw more areas where there is a separation wall.

Once back in Jerusalem we had the opportunity to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre inside the walled area of the Old City.  At the place where I am staying I saw for at least the second time a Palestinian woman doctor with whom I have discussed politics.  She made mention of a five year old Palestinian kid that was jailed in Hebron not too long ago…

a T-shirt purchased in Amman which has the words "I will never forget the Palestinian nakbah."
a T-shirt purchased in Amman which has the words “I will never forget the Palestinian nakbah.”

Tomorrow morning I will be heading back to Amman, Jordan, which I am reluctant to do considering that I could stay at least one more day in Jerusalem.  However I have a few things to do there, one of them being that I want to visit a Palestinian refugee camp in that country.  In my opinion there is much more to see in Jerusalem than in Amman, but my days are limited in this part of the world.  Several days ago when I was in Amman I met someone from the Bethlemite Hazboun family.  This person introduced me to her friend who is of mixed Middle Eastern background -part Iranian, part Lebanese, and I cannot remember what other ethnicities.  In any case this friend is of the Bahai faith.  I was also introduced to their friend that can connect me to a Palestinian refugee camp.  I am familiar with several Hazbouns that were born in Central America, it is a very large family and surely all of relatives don’t know each other.  There was a well known singer in El Salvador that was a Hazboun and a member of this family was a president of Bolivia (I do not know under what political circumstances).

I will report on what transpires in the next few days.  Before returning to California I will spend four days in Spain, a country that I have not visited in several years.

Sincerely,

Jaime C.


As an introduction to the next section, I want to mention that I had heard that it was not easy to visit a refugee camp.  One has to get permission from a police department.  As one hostel employee told me, there are thousands of people in the camps and the authorities, including one’s own government officials such as consuls and ambassadors, cannot take responsibility if something difficult were to happen.  I personally went to a police station, and although I am far from speaking fluent Arabic (I did speak English there also), I did communicate to a man there that I wanted to get permission to visit a refugee camp.  He wrote down on a piece of paper what I thought was some information as to where I could actually get the permission.  When I returned to the hostel, the same employee whom I mentioned previously commented the following when he read the paper: “You see, he only gave you the address of another police station.  He just wanted to get rid of you…”  I was fortunate however that I had met an Arabic language teacher that told me about the Al Wehdat Palestinian refugee camp which is right next to Amman, or rather is in a sense a district of that city.  She informed me that one can just walk into the camp.  I eventually took a bus there and actually simply walked into the camp.  One encounters a market place there at one of the main entrances.


Wednesday, July 31, 2013 10:23 AM

an entrance to the Al Wehdat refugee camp in Jordan
an entrance to the Al Wehdat refugee camp in Jordan

Hello everyone.  Today I went to the Al Wehdat Palestinian refugee camp which borders Amman, Jordan.  There I met and spoke to Nidal  Ahmed, the chief area officer of UNRWA for the South Amman region.  I also met Mohammad Khamis, the camp services officer.  Nidal  explained to me the history of the camp and the services that UNRWA provides.  He said that Palestinians have acquired citizenship and can vote and run for office in Jordan.  This is not the case for Palestinians in other Arab countries.  There is one exception to this rule in Jordan and that is the 150,000 Palestinians that came from Gaza in 1967.

a mural at the grounds of the clinic at Al Wehdat
a mural at the grounds of the clinic at Al Wehdat

I was told that I can come back tomorrow so that I can get a tour of the camp.  Thus tomorrow I will need to get up early to get this tour of the camp.  Today I was able to eat once more the prickly pears from the cactus. A few days ago as I was eating them, I bit a seed and chipped my tooth a little.  I was never told to not bite or chew the seeds.  Anyway it was only a slight chip and now I don’t even feel it.

Sincerely,

Jaime C.


Sunday, August 4, 2013 12:10 PM

Hello everyone.  I am now presently in Valencia, Spain where I hope to promote my book which has information on a historical figure from this city.

When I was in Jordan two days ago, I went for a second time to the Al Wehdat Palestinian refugee camp.  Mohammad Khamis from UNRWA took me around to see several school campuses, to see the clinic, a kindergarten area which included a center for disabled individuals, and to a women´s center.  He said that the schools are doing a good job and that students from private schools are transferring to them.  The women´s center is a place where women receive different types of classes to become empowered and where they can get free attorney services for such cases as for divorces.  This system here is structured to prevent divorce and if there is a divorce -the situation is set up so that there may be a possibility that the couple will reunite.  This is done by the environment where there are family visitations to see the children.  In circumstances for others in Jordan outside of the camp, family visitations would take place in a sterile police station.

Mohammad also accompanied me to the market place areas of the camp and he helped me to buy some handmade crafts including a handala to wear around my neck and prayer beads -some of which have the Palestinian colors. He also encouraged me to buy these nut type of edible things which are brought in from Indonesia. Mohammad told me where Black Palestinians are mostly found in Jordan and he also said that there are Christians among the Palestinian refugees. I have met many nice people here. At the hostel where I was staying there was a worker who was originally from Beir Zeit and another guy whose family was from Jaffa and Jordan. I also met a recent immigrant from Syria and two Egyptians.

I recently found out that the famous Colombian pop singer Shakira is on the BDS list and that hopefully Palestinian Arab Idol winner Mohammad Assaf will not perform with her in some upcoming concert. Hopefully some of you activists can do something to get the message to him.

Well so long for now. Sincerely,

Jaime Cader

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