Glimpses of a childhood in Aida

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With the Young Christian Democrats from Norway (KrfU), we visited one of the three refugee camps in Bethlehem, Aida. We met with Rich Wiles, who works in the organization Lajee in the camp. Rich was asked to tell us a little bit about how life is like in Aida.

Rich works with children and young people, so this was his focus. He started to talk about the wall, which had disconnected the camp from an olive field nearby, where the children used to go and play. There are no gardens or football fields in the camp, so now the children are often playing at the verandas of the houses or in the streets instead.

People live densely in the refugee camps, and it makes life difficult in many ways. Water is scarce for all Palestinians on the West Bank, but in the camps even more so. In Aida, they have water two hours a week in the winter, and then people fill up water tanks to store water for the rest of the week. During summer people don't have water every week. This summer some families didn't get water in ten weeks. Israel controls water in the West Bank, and there is a clear contrast between the scarcity of Palestinian communities, and the constant water supply in the settlements.

Many homes in Aida have bullet holes in their walls. Rich said that Israeli soldiers are shooting into the camp regularly. He told us about a twelve year old boy, Miras, who was shot in his stomack while playing in his own house. It was noon on Friday, so everyone was in the mosque, praying. The streets were empty and calm. Miras survived, and his father wanted to take the case to court. He wrote to Israeli authorities, and needed an answer to his letter in order to open the case. The incident took place in 2006, and he is still waiting. The girl's school is Aida has also been shot against many times, so many times that when it was rebuilt, they made it without windows, which the bullets could go through.

It is so hard to believe that Israeli soldiers are shooting towards homes and schools, apparently for no reason. Like it was hard to believe when I met a mother in Jalazone refugee camp outside Ramallah this autumn. Her son had been shot, too, and he died. But even harder to believe is the fact Israel is not investigating these incidents.

With the help of Lajee, Miras had made a short movie, where he talked about what had happened to him. He ended: "I am thinking a lot about when I was shot. I try to solve it by playing games on the computer".


Children playing in Aida camp. Note the bullet hole near the window.
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