#Refugee Camps

[watermelllonarchive]

Rawan is a recent communications graduate who has been documenting the war on her Instagram since October. In this video, shared in mid-June, Rawan shows how bathrooms are built in the camps.

[Note: I used Google translate and it confused the word bathroom (حمام "hamaam") for pigeon (حمامة "hamama"). ]

In the camps, access to basic hygienic necessities is difficult, but people have engineered ways to survive and reduce the spread of disease however they can. In the video, a group of men construct a toilet and sewage waste pit. They start by mixing sand, gravel, and water into cement to form a base. Then, they place the toilet on the cement base. They dig a deep pit for the waste and line the pit with salvaged metal to keep the sides of the pit from caving in. The men cover the hole with plywood, plastic, and a final cement layer, but leave space for a pipe connecting the toilet to the waste pit. Finally, once construction is finished, the men erect a tent around the toilet for privacy.

Rawan is on Instagram @ rawan.m.saleh. You can donate to her Go Fund Me to evacuate her family here.

Available Go Fund Me campaigns for people whose stories have been shared on watermelllonarchive can be found in the resources post.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Seth J. Frantzman

In retrospect, it’s important to look at UNRWA as an organization that was created to thwart the establishment of Israel. The UN approved the Partition Plan for British Mandate Palestine in 1947. Israel declared independence in 1948.

UNRWA was then established and took a significant portion of the Palestinian population under its wing, effectively becoming a state within a state.

Because Egypt and Jordan had taken over the areas of the Arab state that were supposed to be established based on the Partition Plan, UNRWA stepped in as a kind of state in the making for Palestinians. Most people don’t view UNRWA as a proto-state, but in essence, that is what it has become.

UNRWA camps served as the foundation for the majority of Palestinian political – and, later, militant and terrorist – activities. Schools and refugee camps organized spaces for the groups that emerged, ranging from Fatah to the PFLP to Hamas.

For instance, Hamas gained power partly through areas in Gaza, such as Khan Yunis, from which killed leader Yahya Sinwar hailed. Many other refugee camps also became known as bases of various groups and gunmen.

UNRWA would prefer not to take responsibility for the fact that its camps became the main organizing ground for gunmen and terrorism. In fact, the rejection of Israel’s existence comes primarily from the UNRWA camps.

What that means is that the UNRWA state or empire was organized to destroy Israel and use the refugees as the main engine of this destruction. For decades, the number of refugees has grown, and their political aspirations have shifted from supporting two states to supporting one state. October 7 was an outgrowth of this shift.

The concept of UNRWA is to keep Palestinians dependent, living in refugee camps generation after generation, while using its young men as foot soldiers to fight Israel.Winding down the camps and having the people live normal lives and believe in two states and peace could have potentially resulted in peace. However, the UNRWA mandate was never to embrace peace, two states, and coexistence.

One can draw a direct line from the end of the Second World War and the end of the Holocaust to the establishment of the State of Israel and the creation of UNRWA as a weapon in the hands of the international community to try to undermine Israel and use refugees as proxies against Israel.

This line is clear because the UN played a key role in the Partition Plan.  The UN then undermined its own plan by creating UNRWA, which served to perpetuate the conflict.Each succeeding generation has taken up the baton from the UNRWA camps and launched wars against Israel. The first war occurred in the 1950s, when Egypt used “infiltrators” and fedayeen (guerrillas) against Israel.

Then there was the Jordanian Civil War, aka Black September, in the 1970s. The war then moved to Lebanon, where Palestinians upended the Lebanese system, leading to Israel’s invasion in 1982.

Then the movement moved via Tunisia back to Gaza and the West Bank and laid the groundwork for the First Intifada. When the Oslo peace deal emerged, Hamas emerged to upend it.

Since the 1990s, the UNRWA camps have not embraced two states or peace but have instead continued to embrace extremism, thereby becoming a hotbed for radicalism.The road to October 7 was paved from there. In Gaza, when Hamas took over, UNRWA didn’t oppose Hamas but was available to partner with it.

Now, Gaza has been destroyed in another war because of UNRWA’s unwillingness to end this conflict and stop using refugees as a tool against Israel.

[starsinthenigth]

★Hello y'all, this is crucial.★

★So, this is: @lawrence86sblog, and they, along with 480 members, need help, support and supplies as well.★

★Let me fill you in on their situation★ :

Five years ago, Lawrence fled away from Uganda to Kenya due to the large amount homophobia and hostility in the area and have been in Kahuma refugee camps (which are located in the North Wester Turkana Region). Although, because the Kenyan government denied to speed up the process of their cases, they had no option from the meeting with them (the government) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Lawrence's case was put on hold on 19 of December 2023

As of now, them, along with 480 other members, as resided at Goromp Camp which is located in South Sudan. From what I managed to understand from the information that Lawrence gave me, I'd that the place there is very remote and they as well made it clear that life there is very hard, especially for the LGBTQ refugees, considering the fact that they are devoid of basic emergency supplies.

The members of the refugee camp include of children, women, men and people- all from different sexual orientations and they all are in need and in want of shelter, food, basic living supplies in general.

From what I also understood, most of the the members there don't have the ability to access the internet, let alone have a smartphone and setting up a fundraiser is not much of an option for them, if we include the fact that they are in Africa. Also, despite them having an account, they do have limited access on the internet, so other people of their community spreading their wants for help is kind of, well, limited.

So, with all that said:

THEY NEED HELP, SHOW THEM SOME SUPPORT Y'ALL !! (and set up a fundraiser for them if you can, but contact them to see if they allow you to)

★ NOTES: I'm so sorry if I got their pronouns wrong, I just felt the need to post this quickly. I happily change, or add anything to make this more accurate !! ★

★Steren / Astro, out.★

[eretzyisrael]

[agentfascinateur]

Bravo to Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan for raising USD $2 millions for Palestinian children

👏🏼👏🏼💜🌟

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by PCRF - Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (@thepcrf)

[girlinafairytale]

the new york war crimes times has called refugee camps as tent cities like they are some new minimalistic architectural movement and not people having to live in temporary structures in the blazing heat due to ethnic cleansing and forced displacement with the fear of being bombed looming over them.

[girlactionfigure]

[on-break-read-my-last-post]

Despair in Chad camps as violence and hunger in Sudan drive 25,000 across border in a week

“Never in modern history have so many people faced starvation and famine as in Sudan today,” said the group of about a dozen independent experts. “The world must pay attention to the largest modern famine taking shape in Sudan today.”

Please consider donating to the Sudanese red crescent society and/or the red cross disaster fund

Please keep talking about sudan

[timaeuslover001]

This is for those that Israel is “attacking refugee camps”

[reasonsforhope]

“A refugee camp in the northern Sahara that relies on international aid for everything has gotten their hands on small, relatively-portable plastic recycling machines to turn the camp’s waste plastic into furniture, bricks, and other useful objects.

For years, pallets of supplies containing food, water, and medicine would arrive—then they went into a sandy, makeshift landfill. Now that waste is being placed in two machines, which either presses plastic waste into sheets, or melts it into blocks.

Far from being just another line of government aid, Precious Plastic—which was started by Dave Hakkens as part of his studies at the Design Academy in Eindhoven in 2012—is fully-intending to train a workforce at the camp. It will donate the machines, and let the people build their own business there...

At the camp there is a “large refugee population there with a high unemployment rate,” Joseph Klatt, managing director at Precious Plastic, told Adele Peters at Fast Company.

“Everything is brought into the camps, so there’s not a lot of economic activity going on. And secondarily, there’s a lot of waste in the camp. [This solution helps in the creation of] a new business from processing the plastic waste and providing some economic activity for the refugees...”

After some introductory instruction, refugees at the camp got on with making benches, chairs, and desks for the school, and tea sets to support the Sahara’s most widespread drinking habit...

Precious Plastic isn’t a humanitarian aid group though; they call themselves an open hardware plastic recycling project, and they want anyone around the world who cares about the plastic pollution problem to start their own recycling business using their machines.

They even offer business starter kits, including work sheets and logos to help kickstart operations. All Precious Plastic businesses are connected to all others via the use of open source technology, allowing entrepreneurs to share best practices and operating data.” -via Good News Network, 4/25/22

[a-typical]

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine - Ilan Pappé (2006)

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

Every year, Lynn Hastings, the UN Humanitarian and Resident Coordinator in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, issues a press release before the school year discussing how Israel and Jewish settlers have been awful to Palestinian children.

This year, as far as I can tell for the first time, the press release also mentions a couple of ways that Palestinian terror groups are endangering Palestinian children..

Physical barriers placed by Palestinians in refugee camps, some rigged with explosive materials, are threatening the safety of children and making it harder for them to reach their classrooms.  And reports continue of children being enrolled in “summer camps” by armed groups, increasing their risk of being exposed to violence or military content.   

I've mentioned that the IEDs that Palestinian terror groups have been placing on the roads of camps in order to blow up Israeli vehicles are a danger to ordinary Palestinians, but this is the first time I have seen any NGO mention the danger, even if it downplays the danger.

Similarly, even though these "summer camps" have been run by terror groups for decades, this is the first time I have seen the UN say anything negative about them. The sentence is comical: "increasing their risk of being exposed?" That is the entire purpose of the camps, and there are lots of videos and photos showing the children with real or mock weapons!

Hastings fails to mention that most of the "children" killed by Israel this year were either child soldiers recruited by terror groups or were actively engaged in attacks. 

Perhaps the UN felt forced to mention Palestinian responsibility towards the children's welfare because it has had to admit that it couldn't open up schools in the Lebanese Ein el-Hilweh camp because of terror groups that have taken over the schools.

Although there is plenty wrong with this press release, it is  a slight improvement over the obsessively one-sided anti-Israel propaganda of the past.

[starsinthenigth]

Hello,

I apologize for reaching out like this and hope I’m not inconveniencing you. I’m a queer refugee from Uganda currently residing in the Gorom Refugee Camp in South Sudan, where I’ve been in exile for nearly five years due to life-threatening threats related to my sexual orientation.

I represent over 300 LGBTQ+ individuals who are in urgent need of support. Any small donation you can make would greatly aid our survival. If you’re unable to donate, sharing this message could help us reach someone who can.

Your support could make a significant difference in our lives.

https://gofund.me/4d80b32c

Thank you for considering.

https://gofund.me/4d80b32c

★I am not able to donate, I'm sorry for that, however I could put your reblog your pinned post on my reblog account as a way to share it around.★

[totallyhussein-blog]

Pope Francis sends winter clothing, aid to earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria

Pope Francis has sent 10,000 thermal shirts to earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria, where millions are sleeping outdoors in below-freezing temperatures. As Justin McLellan reported for the Catholic News Service.

Two 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes devastated the region Feb. 6, killing more than 40,000, according to figures released Feb. 15.

According to the Vatican, the winter clothing was personally transported to the port of Naples, some 115 miles south of Rome, by Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner, Feb. 14. 

The shirts arrived in Turkey on Feb. 17 and delivered to the Kilis refugee camp in southern Turkey, which has hosted refugees fleeing the civil war in Syria since 2012 and currently holds some 60,000 people.

The Vatican said Francis also sent an undisclosed amount of financial aid to the apostolic nunciature in Syria to support the Syrian people "already exhausted by so many years of war and now by the devastating earthquake."

Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said that over 1 million people in Turkey are living in temporary housing facilities, such as tents and shipping containers, as of Feb. 11. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, estimated that as many as 5.3 million people could be left homeless in Syria as a result of the earthquakes.

(image from Pope Francis’ visit to Iraq in 2021 and shows the flag of Vatican City)