Covid-19 Starts to Spread
On Thursday, March 5, 2020, my business partners and I were working on the final preparations for the launch of our Canaan Eco project. The idea of this new initiative was to create an interactive program and a personal experience for visitors who wish to visit Palestine as tourists. These activities introduced people to our history and heritage of Palestine. Including opportunities to experience local Palestinian culture such as a Palestinian cooking class, traditional dance (Dabkha), political tours, and other various community activities. Our goal as new entrepreneurs was to develop a sustainable business model that aimed at creating job opportunities for both Palestinian women and men in the West Bank. The monopoly of the Israeli occupation on the tourism sector in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and the Palestinian authority's failure to come up with solutions were other motivations for us to move forward with this project. For example, more than two million people visit the city of Bethlehem annually. The majority of these visitors spend no more than a few hours in the city due to the policies and restrictions imposed by the occupation forces.
On that day, at 3:00 pm, the media began to circulate the news that seven people from the city of Bethlehem were infected with the Corona virus. At the time, this was a shock to all the governorate residents and me. We waited for more information; within several hours, the Minister of Health from the Palestinian government declared a state of emergency in the city of Bethlehem. They announced the start of quarantine, the suspension of all incoming tourism, and the cancellation of all hotel reservations.
The Minister of Health emphasized a set of preventative measures, most importantly the matter of social distancing among citizens. After the press conference, the public experienced panic and fear of these measures. We knew with certainty the inability of the health care system in Palestine to withstand such a crisis; the existing facilities would not be sufficient if the number of people infected was large.
I shared my fears and concerns with my friends about the possibility of an outbreak in my residential area near the Aida Refugee Camp north of Bethlehem. The camp where I am from was originally set up by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in 1950 after the displacement of 750,000 refugees by Zionist gangs between 1947-1948. The camp was built for nearly 1,200 people on an area of 0.71 square kilometers, and after more than 70 years of the ongoing disaster (Nakba) about 5,000 people still live in the same space. The residents inside the camp suffer from overpopulation, lack of privacy.
A lack of public places and the constant assaults by the Israeli occupying forces. Despite the presence of the camp within the guardianship and protection of the United Nations, this does not stop the violations by the Israeli army.
Life in the camp is based on a range of concepts, including “Aonah”, participating and maintaining strong family ties. The importance of these factors lies in the ability to survive despite the harshness of living in the camp and the conditions surrounding the population. The residents of the camp depend on each other and consider themselves one unit by treating each other as a single family despite living within a large population. Social distancing was one of the important factors in preventing the spread of coronavirus and reducing the chances of infection, but it was difficult for the population to adhere to this due to the interdependent social relations, which had helped the refugees survive till this day.
Ironically, when the news of the infection of seven people with the Covid-19 virus was announced in Bethlehem, the Israeli occupation forces immediately closed all entrances and exits of the city. They prevented people from crossing military checkpoints by entering or exiting from them. Their aim was to isolate the city and its residents unilaterally. By closing the iron gates of the checkpoints, these measures transformed the city into a prison and the residents of the city into prisoners. The first image initiated in my mind in those moments was a scene from the movie World War Z by the American actor Brad Pitt, which showed the attempt of zombies climbing the apartheid wall to kill the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In that moment, I felt that we were a group of zombies surrounded by the wall and military towers from all directions. People were trying to protect themselves from us in any way possible because we were infected, and the doors around us were closed.
The topic did not stop there. A few days later, the Palestinian Prime Minister gave a speech about the difficult health situation in the country and announced a set of new measures and actions to reduce the spread of the pandemic. Among those measures was the complete closure of the city of Bethlehem and the declaration of a state of emergency in the country. I remember that day, after 7 p.m. I went out with my journalist friend to see if the people of the city were committed to the closure decision or not.
We found all the shops and facilities closed, and we felt at that moment that the city had turned into a ghost town. At the same time, the residents’ commitment to it was indicative of a great deal of awareness and responsibility. The next morning while I was browsing the news, there was news that a group of the occupation army had violated the closure imposed on the city and three young men in the early morning from the Dheisheh camp were arrested. The army had attacked them and their families during the arrest operation, which created a kind of panic, anger and sarcasm on social media among the Palestinians. At that moment, I felt mixed feelings of anger, weakness, tension, and a lack of understanding of what had happened. I wondered what was the message the occupation was trying to send us? What were they thinking? What were they trying to prove?
The Refugee Camp Responds
On hearing the news of the virus emerging and now spreading into Bethlehem, grassroots actions were needed. I invited local organizations for an urgent community meeting to discuss the topic of Covid-19 at the headquarters of the People's Committee in Aida Refugee Camp. All local organizations attended, and we all agreed to establish an Emergency Committee in the camp and a community plan to put forward as a follow-up on the effects of the pandemic and to determine its negative impact. The pandemic was a completely different experience than what we had dealt with in the past. We were not equipped with enough information about the virus and ways to deal with it.
From the beginning, the Emergency Committee worked to educate the population about the virus’s symptoms and ways of preventing it. The first initiatives included the distribution of sterile packages to homes, educational campaigns, and raising awareness on social media.
The population census in the camp was addressed because we did not know the actual number of residents. A comprehensive field survey was conducted for all families in the camp. Information was collected and analyzed within a week and upon completion of the analysis process. The main needs were identified by taking into account the different ages and groups in the camp. Social solidarity in the camp was manifested through the initiatives of the Emergency Committee.
This Committee was established by the people and its refugee community, not the Palestinian Authorities nor UNRWA. The resources available from the committee were used to purchase supplies, vegetables, medicines, and other essentials to cover the shortage.
The residents exerted a collective effort, not only limited to the relief and health component but also on the moral and psychological side. Young men in the camp organized parties by placing loudspeakers on the rooftops, and a group of young women (wearing masks and gloves) distributed flowers to mothers in the camp on the occasion of Mother's Day. Other efforts included the committee establishing a soup kitchen (Tikka) and a restaurant during the month of Ramadan. The soup kitchen managed to distribute more than 500 meals a day both inside and outside the camp. This initiative created social solidarity among people. The camp also shared all its capabilities and resources with residents on the outside.
Our culture in the refugee camp was maybe not the same as the refugee experience elsewhere, for as a unit, we had to rely on a collective thought, not an individual one. We did not have land; we had a soup kitchen. We had humanism.
Many of the camp's residents work in the tourism sector as hotel workers. Since the pandemic, many families have lost their basic source of income, and the unemployment rate in the camp has increased by more than 80%. This issue has been taken into account and partially addressed through creating opportunities, such as the house renovation project. We restored fourteen houses in the camp despite the risk. Other projects consisted of constructing a football field that the occupation authorities had stopped work on due to the stadium's location adjacent to the apartheid wall. The committee and the workers were able to complete most of the project despite the risks surrounding it. Implementing this project created job opportunities for many families in need in the camp and completion of previously stalled projects.
The establishment of the Emergency Committee in Aida Refugee Camp had a positive impact on the lives of the camp's residents in the light of the pandemic. The lack of resources and the absence of UNRWA in the period of the epidemic posed a challenge and a threat to the lives of the population; however, these challenges did not stop us. With our increased determination, we provided everything we needed for one another, which directly impacted the continuation of the refugees' lives and health. Contrary to what happened in areas globally, there are governments who consider themselves civilized, but they have adopted uncivilized methods of survival at the great expense of others. Many people and countries have suffered through hoarding and theft of medical masks, medical muzzles, examination swabs, and other materials.
The camp presented a cooperative, participatory model with all its resources despite its limitations. We have learned a lot about who we are and who we are not because of this crisis and have experienced firsthand people’s ability to adapt and change their behaviour. We have become stronger from sharing, and the spirit of humanity was spread through our solidarity during these difficult times.
Hope from the Vaccine
The Israeli occupation began the process of vaccinating at the end of December 2020. Israel ranks first in the world in the rate of distributing the vaccine for Covid-19 to its citizens. The Israeli government has been able to administer the vaccine to more than two million people. They provided vaccines to its citizens and even residents of illegal settlements without the consideration of the Palestinians.
The Israeli government has deliberately deprived the supply of vaccinations despite knowing that they are obliged to provide medical care to the occupied territory inhabitants under international law. [1] At the same time, more than 40,000 settlers will receive the vaccine from residents of the Gilo settlement next to Aida camp, which was set up on the land of the village of Al-Maleh. Residents of Aida camp who have been forcibly displaced and have lost all their property will be denied vaccination because of the racist Israeli policies towards the residents' identity and whereabouts.
At the beginning of the new year, an international campaign entitled, The Medicine of the Apartheid, [2] was aimed to expose the occupation’s policy of discriminating towards the Palestinian people. The occupation authorities have denied their responsibility to supply 5 million Palestinians with vaccines. The racism was manifested in the vaccination of their soldiers and jailers but depriving the prisoners of vaccinations. In an article by Amira Hesse entitled "Israel takes the land from the Palestinians and does not give them the vaccine,” [3] Hess spoke about Israel's Internal Security Minister Amir Ohanian's demand that Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails should not be vaccinated with Covid-19 vaccines, which contradicts the third and fourth Geneva conventions that obligate the occupation to provide health care to prisoners. [4]
Amnesty International, along with the Association of Physicians for Human Rights, has called on the Director-General of the Israeli Ministry of Health to provide the vaccine to the five million Palestinians under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza strip, but there is no response from the occupation authority till this day.
Since the outbreak of Covid-19, much remains uncertain for Palestinians. Like many other Palestinian workers making social change through social entrepreneurship, our Canaan Eco project was put on hold until further notice. This added crisis severely impacts many Palestinian workers. In Life in Palestine -II, we will take a deeper look at these impacts and the Palestinian workers' resilience, as these difficulties are what motivated us to create change.
