Yarmouk minors: their situation and displacement… their agency through cultural forms, psychosocial activities and through daily life actions

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on exiled minors from Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp. It elucidates how the trauma of Yarmouk, resulting from the Syrian conflict, evokes the Nakba of 1948 and the loss of Palestine. It explains generally how this trauma has affected minors of Yarmouk, but on the other hand how they are able to engage positively in such situations. Therefore, it focuses on the agency of Yarmouk minors, and explores it through investigating their cultural forms such as poem reciting and singing, as well as through focusing on their engagement both in psychosocial activities and daily life actions. Poems that emphasize the displacement from Palestine and Yarmouk as well as illustrate the imagination of the lost land. Daily activities and psychosocial that stress the pursuit for a normal life. Theoretical concepts borrowed from Anderson, Chatterjee and Hage are employed in order to enable us understand in which ways minors demonstrate their agency in order to maintain the daily survival. The data analysed in this paper stems from interviews with Yarmouk residents, both adults and minors, along with visual materials such as videos and photos provided by relief workers and activists.

Acknowledgments

I am greatly indebted to all who assisted me in this article. They include first and foremost people from Yarmouk camp who both facilitated my contact with people on the ground and provided me with valuable data. Their names are anonymised throughout the article, except for the music teacher, Aeham Ahmad and Ahmad Abassi, photographer and film maker. Both are public figures. I am also deeply grateful to my friends Ida Rump and Mette Edith for their valuable readings and comments. Also to Nina Horstmann for her precious proofreading and valuable comments. Equally, I thank the anonymous BRISMES reviewers for their constructive comments that helped me be more focused.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ The Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp lies only eight kilometers from Damascus, the Syrian capital. It was established between 1954 and 1957 to accommodate displaced Palestinians, see Valentina Napolitano, ‘Militant Conversion and Transformation of Palestinian Civil Society Organization in Al-Yarmouk’, Al-Majdal, no. 57 (Summer 2015): 11. This is because of the internal colonization and Judaisation of Palestine in 1948, see Nur Masalha, The Palestine Nakba:Decolonising History, Narrating the Subaltern, Reclaiming Memory (London & New York: Zed Books, 2012), 38. Yarmouk used to be a significant commercial and industrial hub, see Ali Badwan, ‘The Current Situation of Palestinians in Syria: An Eye-Witness Testimony’, Al-MajdalAl-Majdal, no. 57 (Summer 2015): 9.

² The year 1948 marks, as discussed by Palestinian historian Nur Masalha in his book Expulsion of the Palestinians (1992), the transfer of Palestinians from their land, see Nur Masalha, Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of `Transfer´ in Zionist Political Thought, 1882–1948 (Reprint Beirut: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1992), 210. 1948 marks the dispossession and uprooting of most Palestinians, who lost their homes, see Ghada Karmi, Married To Another Man: Israel’s Dilemma in Palestine (London: Pluto Press, 2007), 17; Masalha, The Palestine Nakba, 1. Pappé argues about ethnic cleansing in his work The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, see Ilan Pappé, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (London: One world publications, 2006). In 1948, over 800,000 indigenous Palestinians (see Edward W. Said, The Politics of Dispossession: The Struggle for Palestinian Self-Determination, 1969–1994 (New York: Vintage books, 1994), xxxvii) were uprooted from their homes and became refugees, see Rashid Khalidi, Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), 21. Their number stands at around six millions today, see Al-Awda, ‘Factsheet on Palestinian Refugees’, Al-Awda, (2012) http://al-awda.org/learn-more /factsheet-on-palestinian-refugees. More than 400 villages were destroyed as a result of the Nakba, see Said, The Politics of Dispossession, xxxvii. A number of atrocities perpetrated by Zionist militias, such as massacres and rape have been documented, see Ari Shavit, ‘Survival of the Fittest? An Interview with Benny Morris’, Weekly Magazine (Tel Aviv), 1 January 2004. The Nakba also marks the loss of 78 per cent of Palestine, see Dina Matar, What it means to be a Palestinian: Stories of Palestinian Peoplehood (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2011), 12; and Ingrid Jaradat Gassner,‘1947 Partitions Revisited’, Badil, Accountability and the Peace Making Process, no. 35, (Autumn 2007). http://www.badil.org/component/k2/item/408-1947-partitions-revisited.html.

³ The Naksa of 1967 marks the loss of the rest of the land and the displacement of 200,000 more Palestinians, see Masalha, Expulsion of the Palestinians, 209. These refugees and their descendants number about 834,000 today, see Al-Awda, ‘Factsheet on Palestinian Refugees’. Internal colonization and Judaisation started in 1948 and continued in 1967, see Masalha, The Palestine Nakba, 38. The role of the Israel’s constitution in Palestine has been defined by some Palestinian, Israeli and other scholars as a ‘pure settlement colony’, see Anna Bernard, Rhetorics of Belonging, Nation, Narration, and Israel/Palestine (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2013), 14 quoting Piterberg, 2008: xii—a settler colonial project, which is still ongoing, see John Collins, Global Palestine (London: Hurst Publishers, 2011), 2.

⁴ Land Day refers to the event, where thousands of Palestinians in Israel gathered on 30 March 1976 to protest Israeli plans to expropriate 60,000 dunams of Palestinians owned land in Galilee, see Arjan El Fassed, ‘What is it that Palestinians commemorate on Land Day?’ Electronic Intifada, https://electronicintifada.net/content/what-itpalestinians-commemorate-land-day/5039 (accessed 30 March 2001).

⁵ Um Sa’d is a symbol of steadfastness of Palestinian mothers, who are able to cope with their situations despite the death and imprisonment of their beloved ones, see Andrea O’Reilly, Encyclopedia of Motherhood (SAGE Publications, 2010), 864.

⁶ A popular Palestinian poet.

⁷ Edward W. Said, The Question Of Palestine, (Reprint, New York: Vintage books, (1992), 1979), xxxv.

⁸ Halleh Ghorashi, Ways to Survive, Battles to Win: Iranian Women Exiles in the Netherlands and the United States, (New York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc, 2002), 97–98.

⁹ Ghorashi, Ways to Survive, Battles to Win, 97.

¹⁰ Ibid., 98 quoting Agha, 1997.

¹¹ Ibid.

¹² Walter D. Mignolo, The Dark Side of Western Modernity. Global Futures, Decolonial Options, (Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2011).

¹³ http://jafrafoundation.org.

¹⁴ Jean-Pierre Filiu, (2015) From Deep State to Islamic State. The Arab Counter-Revolution and its Jihadi Legacy, (London: Hurst & Co., 2015), 217; and Napolitano, ‘Militant Conversion and Transformation’, 11.

¹⁵ Buthaina Shaheen and Leila Stockmarr, ‘Interview indefra Yarmouk-lejren i Syrien- (Interview from within Yarmouk Camp)’, Denfri 2 March 2014, https://www.denfri.dk/2014/03/interview-indefra-yarmouk-lejren-syrien/ (accessed 18 August 2017).

¹⁶ Katrien De Bock, ‘Palestinian Refugees in Syria: an overview’, Al-Majdal, no.57 (Summer 2015), 4.

¹⁷ Ibid.

¹⁸ Sam Masters and Fernande van Tets, ‘Syria civil war: Government’s “indiscriminate and stupid” bombing of the Yarmouk refugee camp is the latest threat to its 18,000 residents’, Independent, 7 April 2015, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-civil-war-governments-indiscriminate-and-stupid-bombing-of-the-yarmouk-refugee-camp-is-the-10160805.html (accessed 18 August 2017).

¹⁹ ‘Militant Conversion and Transformation of Palestinian Civil Society Organization in al-Yarmouk’, 11.

²⁰ Merve Şebnem Oruç, ‘Kneel or starve to death’ strategy of Assad’, Daily Sabah, 12 January 2016, http://www.dailysabah.com/columns/merve-sebnem-oruc/2016/01/12/kneel-or-starve-to-death-strategy-of-assad (accessed 18 August 2017).

²¹ The New Arab, ‘Starvation and dehydration plagues Syria’s Yarmouk residents’, Alaraby, 19 April 2016, https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/society/2016/4/19/starvation-and-dehydration-plagues-syrias-yarmouk-residents. (accessed 18 August 2017); and Kareem Shaheen, ‘In Yarmouk, hope is the only currency with value’, The Guardian, 9 July 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/09/in-yarmouk-damascus-syria-hope-only-currency-value (accessed 30 May 2017).

²² Maureen Clare Murphy, ‘Catastrophe in Yarmouk as ISIS seizes camp’, Electronic Intifada, 5 April 2015, https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/catastrophe-yarmouk-isis-seizes-camp (accessed 18 August 2017).

²³ Patrick Strickland, ‘ISIL and Nusra put Yarmouk civilians in line of fire’, Aljazeera, 15 April 2016, http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/04/isil-nusra-put-yarmouk-civilians-line-fire-160414065149261.html (accessed 28 October 2016).

²⁴ Ibid., Badwan, ‘The Current Situation of Palestinians in Syria’, 9.

²⁵ Budour Hassan, ‘The End of the World: A Poet’s Journey from Syria to Algiers’, GlobalVoices, 29 October 2016, https://globalvoices.org/2016/10/29/the-end-of-the-world-a-poets-journey-from-syria-to-algiers/ (accessed 18 August 2017).

²⁶ Filiu, From Deep State to Islamic State, 217.

²⁷ ‘The Per Anger prize is awarded annually to a person who has made significant efforts to promote democracy and humanitarian intervention’, see Levandehistoria, ‘The Per Anger prize goes to Abdullah al-Khateeb in Syria’, Levandehistoria, http://www.levandehistoria.se/press/release/2016/anger-prize-goes-abdullah-al-khateeb-syria (accessed 29 September 2016). Available online: http://www.levandehistoria.se/press/release/2016/anger-prize-goes-abdullah-al-khateeb-syria (accessed 18 August 2017).

²⁸ Shaheen and Stockmarr, ‘Interview from within Yarmouk Camp’.

²⁹ Lizzie Dearden, ‘Isis sniper ‘shoots dead 13-year-old Palestinian girl trying to escape Syrian refugee camp’, Independent, 13 April 2015, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-sniper-shoots-dead-13-year-old-palestinian-girl-trying-to-escape-syrian-refugee-camp-10173312.html (accessed 18 August 2017).

³⁰ Radio63, ‘Aknaf bit al-maqdis tukharij dawrat ililashbal (Aknaf bit Amaqdis trains children)’, Radio63, 30 August 2016, https://yarmouk63.com/2016/08/30/اكناف-بيت-المقدس-تخرج-دورة-للأشبال/ (accessed 18 August 2017).

³¹ Dearden, ‘Isis sniper ‘shoots dead 13-year-old Palestinian girl’.

³² Action group for Palestinians of Syria,‘Wide Condemnation by Families of the PLA Soldiers after their Children Participate in Battles alongside the regime’, Actionpal, September 10, 2016a, http://www.actionpal.org.uk/en/post/3892/news-and-reports/wide-condemnation-by-families-of-the-pla-soldiers-after-their-children-participate-in-battles-alongside-the-regime (accessed 18 August 2017).

³³ ‘Palestinian Liberation Army (PLA) was established as the official military branch of the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organisation) in 1964, in accordance with the resolutions of the 1st Palestinian Conference’. Brigades were established in Gaza, Egypt, Iraq and Syria, see Palestineun,‘Permanent Observer Mission of The State of Palestine to the United Nations. New York’, Palestineun, http://palestineun.org/about-palestine/palestine-liberationorganization/(accessed 7 July 2017).

³⁴ Action group for Palestinians of Syria,‘Wide Condemnation by Families of the PLA Soldiers’.

³⁵ See note 24 above.

³⁶ De Bock, ‘Palestinian Refugees in Syria’, 4.

³⁷ Palestinian Refugees Portal, ‘Daesh’s violations in Yarmouk’, Refuggesps, 8 September 2016, https://refugeesps.net/posts/%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AA%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%B4-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D9%85%D8%AE%D9%8A%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%B1%D9%85%D9%88%D9%83 (accessed 18 August 2017).

³⁸ Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism, (New York: Vintage books (1994), 1993), xii.

³⁹ Ibid.

⁴⁰ Ibid.

⁴¹ ‘Militant Conversion and Transformation of Palestinian Civil Society Organization in al-Yarmouk’, 12.

⁴² Said, The Question Of Palestine, 5.

⁴³ The poem of ‘Mawtini’ was written in the 1930s (during the Palestinian revolution) and ‘has major emotional significance for every Palestinian’, see Dan Rabinowitz and Khawla Abu-Baker, Coffins on Our Shoulders: The experience of the Palestinian Citizens of Israel (Berkeley and Los Angeles, California, University of California Press, 2005), 1.

⁴⁴ Damascus is called Sham in colloquial Syrian.

⁴⁵ Jafra Foundation, ‘Shadaina al-hujin mukhayam al-Yarmouk- we are getting ready, Yarmouk camp’, Jafra Foundation, 31 August 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQu0PHa3lnk (accessed 18 August 2017). The extracts are chosen and translated from Arabic into English by the author.

⁴⁶ Qudssaya was besieged by the Assad regime and was under the control of opposition groups, see Action group for Palestinians of Syria, Action group for Palestinians of Syria,‘Ishtibakat wa qasif madfai’ yastahdif baldit qudssaya allati yaskunuha sit alaf a’aila falastiniya (Clashes and bombardments on Qudssaya, where 6,000 Palestine families reside)’, Actionpal, 21 September 2016, http://www.actionpal.org.uk/ar/post/5762/مجموعة-العمل-من-أجل-فلسطينيي-سورية/اشتباكات-وقصف-مدفعي-يستهدف-بلدة-قدسيا-التي-يقطنها-6-آلاف-عائلة-فلسطينية (accessed 18 August 2017).

⁴⁷ Benedict Andersen, Imagined Communities, Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, (Reprint, London: Verso 1997, (1983)).

⁴⁸ Ibid.,7, 8.

⁴⁹ Collins, Global Palestine,4.

⁵⁰ Ibid.

⁵¹ Andersen, Imagined Communities, 7.

⁵² Quarters in Yarmouk.

⁵³ Famous pastry in Yarmok.

⁵⁴ Qudssaya, Jaramana and Sahnaya are towns in Damascus.

⁵⁵ Jafra Foundation, ‘shadaina al-hujin mukhayam al-Yarmouk—we are getting ready, Yarmouk camp)’. The extracts are chosen and translated from Arabic into English by the author.

⁵⁶ Anne Barnard, ‘From Syrian Rubble to German Concert Halls With a Piano, a Mission and Survivor’s Guilt’, New York Times, 6 August 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/07/world/europe/refugee-song-syria-germany.html (accessed 18 August 2017).

⁵⁷ Ibid.

⁵⁸ The author’s telephone interview with Aeham Ahmad.

⁵⁹ Aeham Ahmad, ‘Kids singing in Yarmouk Camp, Damascus, Syria’, Aeham Ahmad, July 2015, http://www.aeham-ahmad.com/en/photos-videos/ (accessed 18 August 2017).

⁶⁰ See note 49 above.

⁶¹ Partha Chatterjee, The Nation and its fragments Colonial and postcolonial Histories, (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1993), 6.

⁶² Ibid, 48.

⁶³ Ibid.

⁶⁴ Nur Masalha, ‘nadwet Constantin Zureiq- Costantin Zureiq’s Forum)’, Birzeit University, 24 February 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvwxBwcXYeg (accessed 18 August 2017).

⁶⁵ Ibid.

⁶⁶ Ibid.

⁶⁷ Jafra Foundation, ‘the summer club at Jafra center. The engagement of Palestinian embroidery by small hands’, Jafra Foundation, 2016, https://www.facebook.com/pg/Jafra.Foundation/videos/ (accessed 18 August 2017).

⁶⁸ Nora Barrow-Friedman, ‘Watch: Palestinian poets Remi Kanazi and Rafeef Ziadah—“We teach life, sir”’, The Electronic Intifada, 14 November 2001), https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/watch-palestinian-poets-remi-kanazi-and-rafeef-ziadah-we-teach-life-sir (accessed August 18 2017).

⁶⁹ Said, Culture and Imperialism, xii.

⁷⁰ Jafra Foundation, ‘the summer club at Jafra center’.

⁷¹ Jamil Sbitan, ‘Handala will age again soon’, Jadaliyya, 3 June 2012, http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/5812/handala-will-age-again-soon (accessed 18 August 2017).

⁷² Ghassan Hage, IN UNOCCUPIED PALESTINE (Keynote delivered at the ‘Between Dependence and Independence: What Futurefor Palestine?’ conference, Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Institute of InternationalStudies, Birzeit University, Ramallah, Palestine, March 9 2013). Available online: https://www.academia.edu/5623084/In_Unoccupied_Palestine .

⁷³ Ibid., 2.

⁷⁴ Ibid., 1-2.

⁷⁵ Ibid., 2-3.

⁷⁶ Ahmad Abbasi, ‘Life if beautiful’, Facebook, 2016, https://www.facebook.com/ahmad.abassi.319/videos/vb.100010991230325/341397649569940/?type=2&theater (accessed 18 August 2017).

⁷⁷ Ghassan Hage, IN UNOCCUPIED PALESTINE, 2.

⁷⁸ Ibid., 2-5.

⁷⁹ Ibid., 3.

⁸⁰ Ibid.