We visited a camp for Palestinians and heard despair for Gaza — and anger at America

AMMAN, Jordan — The idea of “residence” generally is a tough one.

Ask an individual, “The place’s residence for you?” and so they might reply with the place they have been born, or the place they grew up, or the place they reside immediately. This query is especially fraught for the folks we got here to fulfill in Hitten camp, certainly one of 10 refugee camps in Jordan that the United Nations gives companies for. About two million registered Palestinians reside in Jordan, essentially the most of any nation.

Many individuals at Hitten, northeast of Amman, have spent a lot or all of their lives right here. However ask them the place house is, and the overwhelming reply is the Palestinian territories: Gaza or the West Financial institution.

We got here right here earlier in November to ask what’s on their minds, as struggle and violence unfold in locations that could be miles away, however that really feel central to their identities.

The very first thing you discover when, as international journalists, you safe permission from native authorities to go to Hitten, is how everlasting it seems. The phrase “camp” suggests a short lived association and rows of tents. However Hitten has been right here for generations, full with concrete buildings and well-established neighborhoods dotted with mosques, slim alleys, retailers and a vigorous vegetable market.

The market is the place we discover Samir Musri. He’s buying along with his eight-year-old daughter. He was born in Amman, however has lived on this camp for years. He identifies as Palestinian, from the West Financial institution. As we strike up a dialog, we’re shortly interrupted by one other passerby – an older lady. She shouts that complete households are being eradicated in Gaza, that so many individuals have been killed. She tells us nobody helps them, not even fellow Arabs.

The sense of anger in Hitten is palpable. We flip again to Musri.

“In fact we’re indignant, as a result of youngsters are being massacred,” he says by an interpreter. “Hospitals have been bombed. So sure, it’s a bloodbath, and individuals are very indignant within the camp.”

Musri directs us deeper into the camp, to a neighborhood the place many Palestinians from Gaza have settled. There we stroll with Saleh Nakhleen, who’s head of logistics on the committee that runs the camp. He is without doubt one of the 90,000-odd individuals who reside in Hitten, about 20,000 of whom reside on this explicit neighborhood. He explains to us that none of them are refugees from this latest struggle.

Lots of the residents have been born on this camp, and a few arrived in Jordan at different moments of battle, just like the Nakba, Arabic for “disaster” – the mass displacement of 1948.

As we stroll with Musri, we’re approached by an older man carrying a conventional pink and white keffiyeh. As we introduce ourselves, he stops and asks, “American?” We verify.

Abu Emad Al Din tells us that America is the enemy, however he agrees to speak to us. Many individuals within the area really feel some model of this fashion, since america authorities – with the sturdy help of President Biden – provided $14 billion in navy support for Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 assaults by Hamas.

Al Din goes on to say he despises Biden, however he understands there’s a distinction between folks and their authorities – a sentiment shared by lots of the folks we spoke to in Jordan. Al Din was born in Gaza in 1945. He was three when his household was compelled out throughout the Nakba, and has been right here ever since.

“I want I might return [to Gaza] proper now,” he tells us by an interpreter. “I might return in a heartbeat.”

We proceed to draw crowds in all places we stroll. One other man invitations us into his residence. His title is Majid Ghawanmeh. He is a pharmacist.

A number of others comply with Ghawanmeh and our staff into his home. We take away our footwear and sit on brown, flowered cushions lining the wall. Within the middle of the room, a TV is turned to Al Jazeera Arabic, which is displaying footage of the carnage in Gaza cut up display with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken talking in regards to the struggle.

“To be sincere with you, we do not entertain or host the enemy,” Ghawanmeh tells us by an interpreter. “And immediately, the enemy is America.”

Nonetheless, a younger boy circles the room providing every of us small thimbles of Arabic espresso and plump dates on a plate. We start to debate the struggle, and he tells us he desires to see a cease-fire, not a humanitarian pause. His spouse is Gazan and her complete household lives there.

“I by no means imagined in my life {that a} democratic nation can be towards a cease-fire — to cease killing civilians, regardless of any political motive or goal,” Ghawanmeh says. ” what a humanitarian pause [is]? It is a manner that the Israeli navy can regroup and restrategize.”

The person subsequent to Ghawanmeh tells us he was visiting the camp from Gaza for a number of months, as a result of his father is from right here. His title is Maher Rashaideh – and now, due to the struggle, he isn’t in a position to get residence.

His household, his youngsters, are all inside Gaza. His greatest precedence is simply making an attempt to achieve them. Web and mobile phone service have been reduce repeatedly in Gaza up to now month. Israel, which maintains a blockade on Gaza, hasn’t mentioned if it is making an attempt to chop off communications.

Rashaideh says when he does handle to get a name by, his questions and message are easy: “I advised them, ‘How are you? Are you dwelling? Maintain yourselves and your sisters.'”

Throughout our dialog, an older lady sits down with us on the cushions. Finally we notice that she does not know anybody within the room – she simply noticed us strolling the camp, wished to talk to us, and adopted us proper right into a stranger’s residence.

She requested us to determine her as Um Mohammed, as a result of she’s frightened in regards to the potential safety dangers for her daughters who’re nonetheless dwelling in Gaza. She got here to this camp when she received married, however is from Gaza.

“I do not cook dinner anymore. I do not eat anymore due to what is going on in Gaza,” she says by an interpreter. Two of her daughters are sheltering at a U.N. college in Gaza close to Rafah Crossing.

“I do not sleep,” she continues. ” what my youngsters did? They deliberately broke my TV so I do not watch what is going on there. So I am on the cellphone on a regular basis.”

Between tears, she tells us she’s been in Jordan for 46 years. Once we ask her the place house is, she factors – proper across the nook. However her coronary heart, she says, is in Gaza.

When requested if she thinks she’ll see Gaza once more, she throws up her arms: “Inshallah.” God prepared. The lads across the room nod.

Native producer Rana Sweis contributed to this report.