displaced Palestinians have nowhere to turn

The people of Jenin Refugee Camp, in the occupied West Bank, have experienced many difficulties and much suffering over the years.The camp was established in 1953, after the Nakba, to house Palestinians expelled from over 50 villages in the Haifa and Nazareth areas by the Israeli occupation.

Jenin Refugee Camp residents endure

Until last year, 17,000 Palestinians lived in the 1 km² Jenin Camp. They endured decades of displacement and military incursions, and one of the highest levels of poverty and unemployment of all those living in the West Bank refugee camps.

Farha Abu AlhaijaI was born and brought up in the camp. She says the situation is now the most difficult it has ever been for the people who lived there. In January 2025, the largest forced displacement in the West Bank since 1967 took place. The criminal ‘Israeli’ regime launched Operation Iron Wall, forcibly displacing 40,000 Palestinians living in Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams refugee camps.

She tells the Canary:

All 17,000 people from Jenin camp have been displaced, along with about 1800 houses completely destroyed. That is around half of the houses that were in Jenin Camp. The other houses are burnt or partially destroyed. The Palestinian Authority (PA) and UNRWA paid six months of their rent for the people, but now it has finished, and the PA cannot pay. So the people have to pay from their own money, but they cannot pay, as they don’t have enough money. No one is helping them, and it is a big problem. Some go out of their houses to stay with. their family, while others have moved into metal or plastic shelters.

82 percent of displaced families in the Northern West Bank are currently living in rented accommodation. This causes a huge financial burden on Palestinians. While living in Jenin Refugee Camp, residents needs were met, and accommodation was free. But those forcibly displaced must now pay rent. In addition, there is an unemployment crisis in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli occupation has not only driven the Palestinian economy to “near total collapse”. It has also, since October 2023, taken away permits allowing work in ‘Israel’ from more than 100,000 Palestinians.

Huge psychological toll on women and children from

According to Abu Alhaijal, these hardships also take a psychological toll on the population, including herself:

It’s very very difficult. All my history, my friends, my family were in this camp. Many people have been killed, many from my family. I wonder what we can do. We want peace for our children, to continue their lives, but there is no hope for people here. We feel we have lost all things.

Abu Alhaijal is also chairperson of Not to Forget Association, an organisation working with women and children of Jenin refugee camp. It was established in the aftermath of the 2002 massacre. 150 Israeli occupation force (IOF) tanks and armoured personnel carriers, along with F16 fighter jets, shelled the camp. No food, water or medical supplies were allowed in, while the dead and injured residents were prevented from leaving the camp or receiving treatment for their injuries. According to Human Rights Watch, 400 people were made homeless, their houses demolished and destroyed by the IOF.

She told me:

After the incursion in Jenin Camp in 2002, it was really the women and children who were most in need, because their psychology was very destroyed. We cared for those who had lost members of their family – at this time the occupation damaged the houses, so many people left the camp. More than 70 were killed, including many children and those with disabilities. Immediately, Not to Forget set up a psycho-social support project, with mothers and their children from Jenin camp.

Although this project was the association’s first programme, it was not the last. Then came the distribution of much needed relief – food, blankets, medicine, and even school materials. But according to Abu Alhaijar the most recent incursion, which displaced the entire population of Jenin Refugee Camp, has been the hardest for those affected.

Not to Forget providing “an emergency response to the tragic situation”

She says:

We are providing an emergency response to the tragic situation the people of Jenin camp have found themselves facing. Some families are unable to pay for rent, electric, water, or medicine. Not To Forget tries to help them, but we cannot do this all the time, as we are also struggling with funding. This is an especially big problem for the people now. We are in Ramadan now, a special time for the Islamic people. They must prepare food, sit the family at the same table, but there’s nothing for the people now.

Snipers prevent anyone accessing Jenin Refugee Camp to see what, if anything, remains of their homes. Those who have entered the camp have been shot and killed, including children. From their office, the Not to Forget team often see burning homes and explosions from the camp area, and hear shooting throughout the day. But they have no idea what is happening there, or what the Israeli occupation is shooting at. And while the association knows that its centres in the camp were destroyed, there have no further details.

Abu Alhaijal says:

It’s a really tragic situation. The children pay the highest price, and the impact of displacement on them is great. They don’t accept the situation they find themselves in. Many times we have gone outside to make a trip. But the children ask if they can go back to the camp instead.

The association’s staff members are now scattered throughout various villages in the area, so travelling to the newly rented centre in Jenin is often difficult. But these psychologists, educators, and teachers continue their essential work with women and children.

All that is needed is for powerful countries to stop supporting the terrorist state of ‘Israel’

Not to Forget projects are numerous and varied. Teenagers benefit from vocational training, such as car maintenance courses. The association has also joined forces with Medical Aid for Palestine, to help Palestinians come to terms with their grief and trauma. Women are taught new skills, not only to give them self confidence but to provide them with a livelihood. Economic empowerment is extremely important, especially during this period of high unemployment. Children also benefit from after school teaching that is currently taking place.

Conditions across the occupied West Bank are dire. Not only has the economy collapsed, and public services become non-functional. Settlers and the IOF also terrorise, displace, and kill Palestinians on a daily basis. Vast amounts of Palestinian land are stolen for the ‘Jewish state’, while more than 10,000 Palestinians are held as political prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons. Silence from the international community gives these Israeli terrorists confidence. They make no attempt to conceal their crimes, which occur in broad daylight, and are carefully planned out to inflict maximum suffering on the Palestinian population.

International support for the people of Palestine is now more important than ever and, according to Abu Alhaijal, change is not as difficult as people imagine.

She told me:

Change would be easy if there was international pressure on Israel. Israel doesn’t work alone. It has the support of the powerful – the US, the Arabic countries and the rest of the world. This world support allows Israel to continue doing whatever it wants. Without this, Israel would be nothing.

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