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(By popular demand) TRANSCRIPT: CAMP JIHAD: INSIDE UNRWA SUMMER CAMP SEASON, 2013
http://israelbehindthenews.com/bin/content.cgi?ID=5666&q=1
Narrator: The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, also known as UNRWA, serves 5 million descendants of Arab refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israel War.
Each year, UNRWA conducts summer camps for its students. Summer camps are held on the grounds of UNRWA schools near Gaza, Jerusalem, Nablus and Jenin. Funding for the summer fun flows from 20 donor nations, but most of the money comes from the United States, Canada, England, Norway and the European Union.
UNRWA’s summer camp slogan is “Peace Starts Here.” This summer, we visited UNRWA summer camps and met with campers, counselors, teachers, and camp directors. We found kids playing games and having fun. The campers shared what they’ve been learning this summer while teachers and counselors described what they’ve been teaching.
Since World War 2, more than 50 million people have become refugees as the result of a war. UNRWA is the only refugee agency in the world that actively encourages refugees to act upon the Right of Return.
In this film, campers, teachers and counselors, discuss the Right of Return. That means what they think is the right to take back villages that no longer exist where people in Israel now live.
This is their understanding of Peace Starts Here.
Video of group of girls chanting together:
The Arab nation is exalted!
Like a flame of fire,
Like shining eyes
Long live Palestine!
Praise Jerusalem!
It is the best city on earth.
Praise Jerusalem!
It is the best city on earth.
Long live Palestine!
Video interview wth Amina Hinawi, UNRWA Camp Director, Gaza:
We teach the children about the villages that they came from.
The children learn the names of many villages – not just the names of big cities, like Jerusalem. This way, every child will be motivated to return to their village.
UNRWA finances this summer camp.
I’m very, very appreciative of UNRWA, because the children of Palestine and Gaza need this.
Video interview with Nasrin Bisharat, UNRWA social worker, Balata UNRWA Refugee Camp:
We began the summer camp on June 25 and we will continue until July 8, two days before Ramadan.
We teach the culture of the Nakba to campers. That way, they know their origins. Even the names of their teams are, for example, Haifa, Acre. Every team is named for a village that they left. This will remain embedded in the memory of every child. We try, on days like Nakba Day, to commemorate the Nakba in the school. Last year [on Nakba Day], we built tents. We named each tent after a village where the refugees came from.
Audio of male voice/instructor off camera, video of classroom with children:
Instructor: You want to return to Jaffa?
Children: Yes!
Instructor: You want to return to Haifa?
Children: Yes!
Instructor: You want to return to Nazareth?
Children: Yes!
Instructor: You want to return to Acre?
Children: Yes!
Video, female teacher in black outfit with white baseball hat:
Teacher: Peace be upon you!
I want to ask each of you where you are from.
Tell me the name of your village and then we will talk about the Nakba.
Where are you from?
Student: I am from Palestine. I am from Haifa.
Student: I am from Jaffa.
Student: I am from Beit Dajan, Jaffa district.
Student: Jaffa.
Student: Jaffa.
Student: Jaffa.
Student: Jaffa.
Student: Haifa.
Teacher: Good. These are the villages that we were deported from. In 1948, we were expelled from our homes where our ancestors lived an honorable life. And then came the occupation, and they were expelled from their homes. We had to live in tents. We will return to our villages with power and honor. With God’s help and our own strength we will wage war. And with education and Jihad we will return!
Video interview with Ahmad Souje, UNRWA counselor, Balata:
The Right of Return is a holy right. No one will give it up. If I won’t return, it will be my children. If not my children, it will be my grandchildren. We will return.
Video of female teacher with groups of kids:
Teacher: Say it louder!
Group 1: Haifa!
Teacher: Say it louder!
Group 2: Jaffa!
Teacher: Say it louder!
Group 1: Haifa!
Teacher: Say it louder!
Group 2: Jaffa!
Interview with H’lah Mourad, UNRWA camper, Balata:
UNRWA schools teach us about the Nakba. The government schools teach about the Nakba, but the course load is less than our schools. They teach us a lot about the Right of Return — how life was like before and how they were expelled, in the days of the Nakba in 1948 and how they expelled us from our villages.
Interview with Dunia Mugrabi, UNRWA camper, Balata:
My mother is from Sheikh Munis (now Tel Aviv University).
Off camera question from interviewer: Does your mother talk about Sheikh Munis?
She says there is a sea nearby, and it is very nice there. Life is better than life in a refugee camp. I dream that we will return to our land, and with God’s help, Abu Mazen will achieve that goal and that we will not be disappointed because he is building up great hopes and we hope that these hopes are not destroyed.
Interview with Ala Sirhan, UNRWA camper, Balata:
Kafreen [near Haifa] is a beautiful village with beautiful people. The beach is beautiful. The children were happy there.
Interview with Mahanned Abu Shamale, UNRWA camper, Gaza:
The name of my bunk is Beit Daras. My ancestors came from there, and I own the land and a day will come when I will live there.
Interview with Abed Bass, UNRWA camper, Gaza:
We construct kites and write our villages’ names on them, like Jura, Acre, Haifa, Jaffa and our bunks are named after the villages.
Video of kite with Arabic writing and 1948: Lod
Video of boy holding kite with Arabic writing: Yavneh
Video of boy holding kite with Arabic writing: Ashkelon
Video interview of female teacher, UNRWA Balata:
Every day since the Nakba and exile brings us closer to the Right of Return. The Right of Return and compensation — there is no alternative.
Video of girl, Batoon Sayuri, UNRWA camper, Balata, singing:
I am returning to my homeland, returning to my homeland. To the land of Al Aksa, to my homeland.
Me and my children are returning to Al Aksa, our homeland. It will be wonderful to be in our courtyard again.
I will not forget my promise to take back my land.
Video interview of Hadil Speitan, UNRWA camper, Balata:
Male interviewer, off camera: Where are you from?
Hadil: I am from Jaffa. My father is from Jaffa and my mother is from Netanya.
Male interviewer, off camera:H ave you been to Jaffa?
Hadil: No. I am now drawing my homeland map because I want to return. With the songs and the map, my dream of returning continues.
Male interviewer, off camera: What is this?
Hadil (holding up a map of Palestine (with all of Israel) she has drawn): This is the map of Palestine.
Male interviewer, off camera: What did you write on it?
Hadil: I wrote the names of the cities and I wrote ‘Free Palestine.’
Hadil (singing): We are the revolutionaries
We are filled with rage
We are the hope of generations
With our deeds, heroism has been written
We are the revolutionaries
We are filled with rage
We are the hope of generations
With our deeds, heroism has been written
We are the rising sun
We are the sword and also the joy
We are the children’s joy
We are the revolutionaries
We are filled with rage
We are the hope of generations
With our deeds, heroism has been written
We will forget the difficult days and the difficult events
We are like strangers in our homeland
We seek freedom
Happiness is distant
But victory is close
It will be precious
We are the revolutionaries
We are filled with rage
We are the hope of generations
With our deeds, heroism has been written
Video of girl 1 at blackboard drawing map of Palestine: she writes Jerusalem in Arabic on blackboard
Video of girl 2 at blackboard: she writes Safed in Arabic on blackboard
Video of girl 3 at blackboard: she writes Beersheba in Arabic on blackboard
Video interview of Shahed Arja, UNRWA camper, Gaza:
The name of my bunk is Jerusalem. We chose it because it is the eternal capital of the Palestinians. The summer camp teaches us that we have to liberate Palestine, and we have to be determined in order to return.
Video of UNRWA teacher in classroom at Balata summer camp:
We played some nice games today. Now for a story. A long time ago, before we were born, our parents were on the beach. They sailed ships, they would travel, they had cars, palaces and villas. Do we still have the sea? Where is the sea? Do you want to go to the sea?
Children: Yes.
Teacher: Before, we had a sea. Our grandfather and grandmother spent time on the beach. Every night, they told stories. They told us that they would spend time on the beach, swimming and sailing along the beach.
We don’t have a sea, correct?
Children: Yes.
Teacher: Do you want to go to the sea?
Children: Yes.
Teacher: To the sea of Jaffa, Haifa, Nazareth and Acre. Correct?
Children: Yes!
Teacher: While our families were having fun on the beach, we were having a barbecue and a wolf appeared. Who is the wolf?
The Jews!
Isn’t it true that the Jews are the wolf?
What did the Jews do to us?
They expelled us and deported us!
They killed us and shot our families.
They expelled us from our villages, they arrested our fathers and grandfathers.
Correct?
And where did they expel us to?
To the refugee camps — and we came to this camp.
What was here?
Tents!
Did we live in tents?
What happened to our life on the beach, on the ships?
We were happy and had a great life.
No one shot us at night and no one disturbed us. Correct?
And we came to the refugee camps.
And who built the refugee camps?
Who built the homes in this camp?
We lived in tents.
Who built the refugee camp?
UNRWA!
Right? We did not live here.
Therefore the refugee camp is not ours.
Where were we before?
Children: In Jaffa, Acre, Haifa, Nazareth.
Teacher: And who owned the sea? And who had nice houses and villas?
Who expelled us?
Children: The Jews!
Teacher: Do we want to return to Jaffa and Haifa?
Children: Yes!
Video interview with Mesam Abu Hindi, UNRWA camper, Balata:
Concerning me and my age group, our education will guide us. For those who are older than me, weapons will accelerate the Right of Return. And they will fight as much as they can.
Video of song sung by Lena Hanoon, UNRWA camper, Balata:
In this world we are like birds without feathers. My mother tells her neighbor: Collect stones! Throw them at the [Israeli] patrol! Throw them at the [Israeli] patrol!
Video interview of Ahmad Souje, UNRWA counselor, Balata:
The only alternative to implement the Right of Return is Blood for Blood, and an Eye for an Eye. In the same way they expelled us, we will expel them.
Video interview of Fadi Muslemi, UNRWA counselor, Balata:
In 1948, a Zionist gang deported the Palestinians from their original lands. Since the Nakba, the Palestinians have been negotiating. We took back just 18 percent of our homeland. But what we achieved during the Intifada of Stones and the Al Alsa Intifada and in Gaza, shows us that what was captured with force can be recaptured with force. I will return, if not me, then my children or my grandchildren. There is no other way.
Video interview with Tayma, UNRWA camper, Balata:
I want to return to Kafar Kassem whether the Jews like it or not. I will defeat the Jews. They are a gang of infidels and Christians. They don’t like Allah and do not worship Allah. And they hate us.
Interviewer: Who are the Jews?
Tayma: They are a gang of infidels and Christians, they don’t believe in Allah and they hate us.
Interview with Musab, UNRWA camper, Balata:
Interviewer: How will you return to Jaffa?
Musab: When Palestine is liberated, and the Palestinians defeat the Jews, then all of the refugees will return to their homes and villages.
Interviewer: What game do kids play?
Musab: Palestinians against Jews. We shoot each other.
Interviewer: How will you defeat the Jews?
Musab: By missiles!
Video interview of Nur Adin Mohammed, UNRWA camper, Gaza:
There will never be peace between us and Israel.
Video interview of UNRWA (girl) camper, Balata:
Interviewer: Where are you from?
Girl: I am from Lod.
Interviewer: How do you know that?
Girl: My grandmother.
Interviewer: What did she tell you?
Girl: That the Jews deported us.
Interviewer: Would you like to return to Lod?
Girl: Yes.
Interviewer: How will you return?
Girl: We will defeat the Jews.
Video interview of Wasim Abu Shaban, UNRWA camper, Gaza:
I must return to my land and re-conquer it. This is my right. As Palestinians, we must defend our honor and recapture our land.
Video interview of Mohammed Jamal, UNRWA camper, Balata:
Attacking stage-by-stage is not the right way. if we attack them altogether at once, that will be the answer.
Video interview of Ala Sirhan, UNRWA camper, Balata:
Interviewer: How will you return?
Ala: By fighting.
Interviewer: How will you fight?
Ala: The resistance in Gaza was not enough. We need to unite and fight together in order to return. Not slowly but all at once.
Video of teacher in summer camp classroom, Balata:
What happened in Balata [refugee] camp?
We offered martyrs! Prisoners!
Suicide bombers!
Houses were destroyed.
What happened in this [refugee] camp?
Who is related to a martyr?
Whose father or brother is a martyr or is in prison?
Why were there martyrs?
In order to liberate Al Aksa and to return to Haifa and Jaffa.
Palestine is an Arab land from the river to the sea!
Children: What happened in Balata [refugee] camp?
Teacher: Palestine is an Arab land from the river to the sea!
Children: Palestine is an Arab land from the river to the sea!
Teacher: Palestine is an Arab land from the river to the sea!
Children: Palestine is an Arab land from the river to the sea!
Teacher: We want Haifa, we want Acre!
Children: We want Haifa, we want Acre!
Teacher: We want Haifa, we want Acre!
Children: We want Haifa, we want Acre!
Teacher: We’re going to Al Aksa! We’re going to Al Aksa!
Children: We’re going to Al Aksa! We’re going to Al Aksa!
Teacher: Palestine is ours from the river to the sea!
Children: Palestine is ours from the river to the sea!
Video of camper singing song, UNRWA, Balata:
When we die as martyrs we go up to heaven.
When we die as martyrs we go up to heaven.
Don’t say that we are children
Because life has made us older.
In Palestine, there is no childhood.
There is no childhood without Palestine.
Children have obeyed the command.
Children have obeyed the command.
Don’t tell us we are young
Because life has made us older.
In Palestine, there is no childhood.
Narrator: Young Palestinians look back on the fun they had this season at UNRWA summer camp where they learned values of the Right of Return, martyrdom and jihad. The question is, do the donor nations know what values UNRWA is teaching?
Final Frame: the nations that fund UNRWA- taken from the web site:
http://israelbehindthenews.com/library/pdfs/Top20DonorsUNRWA2010.pdf
