Photos

The fact of the matter is that the people of Ayda camp, like so many other Palestinian refugee camps have not forgotten or relinguished their belief in their rights to live on their ancestral lands.

The fact of the matter is that for the most part these villages and olive groves no longer exist and a new population, committed to its own survival in an often hostile environment, now occupies these places.

This mural was created a year or two ago by my friend and colleague Paul Gent - it was designed by the children and youth of Ayda and it tells the story of their parents and grandparents lives and of course their own. As Paul was working with the young people to produce this poignant work of art youths were taking on the Israeli troops in an adjoining street - the one in yesterdays picture.

Work on the mural was finally abandoned under an assualt of percussion grenades and teargas - thankfully things were a little calmer on my visit and I enjoyed seeing the great work that is going on with children and young people in the camp.

From 1948 onwards a series of Arab and Jewish massacres led to the eventual mass exodus of Palestinian refugees to the north and east - one particular massacre in the village of Deir Yasin was significant in promoting the large scale exodus of Arab refugees - the scale of the flight is remarkable when you look at the map of villages which people fled from. The brutality of Deir Yasin, near Jerusalem, will not be forgotten easily....but neither too will the random and more orchestrated killing of Jews during the same period.

Many academic studies now dispute the scale of this massacre but the fact remains that the scale of it was such to have a profound effect on the Palestinian population.

This is a link to the original statement by the Red Cross representative who visited the site after the massacre. Further study will reveal contradictory assertions about this massacre. There is also newly documented evidence about what happened as time has passed and the brutality of the event becomes hidden in the mists of history.

http://www.palestinehistory.com/mass01.htm

So many stories

.....endless............disagreements........inhumanity on a scale which brings down curses of war and conflict on the children of all sides......so sad to see the impacts on them down the years......my heart is with the people of all sides who look at this with continued horror and the overwhelming desire for a just peace.If only leadership could pass into their hands for the time it takes..........