The Politics of Suffering by Gabiam Nell;

Author:Gabiam, Nell;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2016-03-08T16:00:00+00:00

Improving the Neirab Barracks

Even though Neirab’s rectangular military barracks had been built on a grid pattern, the grid quickly disappeared as refugees extended their housing in the barracks themselves or moved out of them to build their own houses. There was no formal planning, whether by UNRWA or Syrian authorities; residents simply appropriated the space they needed to build their houses.

Echoing UNRWA’s bleak assessment, the barracks had come to symbolize for many Palestinian refugees in Neirab the unacceptable in terms of what they had to endure because of their status. However, it would become apparent, once UNRWA moved to the implementation phase of construction, that the camp’s residents did not view the barracks solely as a symbol of human indignity. While evoking coffins whose inhabitants were relegated to a “life of death,” as Younes, the young project volunteer from Neirab, put it, the barracks had become a witness to past and ongoing Palestinian suffering resulting from the Nakba. Doing away with them would mean doing away with a key piece of visible historical proof of Palestinian forced displacement and dispossession and of their ongoing effects. Additionally, the barracks were an important component of Neirab’s peculiar architectural landscape, a factor that contributed to its uniqueness as a camp, as a space that stood out from its surroundings.

Because of the sheer density of the barracks area, members of UNRWA’s Neirab Rehabilitation Project team quickly concluded that no change would be able to take place without some inhabitants relocating. While the Syrian government was opposed to enlarging Neirab Camp for constructing new housing, it did agree to donate land adjacent to Ein el Tal, about a twenty-minute drive away, for this purpose. Most residents of the Neirab barracks were initially unwilling to move to Ein el Tal, despite the promise of spacious new houses in exchange for their dingy one-or two-room units in the zinc-covered barracks.4 The project team had to organize several community meetings and visits with families to convince them that moving would be in their best interest. UNRWA set up local camp committees in both Ein el Tal and Neirab at the onset of the project to help the project team better communicate with concerned residents. Neirab’s project liaison officer, Abu Hosam, usually led visits to residents. He also organized visits to Ein el Tal’s new building site for those interested in moving or for those who needed further convincing.

UNRWA had assumed that struggling refugees living in crowded and rundown barracks would jump at the chance to move into spacious houses in Ein el Tal, but leaving Neirab was a difficult decision. In the fall of 2005, I participated in a survey of families from two “test” barracks that were to serve as pilots for deciding the best way to replace the barracks with better housing. My partner during most of my visits was Wisam, a project volunteer and resident of Ein el Tal who had intimate knowledge of the barracks and the families living in them. Before the start

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