Hajja Rabaa Abed and Hajja Halima from Baqaa Camp in Jordan embody the tragedy of Palestinian refugees who were displaced by the Israeli occupation from their cities and villages in the 1948 Nakba.
On the 76th anniversary of the Nakba in Palestine, a report by Tel Aviv Tribune’s correspondent in Jordan, Tamer Al-Sammadi, shed light on Palestinians who lived through the bitter stages of the Nakba and are currently living in Al-Baqa’a Camp, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in the world, which is located on the outskirts of the Jordanian capital, Amman.
Despite the long years, Hajja Rabaa still remembers the most minute details of her torment as a child who was abandoned from her village of Al-Falujah in Palestine in 1948, when her mother was trapped in the village and her father was captured, so she rescued her deceased sister’s children from inside an area planted with mines, beginning the chapters of her migration to Jordan.
Hajja Rabaa has children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, all of whom inherit and cling to the right of return, but the war that Israel has waged on the Gaza Strip for nearly 8 months has brought back to Hajja Rabaa’s minds images, suffering, and signs of the first Nakba.
The condition of Hajja Halima – who was young when the Nakba occurred – is no different from the condition of Hajja Rabaa, as she embodies the tragedy of refugeehood, as she lives today alone except for her tired memory. She had been displaced from her village with her husband and had no children.
Hajja Halima sings of her homeland, Palestine, and her longing for it, but she suddenly stops and calls upon the Lord – the Almighty – with His Most Beautiful Names, warmly and sincerely, to have pity on the Palestinians who face aggression and injustice.
According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the number of Palestinian refugees in Jordan is estimated at 2.5 million, and the population of Baqaa camp is 130,000 refugees.
The events of October 7, 2023 brought the Palestinian issue back to the forefront, and with the 76th anniversary of the Nakba, dreams of return do not stop in the refugee camps that embrace Palestinians.
The Baqaa camp in Jordan remains a witness to the right of return, and UNRWA remains present among the refugees, a witness to their right, and evidence of the international community’s inability towards them, as they say.
