Hello - nice to see you again.
The 1948 wave of refugees were put into temporary camps until they
could be accommodated in:
Zarqa camp - built 1949
Irbid camp - built 1951
Al-Hussein - built 1952 (also called Jabal El-Hussein)
Wihdat - built 1955 (also called Amman New Camp)
There have also been refugees in Madaba since 1956. Madaba is called a
camp by the Jordanian government but not by the UN.
Al-Hussein and Wihdat are both actuallly in Amman. Irbid is the
furthest away. You can see this on the map included in the first page
I link to.
The excerpts and links below should give you a good overall view. I
discovered many photographs which I hope you will find interesting and
useful, even though I do not think there is one anywhere online of a
1949/1950s camp actually taken in the 1960s or 1970s.
"In 1948, an estimated 100,000 refugees crossed the Jordan River and
initially took shelter in temporary camps, in mosques and schools, or
in towns and villages.
[...]
The first camp, Zarqa, was set up in 1949 by the ICRC, where a large
number of the refugees had gathered near the town of Zarqa, some 25
kilometers north east of Amman. Between 1951-1954 three more camps
were set up; two in the Amman area and one in Irbid, north Jordan.
The refugees were accommodated in tents until the late 1950s when
UNRWA replaced the tents with more durable shelters. Each new shelter
was a brick room with asbestos roofing. A family of 4-5 members had
one room of 12 square metres, and a family of 6-8 had two rooms on a
plot of land not exceeding 80-100 square metres. The refugees were
able to construct additional rooms as the family grew by birth and
marriage."
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the
Near East (UNRWA)
http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/jordan.html
"To provide shelters for the refugees of the first wave, five camps
were constructed: Zarqa (1949), Irbid (1951), Al-Hussein (1952) ,
Wihdat (New Amman Camp)(1955) , Madaba (1956)."
Jordanian Government
http://www.dpa.gov.jo/menucamps.htm
* * * *
Zarqa
http://www.dpa.gov.jo/menuphotozarqa.htm
Zarqa
http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/jordan/zarka.html
" Zarqa is one of the official ten camps and has the distinction of
being the oldest, initially holding 8,000 refugees. Today she holds
twice as many people on the same 180,000 square meters."
http://www.peopleteams.org/palestinians/jordan/camps/zarqa.htm
* * * *
Irbid
http://www.dpa.gov.jo/menuphotoirbid.htm
Irbid camp
http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/jordan/irbid.html
* * * *
Al Hussein
http://www.dpa.gov.jo/menuphotohussein.htm
Jabal El-Hussein Camp
http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/jordan/jabalhussein.html
* * * *
Wihdat
http://www.dpa.gov.jo/menuphotowihdat.htm
Amman New Camp (Wihdat)
http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/jordan/newamman.html
* * * *
Madaba
http://www.dpa.gov.jo/menuphotomadaba.htm
* * * *
There is an excellent online photo exhibition of "Palestine -
refugees 1950-2000" organised by the United Nations Relief and Works
Agency
for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Even though they
haven't got a 1960s or 1970s picture of one of the earliest Jordanian
camps, they have many fascinating photographs with interesting
commentary which helped me build up an overall understanding of life
in the camps over the last half century. Click on 'enter' then 'next'
for many pages of photos:
http://www.un.org/unrwa/exhib/index.htm
* * * *
Other links which I hope will be helpful:
Map of camps in 1948
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~gov46/pal-ref-camps-1948.gif
Memories of the camps
http://www.un.org/unrwa/staff/index.htm
Links to photos of all Jordanian camps
http://www.dpa.gov.jo/menucampsgallery.htm
Links to information on the camps
http://www.peopleteams.org/palestinians/jordan/camps.htm
Official Jordanian government information
http://www.dpa.gov.jo/menucamps.htm
http://www.dpa.gov.jo/menuindex2.html
1999 report with photos
http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/peaceprocess/hashemite-en.asp
Map showing Madaba
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/mapshells/middle_east/jordan/jordan.htm
Thanks for an interesting question. I hope this is the information you
were looking for, but please feel free to ask if I can clarify
anything for you.
Regards - Leli
search started with:
jordan camps palestinian 1948
://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=jordan+camps+palestinian++1948&btnG=Google+Search&meta=
Then I used individual camp names for web and image searches. |
