Sumoud Camp

Social Profile and Need for National Institutions

When Sumoud Camp residents were asked in a recent survey how they could contribute towards strengthening Palestinian national rights in occupied Jerusalem their answer was hesitant - "We will stay in the camp." Although Sumoud consists of only 16 Jerusalemite families, their answers reflect the current distress within Palestinian resistance movements in Jerusalem: that of recognizing very tangible rights but not having the means necessary to realize them.

The families of Sumoud have endured nearly two years of extreme social and political duress but any reward for their steadfastness remains distant. Rather, over two thirds of the 70 plus children in the camp still have no ID card and, without a permanent address, the chances of receiving one are few. Moreover, the majority of the children, including several newborns, has no health insurance and are routinely neglected basic health care. On average, each family at Sumoud has lived in 6 houses within the past ten years.

Many of the families have been displaced so many times, either by war, ID card confiscation, home demolition, or the exigencies of financial hardship, that their overall expectations of ever achieving full Palestinian rights in Jerusalem have lowered. Without any real prospects for change or the creation of an alternative social welfare base by the Palestinian civil society and leadership, the process of social atrophy and political disempowerment within the Palestinian Jerusalemite public will become more acute.

While Palestinian institutions do offer many needed services to the Palestinian Jerusalemite public, the aid is sporadic and, many times, responsive only to crisis. Credible and effective social welfare institutions need to be created to meet the daily needs of the Palestinian public if an effective struggle to secure Palestinian rights is to be launched. Only after their daily needs are met will the answer from the Sumoud families change from "staying" to "living" in Jerusalem.