Volunteering with Palestinian Refugees

I am Hannah, from Singapore, and I recently finished a degree in history. I participated in the ‘Volunteering with Palestinian Refugees’ programme, mainly because I am interested in researching refugees for my higher education degree.

I found my Arabic lessons really fruitful and engaging. My goal is to be able to communicate basic ideas in Arabic, so learning colloquial Levantine Arabic is most important to me. This was achieved during my time here, although the hours were short given my brief time here, I gained a stronger foundation to continue learning the language by myself. For now at least, I am able to greet, introduce myself, discuss the weather and my day when I meet shopkeepers and taxi drivers.

I am very grateful to my Arabic teachers, who enthusiastically and warmly encouraged me to learn and practise my ability to speak and read. The other international volunteers are also really eager to learn, so the environment here is very, very supportive.

During the few weeks I was here, I did a lot of site visits with other volunteers from various programmes. I went to Fawwar Camp a few times, and I got the chance to speak to community leaders, social workers, and the young children living in the camp. It was very eye-opening, especially since I assumed that refugee camps are filled with tents, but Fawwar Camp (like many other Palestinian refugee camps) has buildings gradually erected by the refugees themselves.

I also visited the checkpoints separating H1 from H2 in Hebron, as well as the shops and houses near those checkpoints. These are the hotspots of clashes between Palestinians, the IDF soldiers and settlers. Speaking to locals who live near these precarious locations also showed me the layers of pain and suffering of life under the occupation.

I felt safe during my time in Hebron, sometimes even safer than in other cities I have lived in (such as London) because there is no anxiety about my stuff being stolen. There was definitely a period of time during my initial days here, when I had to adjust to the social and religious culture here, such as being careful about the way I interact with the men here as a solo travelling woman.

During my first week here, the bustling city of Hebron had a general strike in solidarity for Jenin, and a group of volunteers went to observe how the busy old city changed for the strike. We definitely noticed the potential danger of being caught in between protestors and the IDF soldiers in the old city and the checkpoint areas, but it was such an indescribably important experience to see how the Palestinian people express their anger and sorrow in various ways.

Everytime we made a site visit - the Bedouin villages, a Palestinian art exhibit, Hebron streets emptied after eruptions of violence, human rights groups - we spoke to so many different people with similar stories of anxiety, loss, fear, and even resilience and hope for a better future. The Palestinians I spoke to during my time here are so highly aware of the history of the occupation, and they show empathy towards the reasons for why European Jews migrated to this land. However, they are frustrated by the systematically violent and militant mode of which the occupation continues til this day I personally hope the dream of living peacefully and equally between Israelis and Palestinian people can be achieved one day.