29 Reads
·
3 Citations
Following World War II, refugee camps were established as temporary solutions to humanitarian crises arising from the displacement of civilians during violent conflicts. The creation of the State of Israel in 1948 produced over 4.6 million Palestinian refugees of whom 1.3 million live in refugee camps throughout the Middle East. Many of these camps have developed from temporary accommodations into permanent urban structures and homes to second and third generation Palestinian refugees born and living in diaspora but who identify as 'Palestinian'. In 1948, The United Nations developed an exclusionary definition of what it means to be a 'Palestinian refugee' neglecting in the process the concerns, experiences, and desires of Palestinians, who have in turn, used the space of the refugee camp to construct a definition of Palestinian national identity for themselves. This study analyzes the physical landscape of Yarmouk Camp located in Damascus, Syria in order to understand how Palestinian residents of the camp have chosen to construct a Palestinian identity by transforming the refugee camp into a reflection of the 'homeland'. Coupled with interviews with local residents and scholarly research on Palestinian refugee camps and Palestinian identity formation in general, this project will contribute to an understanding of how a specific group of Palestinian refugees create and maintain a national identity while living in Syria through the construction of a space that reflects Palestinian national identity as defined by the residents themselves.