Aqabat Jaber () is a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

refugee camp A refugee camp is a temporary Human settlement, settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for in ...

in the

Jericho Governorate The Jericho Governorate () is one of 16 Governorates of Palestine. Its capital is Jericho. The governorate is located along the eastern areas of the West Bank, along the northern Dead Sea and southern Jordan River valley bordering Jordan. It s ...

of the eastern

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

, situated in the Jordan Valley, three kilometers southwest of

Jericho Jericho ( ; , ) is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, and the capital of the Jericho Governorate. Jericho is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. It had a population of 20,907 in 2017. F ...

History

Aqabat Jaber was established in 1948 on 1,688

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

s of arid land near the

Dead Sea The Dead Sea (; or ; ), also known by #Names, other names, is a landlocked salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east, the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the west and Israel to the southwest. It lies in the endorheic basin of the Jordan Rift Valle ...

. Prior to the 1967

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

, the number of registered

Palestinian refugees Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine, and their descendants, who fled or were expelled from their country, village or house over the course of the 1948 Palestine war and during the 1967 Six-Day War. Most Palestinian refug ...

totaled around 30,000. During and after the hostilities, the majority of refugees fled the camp and crossed the

Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan (, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn''; , ''Nəhar hayYardēn''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Sharieat'' (), is a endorheic river in the Levant that flows roughly north to south through the Sea of Galilee and drains to the Dead ...

. On 13 November 1985, following an agreement with

UNRWA The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA, pronounced ) is a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees. UNRWA's mandate encompasses Palestinians who fl ...

, the Israeli authorities began a program of demolishing unused houses. At the time the camp's population was 3,000.Middle East International No 263, 22 November 1985, Publishers Lord Mayhew, Dennis Walters MP;

Daoud Kuttab Daoud Kuttab (), (born 1 April 1955) is a Palestinian-American journalist. Journalism In 1980, Kuttab began his career at '' Al-Fajr'', an English-language weekly newspaper. Over the next seven years, he was promoted to features editor and th ...

p. 11 Following the signing of the Gaza–Jericho Agreement in 1994, the camp came under the control of the

Palestinian National Authority The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank as a c ...

. In 2005 Aqabat Jaber had a population of 5,566 registered refugees. Non-refugees have moved onto the camp's lands and built illegal homes.

Water availability

Water scarcity Water scarcity (closely related to water stress or water crisis) is the lack of fresh water resources to meet the standard water demand. There are two types of water scarcity. One is ''physical.'' The other is ''economic water scarcity''. Physic ...

is a major problem in this desert area, especially during the summer. The

is able to provide some water to the camp by pumping it from a nearby spring. However, the

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i water company

Mekorot Mekorot (, lit. "Sources") is the national water company of Israel and the country's top agency for water management. Founded in 1937, it supplies Israel with approx. 80% of its drinking water and operates a cross-country water supply network kno ...

is the main supplier of water to the camp.

Filmography

Eyal Sivan Eyal Sivan () is an Israeli documentary filmmaker, theoretician and scholar based in Paris, France. Early life Eyal Sivan is a filmmaker, writer and theoretician born in 1964 in Haifa, Israel; raised in Jerusalem; and based in Europe since 1 ...

: ''Aqabat-Jaber, passing through'' (1987)

References

External links

Aqbat Jaber refugee camp

Welcome To 'Aqbat Jabir R.C.Aqbat Jaber Camp (Fact Sheet)

Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem The Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ; ) is a Palestinian NGO founded in 1990 with its main office in Bethlehem in the West Bank. ARIJ is actively working on research projects in the fields of management of natural resources, water m ...

(ARIJ)
Aqbat Jaber Camp Profile
(ARIJ)
Aqbat aerial photo
(ARIJ)
Locality Development Priorities and Needs in 'Aqbat Jaber Camp
(ARIJ) {{Authority control Jericho Governorate Populated places established in 1948 1948 establishments in the West Bank Governorate Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank Municipalities of Palestine