A culture of resistance: Palestinian resistance to Israeli military occupation at Aida Refugee Camp, Bethlehem

This is an ethnographic study of the lives of four generations of Palestinian refugees at Aida Refugee Camp, Bethlehem. The struggle began when Palestinians were exiled from their village home in 1948 and, since that time, have been forced to organize against the Israelis as a means of survival as the Israelis have attempted to dominate all aspects of their lives. The passive and active resistance activities retention, changes, or adaption in the organization of social, political and economic structures has been a way for Palestinian refugees at Aida Refugee Camp to actively respond to the Israeli threat to fragment and divide Palestinian families.;A corpus of historical documents from the United Nations, journal articles, and political analyses that cover the historical foundation of the conflict indicate a polarization of positions about the foundation and causes of the conflict. These two positions are not those of Jews and non-Jews, but are of the official Zionist and Palestinian positions. This study explores the gap between these positions, by presenting a picture of the lives of the refugees from the beginning of the exile through life under occupation as actors in their own history.;The experiences that unfold from the residents at Aida Refugee Camp is a story about the relations among camp residents and with neighboring Jews, and the regional struggle for survival, identity and homeland. In understanding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict from the point of view of the Palestinian refugees it become clear is that peaceful solutions to regional and ethnic disputes must include an array of voices and points of view from the people themselves. The study further illuminates that in order to have peaceful global coexistence, there must be equal and mutual compliance of international agreements, treaties, and Conventions to which there has been international agreement. Finally, this study suggests that history as written about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has generally been written by Israel and the West, and offers an opportunity to understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from point of view of the Palestinian refugees at Aida Refugee Camp.