The price she is paying in loss of manpower. the losses to her economy. and the debilitating effects of maintaining a wartime psychology. is taking its toll. On the other side of the IsraelJordan border. I visited Baqa. one of six refugee camps outside Amman. Jordan. Between 35.000 and 40.000 refugees live in this one camp. These people eat and sleep in oneroom tents which house 10 or 11 individuals. Many of the tents do not have floors. so the inhabitants live in dirt and mud. One can. easily understand why these factors as such could be the breeding ground for hatred and animosity. But these Palestinians assert that even a greater wrong has been perpetrated against them. They feel that they were immorally and illegally driven from their homes in Palestine by the Zionists in 1948. some of these Palestinians became refugees for a second time in 1967. These various factors have formed the basis of the creation of the Fedayeen. the Palestinian guerrillas. It is through these commando groups that some refugees express their hostility and despair as well as their hope for the future. This animosity is being directed not only at Israel. but also at the United States. other great powers and even certain Arab governments. It is my view that we in the United States tend to look at the Arab countries as a monolith. similar to the mistaken monolithic perspective we have had toward Communist countries. This is a false impression. for each of the Arab countries is unique. In Jordan the refugees comprise over onehalf of that nations 2.2 million population. For the 4 years prior to the 6day war in June 1967. Jordan was averaging a growth rate iin the per capita gross national product of 8.8 percent per year.
Keywords matched
refugee refugees