Deheishe Refugee Camp
| Dheisheh Camp | |
|---|---|
| Other transcription(s) | |
| • Arabic | مخيم الدهيشه |
| • Also spelled | ad Duheisha Camp (official) Dheishe Camp (unofficial) |
 Dheisheh Camp
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| Coordinates: 31°41′38.47″N 35°11′02.96″E / 31.6940194°N 35.1841556°ECoordinates: 31°41′38.47″N 35°11′02.96″E / 31.6940194°N 35.1841556°E | |
| Governorate | Bethlehem |
| Government | |
| • Type | Refugee Camp (from 1949) |
| Area (approximate) | |
| • Jurisdiction | 1,000 dunams (1 km2 or 0.4 sq mi) |
| Population (2008) | |
| • Jurisdiction | 13,017 |
Dheisheh Refugee Camp (Arabic: مخيم الدهيشة) is a Palestinian refugee camp located just south of Bethlehem in the West Bank. Dheisheh was established in 1949 on 0.31 square kilometers of land leased from the Jordanian government. The camp was established as a temporary refuge for 3,400 Palestinians from 45 villages west of Jerusalem and Hebron who fled during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
Six decades of natural population growth have expanded the camp's dimensions into an area between 1 and 1.5 square kilometers. The exact dimensions are subject to periodic debate between residents, UNRWA and the Palestinian Authority. The latter two are required to provide services to residents, depending on their resident status within the camp.
Although initially living in tents, the residents have since constructed homes. Many streets are now paved, while still remaining very narrow. According to UNRWA, the entire camp is connected to the municipal water and electric systems of Bethlehem, yet 15% of the camp remains unconnected to the local public sewage system. These homes make use of communal percolation pits.
There are several alternative spellings of Dheisheh, making use of the Latin alphabet. An incomplete list of possible spellings includes "Deheishe", "Deheisheh", "Duheisha", "Dheisha", and "Dhaisha".
While "Dheisheh" is the spelling UNRWA uses, the Palestinian Authority uses "ad Duheisha" in its documentation.
There is little consensus among news agencies as to the proper spelling. While Al Jazeera English makes use of the "Dheisheh" spelling, the Palestinian news agency Ma'an has used the alternative spelling "Duheisha.".
The people who gathered in Dheisheh originated from more than 45 villages west of Jerusalem and Hebron. Dheisheh is one of the refugee camps that was created as a temporary humanitarian solution to the problem of accommodating those expelled Palestinians. Towards the end of the 1950s the UNRWA started to build very simple living units: A single room of 10 square metres, 10 cm thick and 2.45 m high walls, a steel roof and a floor made of rough concrete. Refugees began to build their own houses so as not to live in the UNRWA's shacks any longer.
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