Identity in Crisis by MadeehaMerchant

IN THE STATE OF EXCEPTION

Identity in Crisis

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

ARAB CITIES IN EVOLUTION PROFESSOR: AMALE ANDRAOS STUDENT: MADEEHA MERCHANT GSAPP, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

IN THE STATE OF EXCEPTION 26-51

REFUGEE CAMP, PHOTOGRAPHER : SEBASTIAO SALGADO

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

1-25

KUWAIT WAR, PHOTOGRAPHER : SEBASTIAO SALGADO

“Two elements constitute a new category of world population, that of 50

million displaced persons and refugees: on the one hand, so-called ‘dirty’ Alaska

or ‘low-intensity’ wars, with the endless exoduses, suffering and multiple

Greenland

(US.A )

(Denmark)

losses they provoke; on the other, the humanitarian response that

CANADA

ICELAND

St. Pierre and Miquelon

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

(Fr.)

1 2 3 4 5 6

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA NETHERLANDS IRELAND CROATIA POLAND BELGIUM GERMANY SERBIA UKRAINE LUXEMBOURG CZECH REP. MONTENEGRO SLOVAKIA FRANCE AUSTRIA REP. OF MOLDOVA SLOVENIA SWITZERLAND 5 HUNGARY ROMANIA LIECHTENSTEIN THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA 2 1 MONACO

a) STATE OF PALESTINE

COSTA RICA PANAMA

BARBADOS

BURKINA FASO

GUINEA

SIERRA LEONE LIBERIA

MALI

GHANA BENIN

NIGER

EQUATORIAL GUINEA

GABON

COOK ISLANDS

Society Islands (Fr)

French Polynesia (Fr)

(U.K.)

Pitcairn (U.K.)

CHILE

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

OMAN

NEPAL

DEMOCRATIC REBUBLIC OF THECONGO

LESOTHO

MALDIVES

(US.A )

safety of all kinds of survivors and fugitives from wars, refugee camps

BRUNEI DARUSSALAM

PALAU

MALAYSIA

Indian Ocean

MADAGASCAR Réunion (Fr.)

FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA

SINGAPORE

Christmas Island

a protective device intended to provide for the physical, food and health

MARSHALL ISLANDS

Guam

PHILIPPINES

NAURU

INDONESIA COMOROS

MOZAMBIQUE

SWAZILAND

VIET NAM

SEYCHELLES

UNITED REP. OF TANZANIA

Z MBABWE

(U.S A.)

CAMBODIA

SRI LANKA

established on a planetary scale. Created in a situation of emergency as

Northern Mariana Islands

MYANMAR THAILAND

RWANDA BURUNDI

ZAMBIA

LAOPEOPLE'S DEM. REP.

BANGLADESH

INDIA

SOMAL A

MALAWI

experimentation of the large-scale segregations that are being

BHUTAN

YEMEN

UGANDA KENYA

kept at a distance from the ordinary social and political world, and the

JAPAN

TIMOR-LESTE

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

TUVALU (N.Z.)

SOLOMON ISLANDS

SAMOA

(Austr)

Wallis and Futuna Islands (Fr.)

Cocos (Keeling) Islands(Austr)

VANUATU

MAURITIUS

AUSTRALIA

agglomerate tens of thousands of inhabitants for periods that generally

K RIBATI

Tokelau

American Samoa(US.A )

FIJI

NIUE

TONGA

New Caledonia (Fr)

SOUTH AFRICA

ARGENTINA URUGUAY

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

PAKISTAN

ETHIOPIA

NAMIBIA BOTSWANA

Atlantic Ocean

PARAGUAY

Austral Islands (Tubuai Islands) (Fr.)

CONGO

ANGOLA St. Helena

Gambier Islands (Fr)

SOUTH SUDAN*** CENTRAL AFRICAN REP.

(UK.)

BOLIVIA

ERITREA

SUDAN

Ascension

BRAZIL

AFGHANISTAN

IRAN

KUWAIT

REPUBLIC OFKOREA

CHINA

Jammu and Kashmir **

the site where it is constructed in the most elaborate manner, as a life

DEM. PEOPLE'S REP. OFKOREA

KYRGYZSTAN

TURKMENISTAN TAJIKISTAN

BAHRAIN

EGYPT

MONGOLIA

DJIBOUTI

CAMEROON

ANGOLA

Marquesas Islands Fr)

UZBEKISTAN

ISLAMIC REP.OF

LEBANON

ISRAEL IRAQ a a JORDAN

CHAD

NIGERIA

SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE

PERU

GEORGIA ARMENIA AZERBAIJAN

SYRIAN ARAB REP.

CYPRUS

LIBYA

TOGO CÔTE D'IVOIRE

GUYANA

ECUADOR

TURKEY

social condition created by the coupling of war with humanitarian action, KAZAKHSTAN

SAUDI QATAR ARABIA MAURITANIA

SENEGAL GAMBIA GUINEA-BISSAU

SURINAME French Guiana (Fr.)

4 3 BULGARIA 6 ALBANIA

MALTA

ALGERIA

Western Sahara

TRIN DAD AND TOBAGO

VENEZUELA COLOMBIA

ITALY

TUNISIA

MOROCCO

CAPE VERDE

SAN MARINO

GREECE

(U.K.)

Turks and Caicos Islands (U.K.) Cayman DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Islands Puerto Rico (US A.) HAITI (U.K.) Br tish Virgin Islands (U.K.) BELIZE Angui la(UK.) St. Martin (Fr. & Neth.) US. Virgin Islands HONDURAS Saba(Neth.) ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA (Ne h.) JAMAICA (U.S.A ) St. Eustatius Montserrat(U K ) ST. KITTS AND NEVIS GUATEMALA Guadeloupe (Fr.) DOMINICA EL SALVADOR Aruba Curaçao ST. LUC A Martinique (Fr.) NICARAGUA Bonaire GRENADA ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES

(U.S.A.)

ANDORRA

Gibraltar

BAHAMAS

CUBA

SPAIN

PORTUGAL

(U.K.)

MEXICO

ESTONIA LATVIA R.F LITHUANIA BELARUS

DENMARK

Bermuda

Hawaiian Islands

FINLAND

NORWAY

UNITED KINGDOM

accompanies them very closely. The camps are both the emblem of the

RUSSIAN FEDERATION

SWEDEN

IN THE STATE OF EXCEPTION

THE WORLD UNITED NATIONS, DISTRIBUTION

last far beyond the duration of the emergency. An urban ethnographic case, where Social and cultural complexities emerge with the formation of the novel sociospatial form of ‘city-camps’ in which new identities crystallize and subjectivation takes root.1”

Tristan da Cunha (U.K.)

Gough (UK.)

Falkland Islands (Malvinas) (U.K.)*

Member States of the United Nations Non-Self-Governing Territories Non-Member States of the United Nations

NEW ZEALAND

South Georgia(UK.)

South Sandwich Islands (U.K )

Observer Non-Member States of the Un i t ed Nations

** Dotted line represents approximately the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir agreed upon by India and Pakistan. The *** Final boundary between the Republic of Sudan and the Republic of South Sudan has not yet been determined.

Excerpt from “Between War and City’ Michel Algier

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

Identity in Crisis is a two-fold study, to visualize the spatialization of

Starting with an analysis of conflicts in the Middle East and its history of

refugee camps through analyzing crisis across the Middle Eastern

civil and interstate wars, the study presents the problem of an

landscape. The research has been structured through macro and micro

exponentially increasing refugee and internally displaced population. As

frames, to help contextualize the situation and understand the layers of

the refugee camp today has become the spatial manifestation of the state

complexity, through which the refugee camp emerges and is either

of exception, it exists to define the political, social and economic

absorbed into the urban fabric or itself transforms into a temporary city.

structure of the world. Thus the camp, it is not an object to be studied in isolation. The refugee, who might have no history or no future and whose

“Today, it is not the city but rather the camp that is the fundamental

identity is reduced to just a UNHCR registration number, is indeed not an

bio-political paradigm of the West. The camp as dislocating localization is

individual. He is a collective, a state, a generation. Thus the refugee and

the hidden matrix of the politics in which we are still living and it is this

the camp, can only be studied in the context of its past, its present and its

structure of the camp that we must learn to recognize in all its

future. The state of exception, can only be understood through the

metamorphoses into the zones d’ attentes of our airports and certain

exceptions it has emerged.

outskirts of our cities.”2 Giorgio Agamben explains the political tensions underlying refugee camps.

IN THE STATE OF EXCEPTION

REFUGEE CAMPS, BEIRUT ARAB-ISRAEL CONFLICT

Operating through different interpretive frames, this study attempts to understand ‘the camp’, not just within it’s spatial boundaries but it’s relationship within the larger network of politics and power. By identifying the key network constituents and their operations, refugees and camps

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

are politically and geographically categorized into a matrix of differentiation and a macro analysis helps us undermine its social, political and cultural effects. The analysis shifts from macro to micro scales by focusing on 3 camps, which although portray different identity crisis, delineate a common trajectory of conflict amongst them. These camps, compared at both, human and city scales, unveil the transformation of camps to cities and isolate ways in which, identity is either established or dematerialized.

KORANGI TOWN, KARACHI ARCHITECT: HASAN FATHY

THE STATE OF EXCEPTION

“The camp is a space that is opened, when the state of exception

In these camps, conceptually isolated territories, refugees are provided

essentially a temporary suspension of the rule, is now given a permanent

also kept in isolated places without the freedom to settle elsewhere,

spatial arrangement,” explains Giorgio Agamben. The permanent spatial

denying basic human rights. Although some camps seem to have

arrangement, Girogio points towards, however is temporal in it’s nature,

submerged into the urban fabric of dense cities, there still exist invisible

regardless of it’s timeline of existence.

boundaries of confinement that continue to endure even after decades.

begins to become the rule. In the camp, the state of exception, which was 3

In ‘From Camp to City’, Architect Manuel Herz articulates three predominant notions in the contemporary discourse for the refugee camp. First, refugee camps are humanitarian spaces where refugees are given shelter and their lives are saved. Second, they are spaces of control, where all aspects of the refugee’s life are monitored and controlled by other institutions and agencies. Lastly, they are spaces of destitution and misery.4 These three notions are both problematic and constructed from an outsider’s point of view. They are from the view of the controller, rather than the controlled. They are today’s ‘Orient’. In Orientalism5, Edward

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

Said explains the ‘orient’ as a system of representation framed by political forces that brought the Orient into the Western learning, Western consciousness and the Western empire; the Orient exists for the West, and is constructed by and in relation to the West. It is conceived as the mirror image of what is inferior and alien to the West. In the case of the refugee camp, it is the ‘Orient’ to everything outside of it. Conceived as the ‘Other’, it is clearly the state of exception.

with the basic necessities to live; water, food and health care, but they are

Dwelling in these camps, refugees and internally displaced people are not allowed to express themselves politically. By limiting employment opportunities to within the boundaries of the camp, they are not allowed to benefit from the larger social or economic network of the city. Military leader Ayub Khan, in an attempt to confine Muslim refugees from India, commissioned Korangi town, a large inclusionary housing project built in Karachi, Pakistan. Designed by Architect Hasan Fathy, the social housing, was an extension of the camp ideology and a government strategy to reinforce social, economic and cultural barriers within the city. The highest price of the ‘de-territorializion’ of the nation, were the millions of refugees who suddenly found themselves in the wrong territory, after Pakistan had been thrown into a defined geographic existence due to political and religious divide. The Korangi township, first and foremost dedicated to them, was therefore a very important step in the re-territorialization of the existence of the new state. Often referred to as the largest permanent refugee camp ever built and masked as the largest slum clearance and urban rehabilitation measure in Asia of its time, it was celebrated with aid from the West. The example of Korangi town exemplifies the politics that underlie refugee camps and the complex ideologies they are built upon.6

REFUGEE CAMP WESTERN SAHARA

A REFUGEES RIGHT TO RETURN

“Refugees are reduced to being recipients of welfare, condemned to a

life of waiting, dependent on the actions of others. Refugees sometimes

to return home but in lieu they give up the existence of any possible

spend decades living in the same camps, often located in remote places,

identity. By hoping to return, they try to keep the identity they had fled

removed from most economic, cultural or social exchange. These

their homeland with. It is a dubious and conflicting situation. On one side,

conditions of exile or social enclaves – where the refugees are reduced

refugees are not granted any identity based on their dwelling in the state

to liters of water and calories per day and are seen purely in their

of exception, on the other they themselves fear the status as they long to

biological or physical state – is understood to have become the norm,

return. This nature of identity conflict plays an important role in the

serving the specific interests, of a globalized world order. This spatial

spatialization and differentiation of refugee camps, both at human and

manifestation of the state of exception, gives testimony to our

city scale.

authoritarian and dystopian view of the camp,” says Manuel Herz 7

The refugee population finds itself in a constant tension between the

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that everyone

desire for individual expression and a certain level of comfort and the

has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of

demonstration of the temporal nature of their presence in the camp. In the

each State. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own

case, where refugee camps have extended into the next generation, the

and return to his country”. In the case of refugees and internally

tensions often diffuse alongside the acception into the urban society and

displaced populations, is it a different situation. A refugee maintains their

the eventual giving up of hope to return. Residential architecture in the

status, till they are permitted to return to their homeland. ‘Returning home’

camps finds itself the central medium where this struggle is carried out.8

is the ultimate hope of the refugee, a dream that quiet so often takes

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

Refugees fear permanent structures as they struggle to retain their will

months, years or generations. But alongside its political and humanitarian aspects, the right to return or the will to return also articulates the notion of temporality in the spatialization of these states of exception. This notion of temporality, manifested in the tents and low cost infrastructure systems in these settlements, act as political signifiers. They enunciate the

"In countries where people have to flee their homes because of persecution and violence, political solutions must be found, peace and tolerance restored, so that refugees can return home. In my experience, going home is the deepest wish of most refugees." A quote by American actress, Angelina Jolie.

refugee’s will to return to their homeland. This touches upon many important physical an architectural aspects of these states of exception and also articulate the question identity.

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

IN THE STATE OF EXCEPTION

REFUGEE CAMPS, THE SAHRAWI, WESTERN SAHARA

“If we look at camps through the lenses of it’s inhabitants, how they make

existence of urban qualities. Thus, the camps can be seen as expressing

use of the environment, how daily lives are acted out in them, how they

an essence or urbanity. An urbanity, that is ready to be discarded, if the

become a medium to play out their desires and aspirations and how local

underlying conflict ever resolves.” Excerpt, ‘Camp as a city’.

culture develops within these spaces, we can certainly perceive the

GATHERING SPACES, SAHRAWIS REFUGEE CAMP

THE REFUGEE CAMP

“If we look at camps through the lenses of it’s inhabitants, how they make use of the environment, how daily lives are acted out in them, how

they become a medium to play out their desires and aspirations and how local culture develops within these spaces, we can certainly perceive the existence of urban qualities. Thus, the camps can be seen as expressing an essence or urbanity. An urbanity, that is ready to be discarded, if the underlying conflict ever resolves.”9 Manuel Herz explains the notion of the camp as a city. Through extensive field research, Manuel Herz studied the various aspects of refugee camps commonly experienced today. Although, the UN handbook and guide for Refugee Camp design also outlines many of these design implementations, the field study benefits from the insider’s point of view and focuses on the camp, from a refugee’s perspective. Unlike informal settlements, refugee camps are gated communities or extremely segregated through checkpoints managed by local control forces. Over the years, the checkpoints dissolve but leave consistent

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

demarcated boundaries that continue to manifest within the network of flows. Only in cases such as the Sahrawis camps, there exists a semi-autonomy as the host country has almost ceded control, allowing refugees to establish their own protocols of access. For most part, moving, transport and communication carry a central space in the life of the refugee camp. Within these temporary settlements, there is a constant flux of movement, both within the boundaries of the camp and also beyond the boundary. Trading and supply of goods and services to the refugees in the camp, forms an integral part of these flows. Most

Most camps are founded with the vision of an economy based on exchange of goods and services, as opposed to money. Based on the kind of services, dependence on aid, situation of conflict; the economic structure of a camp can largely differ. In the long established Sahrawi camps, there are large central markets that operate based on financial exchanges whereas, in the camps of the West Bank, a region still in turmoil, smaller, dispersed markets operate across the network, often exchanging goods and services in lieu of each other. Beyond securing the basic survival by providing accommodation, food, water and security, healthcare and education services are further added to the main activities, and are usually organized by the aid agencies operating within the camp. These extended systems build better with time and improve the overall welfare of the refugee population. In some cases, the extremely temporal nature of nascent camps, the over crowdedness and increasing influx of refugees alongisde continuous conflict, often do not allow aid agencies to establish a strong network of education and healthcare. Recreation and leisure spaces barely exist in camps. The UNHCR development handbook does not state leisure and recreation of any importance in the planning and building of refugee camps. Herz explains that viewing the camp from inside shows that activities of everyday life shape the spaces of refugee camps. In contrast to seeing the camp as a space of exception, where aspects of isolation, misery and control dominate, it is rather this notion of ‘normality’ within an abnormal situation that is present, everywhere in the camp, shaping physical space and spatializing new networks.10

REFUGEE CAMPS EUROPE & AFRICA

REFUGEE CAMPS NORTHERN AFRICA

1km

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

Basel, Switzerland

Inhabitants: 169,000

1km

Treguine, Chad

Tindouf, Algeria

Inhabitants: 18,000

Inhabitants: 47,000

area: 22.75 km

area: 0.84km

density: 7,428/km

density: 21,400/km

El Aaiuâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;n, Algeria

Inhabitants: 50,000

area: 0.9 km

area: 9 km

density: 5,200/km

density: 5,500/km

THE MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA

THE LANDSCAPE OF CRISIS

TURKEY

rranean

Hala b

Al ex an dr ia

Cairo

Su ez

Tehran

Arbil

SYR IAN ARA B REP .

Kirkuk

IRAQ

In ‘Ethnic conflict and state-building’, Saad Eddin Ibrahim states that

only to survive, but to persevere and rebuild their shattered lives."

Iraq, all armed conflicts in the Arab world have been a result of internal

TAN

Anotonia Guterres, 10th UN High Commissioner for Refugees

ethnic issues. These conflicts that claim almost 26 million lives, have

(2005-Current).

claimed more lives and resulted in more refugees and internally

r Kandaha

percentage of the world’s populations, the Arab world has experienced over 40% of the armed conflicts worldwide. The Arab-Israeli conflict

LIBYA

Sh iraz

Kuwait KUWAIT

Al M iny a

P A K IS T A

Per sian Gul f

As yu t

Ad Damm am

BAHRAIN Al Manamah

Doha

Riyadh

Medin a

As wa n

H of

QATAR

Al Hufuf

claimed 200,000 lives over a period of 40 years, during 6 wars and a

continued Palestinian and Lebanese struggle against Israeli occupation. The Lebanese civil war resulted in a similar number of causalities. The

ormuz

OMAN

Du ba yy

Abu Dhabi

Gulf of Oman

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

SAUDI ARABIA

Sudanese civil war claimed almost 5 times of that lost in Arab –Israeli

K a ra ch i

conflict. The disproportionality of ethnic conflicts to inter state wars, with

Muscat

the exception of Iraq’s invasion, is surprising in view of the global socio-cultural demographics of the Arab world. The main competing

OMAN

Mecca

Jedd ah

ideological paradigms in the Arab world since the turn of the century tend

to be exclusionary of certain groups from full-fledged membership of the

Khartoum

Jizan

ERITREA

Asmara

ET HI OP IA SOUTH SUDAN*

Arabian

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

SUDAN

since 1988 and other than Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and the invasion of

displaced populations, than inter state wars. With only a small

Al Basrah

Al 'Aq aba h

EGYPT

IS AFGHAN

IR AN

Esfa han

JORDAN

H er at

IC OF ISL AM IC RE PU BL

Baghdad

“While every refugee's story is different and their anguish personal,

they all share a common thread of uncommon courage: the courage not

Ma sh ha d

Al Mawsil

Tri pol i LEBANON Beirut Damascus PA LE ST IN E ISR AE L 'Amman Po rt Sa id

Sea

Ashgabad ISTAN TURKMEN

Str .

Medite

CYPRUS

Caspian Sea

Tabriz

Sea

Ibrahim provides a framework to understand these competing ideologies, within four discreet categories, as shown in the table shown below.11

YEMEN

Sanaa

(San'a')

Al Hudaydah

DJIBOUTI Djibouti

political community. In his analysis, published by UNESCO, Saad Eddin

Al Muka lla

Aden

Gulf

n Ade

RELIGIOUS (ISLAMIC)

Suqutrá

(Socotra)

SECULAR

Saudi-Arabia Gulf States Sudan Morocco Jordan Libya Egypt Alegeria Yemen Tunisisa Palestine Iraq Syria Lebanon Morocco Tunisia Algeria Sudan Lebanon Saudi Arabia Guld States Egypt Palestine Jordan Libya Iraq Syria Yemen

SOMALIA

CRISIS REGIONS

COUNTRY PATRIOTISM (WATANIYA)

ARAB NATIONALISM (QAMMIYA)

MIDDLE EAST CRISIS

THE DISPLACED 2013

Iraq

In 2012, the Middle East and North Africa was mainly saw political unrest

Turkey

NUMBER

START

PEAK

displacement number situation: of IDPs

At least 2,100,000

1968

PERCENTAGE

2,840,000 (2008)

NEW

Human Development Index

About 6.2%

Syria

131

International armed conflict Internal armed conflict Deliberate policy or practice of arbitrary displacement ✓ Communal violence ✓ Criminal violence ✓ Political violence

refugees to other countries, this set a new wave of crisis amidst the

Iran

Samarra

displacement x x in 2012 x

Undetermined

resulting in an increasing fux of displaced people. Internally displaced or

Ninewa

CAUSES

of displacement

Diyala

Baghdad

Middle East. The continued regional upward trend in the Middle East testifies that the vast majority has failed to achieve durable solutions and

Saudi Arabia

is living in protracted displacement. The two major jumps seen in the

Kuwait

region. The first was between 2006-2008, with the escalation of sectarian Nahr el-Bared

Lebanon NUMBER About 44,600

START

PEAK

displacement number situation: of IDPs

PERCENTAGE

1975

About 1.0%

800,000 (2006)

NEW

displacement in 2012 -

Human Development Index 72

CAUSES

with the social unrest associated with the Arab Spring degenerated into internal conflict in Libya, Egypt, Syria and Yemen, with eventually Syria

Beirut

of displacement

x International armed conflict ✓ Internal armed conflict x Deliberate policy or practice of arbitrary displacement ✓ Communal violence x Criminal violence x Political violence

Shouf

moving into a deadly civil war.

Syria

In the wake of the new, inexperienced governments following the Israel

Jordan

downfall of decades old repressive regimes, the Middle East and North

Syria

UN reports, the newly established governments sought their legitimacy in

NUMBER

At least 3,000,000

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

conflict in Iraq, displacing over 2.8 million people. The second in 2011,

red Tripo Tripoli

PERCENTAGE

Africa remained a highly politically volatile region in 2012. According to

START

PEAK

displacement number situation: of IDPs 1967

3,000,000 (2012)

NEW of displacement displacementx International armed conflict ✓ Internal armed conflict in 2012 2,400,000 reported

Human Development Index

At least 14.2%

116

Aleppo

✓ Deliberate policy or practice of arbitrary displacement ✓ Communal violence x Criminal violence ✓ Political violence

Damascus Jaramana

Saudi Arabia

NUMBER

PERCENTAGE About 1.6%

Sa’ada

START

PEAK

displacement number situation: of IDPs 2004

545,000 (2012)

CAUSES

NEW of displacement displacementx International armed conflict ✓ Internal armed conflict in 2012 ✓ Deliberate policy or practice

132,000 reported

Human Development Index 160

of arbitrary displacement x Communal violence x Criminal violence ✓ Political violence

Sa’naa Sana’a

1967

PERCENTAGE

An-Nabbaq

Dara'a

START

250,000 (2009)

NEW of displacement displacement ✓ International armed conflict ✓ Internal armed conflict in 2012 ✓ Deliberate policy or practice 12,000 reported

110

of arbitrary displacement ✓ Communal violence ✓ Criminal violence ✓ Political violence

political Islam rather than the secular Arab nationalism, which had

West Bank

CAUSES

Human Development Index

About 3.3%

Iraq

PEAK

displacement number situation: of IDPs

About 144,500

Homs Lebanon

Israel

Yemen

NUMBER

Ar-Raqqah

Hama

Jordan

About 385,000

Palestine

Turkey

CAUSES

dominated the region since the end of the colonial period. This transition

Jerusalem

reshapes both internal and long existing regional dynamics and

Gaza za Israel

Jordan

Egypt

As the civil wars in the regions will eventually fade out and new

Zaatari Oman

Libya NUMBER Up to 50,000

Abyan

governments will begin to establish, the large question that remains START

PEAK

displacement number situation: of IDPs

PERCENTAGE About 0.8%

alliances.

2011

243,000 (2011)

NEW

displacement in 2012 Undetermined

Human Development Index 64

CAUSES

of displacement

Tunisia

x International armed conflict ✓ Internal armed conflict x Deliberate policy or practice of arbitrary displacement ✓ Communal violence x Criminal violence x Political violence Algeria

unanswered, is that of displaced population; a future of some 6 million

Tripoli Misrata Bani Walid Sirte

Egypt

people that continues to be at risk. These 6 million are not just a part of metrics, they are not just regstered refugees but a nation, collectively lost

Niger

in the political, economical and social unrest of the MENA region.

Chad

Sudan

SYRIA CRISIS

IRAQ CRISIS

~60,000 Syrian refugees Ayn al Arab Jarabulus

TURKEY Al-Hassakeh

Ad Dana

Syrian border

CYPRUS

Al-Raqqah

500,000

SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC

Lattakia Habit

Dayr az-Zawr

CYPRUS

IRAQ

Hama Tartous

Houla

Rastan

Talbiseh

Displacements in Syria After March 2012

LEBANON

Qudssaya+ Dummar

ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN

Al-Nabak

Map ID: OIA_T_DISPLACED_002_A5 Version: 2.0

1,200 -1,400

Scale: 1:14,000,000 - A5 GCS: WGS-84 Source: UNHCR FAFO-Government of Jordan Basemap Source: HIC Iraq

GAZA

WEST BANK J O R D A N

ISRAEL

Capital International boundary

Duma

Boundary of former Palestine Mandate Armistice Demarcation Line

Date: 17 March 2008

MEDITERRANEAN SEA

Abil

~37,000 Syrian refugees

REFUGEE FLOWS

LEBANON

Al Zaafaraneh

Homs

MEDITERRANEAN SEA

100,000

~15,000 Syrian refugees (UNHCR, 14 August 2012)

Maarat al Numaan

Al Haffah

Number of Displaced Iraqis 10,000

TURKEY

IRAQ

Arihah

Jisr AsShoghour

AZERBAIJAN

137

ALEPPO

Idlib

ARMENIA

EUROPE

450- 500

Desert area K U WA I T

EGYPT

Damascus ISRAEL Dara'a

JORDAN 145,000 - 150,000 Syrian refugees

Cities with more than 100,000 IDPs

Cities with 50,000 to 100,000 IDPs

Cities with less than 50,000 IDPs

RED SEA

SAUDI ARABIA G U L F S T AT E S

PERSIAN GULF

200+

REFUGEE FLOWS, 2009 VISUALIZATION

UNHCR

December 14th, 1950, the United Nations General Assembly,

Refugee:

10.4 Million People (as of 2012)

established the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

A refugee is someone who owing to a well-founded fear of being

(UNHCR) to help an estimated 1 million people uprooted post World War

persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a

II, to return home. Since then, the agency is mandated to lead and

particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his

co-ordinate international action to protect refugees around the world. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail

primary purpose; central to its establishment is to safeguard the rights

himself of the protection of that country. Stated in the 1951 Refugee

and well being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise

Convention.

the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another state, with options to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country. Today, UNHCR provides help to approximately 33.9 million persons, across 125 countries, that include refugees, internally displaced people and the stateless. UNHCR declares a person, under the 5 grounds, as discussed.12

Stateless:

12 Million People (as of 2012)

Statelessness refers to the condition of an individual who is not considered as a national by any state. Possession of a nationality is essential for full participation in society and acts as a prerequisite for a just rights in accordance with basic human life. In the Middle East, gender discriminatory legislation continues and many Bedouin tribes are enlisted as stateless. Furthermore, under the Saddam regime, many groups, like the Feili Kurds were also stripped of their identity and were

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

categorized as stateless.

PEOPLE OF CONCERN, UNHCR 2012 MIDDLE EAST

INTERNALLY DISPLACED POPULATION 2012

UNHCR

Internally Displaced Persons:

Turkey 954,000 –1,201,000 Russian Federation At least 8,500

FYR Macedonia Undetermined

Armenia Up to 8,40 0

Azerbaija n Up to 599,000

Uzbekistan Undetermine d

Turkmenistan Undetermine d

Serbia 225,000 Kosovo 18,000

Kyrgyzstan About 67,000

Georgi a At leas t 257,000

Afghanistan At least 450,00 0

Croatia 2,100

Bosnia and Herzego vina 113,00 0 Cyprus Up to 208,000 Israel Undetermined Occupied Palestinian Territory About 160,000

Mexico About 160,000

Guatemala Undetermined

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

Colombia 3,876,000– 5,281,00 0 Peru About 150,00 0

Togo Undetermined

Nigeria Undetermined

Ethiopia Undetermine d

CA R 105,00 0

Somalia 1,460,000

Republic of the Congo Up to 7,800

Sudan At least 2,200,000 South Sudan Undetermine d

government might be the cause of their fight and as citizens, they retain

re-establishment in their own countries brings their refugee status to an

rights and protection under both, human rights and international

end, although they remain identified by UNHCR until the reintegration

difficult to identify when a return process begins and ends, if it even exits.

UNHCR, across 26 countries, mainly including Sudan, Iraq and Colombia. The 28.8 million internally displaced civilians recorded in the IDMC report included more than 6.5 million newly displaced, mainly resultant of conflicts in the Middle East. The region, accounts for an increase of almost 6 million with Syria alone, accounting for 2.5 million. Asylum Seekers: Asylum seekers are people who consider themselves as refugees but have yet not received status from UNHCR. If they have not been assigned refugee status and have already crossed borders, they are usually send back to their country.

Kenya About 250,000

DR C 1,710,000 Angola Up to 20,000

law, UNHCR states that the voluntary repatriation of refugees and their

across Asia. Of the 26.4 Million, some 15.5 are currently being helped by

Ti mor-Leste Undetermine d

Indonesia Up to 180,000

are under the protection of their government, even though the

Nepa l About 50,00 0

Thailand Undetermine d

Yemen At least 463,50 0 Eritrea Up to 10,000

Niger Undetermined

refugees and internally displaced people. Under international refugee

freely within their own countries and haven’t fled the border, it makes it

Myanmar At least 450,00 0

Lebanon At least 47,000

sanctuary but have remained inside their home countries. Legally they

been internally displaced due to natural disasters, which are mainly

The Philippines At least 46,00 0

Iraq 2,300,000 -2,600,000 Syria At least 3,000,000

Returnees relate to the concept of ‘return’, which differs in the case of

process is complete. On the other hand, as IDPs retain the right to move

Laos Undetermine d Sri Lanka About 125,000

IDPs are persons who have not crossed an international border to find

humanitarian law. IDPs also include some 14.9 million people, who have

Bangladesh Undetermine d

Algeria Undetermined Chad 126,00 0 Senegal 10,00 0– 40,000 Liberia Undetermined Côte d´Iv oire At least 247,00 0

Returee:

Pakistan At least 900,00 0

India At least 506,00 0

Libya At least 154,000

26.4 Million People (as of 2012)

Burundi 78,80 0 Zimbabw e Undetermine d

Uganda About 30,000 Rwanda Undetermine d

UNRWA OPERATIONS 2012

UNRWA

Rafah Crossing RAFAH

Kerem Shalom Crossing KHAN YOUNIS

Sufa Crossing

DEIR EL-BALAH

Kissufim Crossing

Maghazi Nuseirat Bureij

Beach

GAZA STRIP

GAZA

Karni (Al-Montar) Crossing Nahal Oz Crossing

1,241,794 registered refugees 8 existing camps 243.schools

JABALIA

2 vocational and technical training centres 22 primary health care facilities

Erez Crossing

10 womens’ programme centres 7 community rehabilitation centres

TULKARM QALQILYA HEBRON Fawwar

Aida JERUSALEM

Am'ari Jalazone Kalandia

Shu'fat

Balata

Aqbat Jabr DEAD

JERICHO

SEA

SALFIT

ISRAEL Askar

Rashidieh

WEST BANK

Far'a

1948 conflict.’ In the absence of a solution to the Palestine Refugee issue

maintains a long-standing commitment to the welfare and human

and the conflict developments in the Middle East region, the General

development of the four generations if Palestine refugees. Setup to help

Assembly has repeatedly extended and expanded the UNRWA mandate,

some 750,000 Palestine refugees; today its services are available to

requiring the agency to engage in a variety of humanitarian, development

almost 5 million registered refugees in about 60 camps across the Middle

and protection activities based on the needs of beneficiaries. In 1952, the

East.

mandate included villagers in Jordan, the non-refugee population of the the hostilities of 1967, UNRWA was required to provide humanitarian

N S EA

assistance on an emergency basis, and as a temporary measure to any persons within the region, who are displaced and in need to assistance. Following the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, by Israel, it was also required to

Irbid

assist people displaced as a result of internal hostilities. Unlike, other humanitarian agencies, UNRWA is mandated to work with governments 470,604 registered refugees

TRIPOLI

12 existing camps

on interim measures and to provide relief and assistance to Palestine

Nahr el-Bared

69 schools

Beddawi

2 training centres

refugees, pending a resolution and plays no vital role in reaching a

28 primary health care facilities 9 womens’ programme centres 1 community rehab centre

Marka

QUNEITRA

Zarqa

JORDAN

Dbayeh

IRBID

Husn

Lita ni

Jerash Souf

LEBANON a sb

13 Coordination and management 102 Job creation programme BA’ALBEK

DERA’A

2,090,762 registered refugees

11 Protection Khan Eshieh

10 existing camps

DAMASCUS

4 Community mental health

Khan Dunoun

172 schools 2 vocational and technical training centres

Sbeineh

24 primary health care facilities

10 Temporary shelter and shelter repair

Jaramana

12 womens’ programme centres 8 community rehabilitation centres

Qabr Essit AS SUWAYDA

solution.13

Asi

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

Palestine refugees, following the 1948 Arab – Israeli conflict. UNRWA

Burj Barajneh BEIRUT Shatila

15 community rehabilitation centres

JERASH

Jabal el-Hussein ZARQA Amman New Camp

1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the

Mar Elias

Baqa'a

Talbieh

Refugees (UNRWA) to carry out direct relief and work programmes for

Mieh Mieh

GOLAN

18 womens’ programme centres

of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May

SAIDA Ein El Hilweh

LAKE TIBERIAS

42 primary health care facilities

Burj Shemali

TUBAS

Jordan

AMMAN

98 schools 2 vocational and technical training centres

Ein el-Sultan

MADABA 19 existing camps

established the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine

JENIN

AS SALT

886,716 registered refugees

TYRE

Camp No. 1

UNRWA declares Palestine Refugees as ‘persons whose normal place

Gaza Strip, refugees in Egypt and certain Bedouin categories. Following

El Buss NABLUS

Dheisheh BETHLEHEM Beit Jibrin

Nur Shams

Deir 'Ammar

RAMALLAH

Arroub

December 8th, 1949, the United Nations General Assembly,

SYRIA

HAMA 518,949 registered refugees 9 existing camps

3 Water and sanitation

118 schools 1 vocational and technical training centre 23 primary health care facilities 13 womens’ programme centres

56 Emergency cash assistance

5 Operations support office

50km north

Neirab

8 Emergency education

HOMS

5 community rehabilitation centres

8 Emergency health

82 Food assistance

Emergency Appeal USD 301 million

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

HUMAN RIGHTS + ARCHITECTURE

IN THE STATE OF EXCEPTION

ZAATARI CAMP, JORDAN SEPT 2012 - APRIL 2013

In the spaces of humanitarian relief and emergencies, the refugee camp is the most direct form of architecture and urban planning.

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

IN CONVERSATION ARCHITECTURE & HUMAN RIGHTS

Eyal Weizman:

some sort of life. This may work as a counter-image to the very disturbing

“You once interestingly described the refugee camps as a humanitarian

notion by which the camp is seen as the place where bare life is standing

“What I meant by this bubble is the humanitarian island itself, in which

They exchange money or sex or any kind of asset against soap and

bubble, a non-place where displaced persons, and the humanitarians

vis a vis power and some disciplinary form of government, where bodies

most aid workers, who spend just a few months going back and forth,

blankets, becoming the middlemen between aid workers and refugees.

are equally out of place. They meet for different reasons in a place foreign

are managed, rather than political subjects with their various forms of

stick and talk to themselves, communicate through walkie-talkies and

But we never find out directly, we learn about it casually. On the other

to both, which operates according to its own logic and to some degree

subjectivities and actions. If we accept that the urban is not the hardware

fancy communication devices. And they are right in the middle of the

hand, we have to work with people who are able to exchange and interact

disconnected from its surroundings, like a kind of island. In this you

of a city, the bricks and mortar, but the heterogeneity or multiplicities that

refugee camp, but they are not in the refugee camp. They are away from

with us, which means we sort of feed internal tensions; I think this is the

recounted the walkie-talkies and the way in which multiple languages are

a city has, I would like to argue that even in that humanitarian bubble – in

it, maybe, as you might put it, “on a vertical border”: they are above,

price to pay to organize aid, which is so badly needed in refugee camps

assembled, with humanitarians from all over the world, and displaced

the moment of assembly - there is a form of urbanity. So what kind of life

below or besides it – but not really in the camp.

to avoid the death of many more people.

persons from different tribes and villages. And all of a sudden, all these

takes place in a camp and what are its politics, which could undermine

people find themselves having to negotiate with this place, and establish

this view of the ‘naked life’ in it?”

Rony Brauman:

Through

the

process

professionalization

and

expansion

And lastly: there isn’t such a thing as “bare life.” Of course we take care

humanitarian aid in general - which I worked on so have no regrets about

of the bodies, as doctors. Except for those who teach and address

as it was needed - and as a result of this evolution, we now have huge

children’s minds, we as aid workers try to maintain life, and after all I feel

humanitarian teams which are most of the time very useful. There are for

quite comfortable with this. I would, on the contrary, feel very

instance 13,000 humanitarian aid workers in Darfur, of which 1500 are

uncomfortable if we were trying to do more, to control or penetrate

expatriate, and the rest local Sudanese. And behind the refugee camps’

people’s minds. What people ask us, what they expect from us, is to help

apparent chaos there is in fact a hidden order: people settle in particular

them survive. For the rest, they can manage by themselves, and do so

quarters because they are next to their kin, to the people of their village,

through a field of forces, through tense or ordinary social relationships,

with whom they share political or ethnic affiliation. Ethnicity doesn’t

through a variety of levels of life. But that is life, just the opposite of “bare

explain much, but geography and politics do. The basic organization is

life”. The fact that it is highly politicized replicates the ordinary life of

invisible to us westerners who are used to visualize social difference, yet

neighborhoods, of social interaction.”14

people know the difference, they have it in mind, and it is anything but chaotic. So there are organized neighborhoods with traditional leaders and their authority, but then rival leaders emerge who are able to deal with foreigners and speak to them. This creates difficult tensions,

An excerpt from panel discussion between Rony Brauman, director of

especially as these new leaders may turn out to be exploiters, thieves,

MSF and Eyal Weizman, Humanitarian Support, Planning Emergency,

rapists, and so on.

Organized by Laura Kurgan, 2006.

UNHCR CAMP PLANNING GUIDELINES

FAMILY 4-5 People 5 1 LATRINE

COMMUNITY 16 FAMILIES 80 1 WATER TAP 2 REFUSE DRUMS

BLOCK 16 COMMUNITIES

Architecture and planning play an important role in the development of

With the ideal city concepts and the ‘Raumstadt’ on one hand and the

establishment of UNHCR, architects and technical planners of the

on the other, a novel laboratory of a temporary city arises. Woven into the

UNHCR have planned refugee camps. The basic underlying principle

global network of information flow and commodities exchange through

that human rights and human needs are identical all over the world,

the internationally broadcasting and dominating media and aid agencies,

resulting in a neutral planning approach.

In the Handbook for

these places, with their emphasis on flexibility, infrastructure and control,

emergencies, UNHCR guide, only 20 pages of 600 have been devoted to

represent the other side of our globalized and postmodern world,

‘site selection, planning and shelter. Whether camps are located in the

analogously mirroring its rules and stipulations. With populations

rural mountains of Pakistan, the thick forests of Thailand, or in the deserts

averaging 500.000 inhabitants with underlying complexities of their

of the African Savanna the design of the camps have been based on the

individual ‘camp-quarters’ corresponding to social and political

generic guidelines.

structures and their often co-ordinated infrastructure facilities, refugee

these states of exception, yet

there is no exception? Since the

The smallest unit of the refugee camp, is a tent, usually planned for a 4 people occupancy. The unit is then organized into camp clusters (16

ad-hoc principle of improvised settlements with all their anarchic qualities

camps are in no way subordinated to conventional cities. Indeed, they present a microscosm of our urban metropolises.15

tents), camp blocks (16 clusters), camp sectors (4 blocks) and a camp (4

Recent camp developments have developed in ways that can be

blocks). For every 10 module, a Hospital referral is usually planned.

inscribed as permanent architecture, diminishing the very purpose of

Established in this way, each camp accommodates 200,000 refugees or

these camps. What remains at the the heart of problem is not just the

displaced people. Smaller tracks and non-motorized lanes separate the

individual object, the camp but the planning and architecture of these

clusters and blocks from each other while roads for motorized traffic

camp-cities. In the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, rather than building

access the larger camp sectors. This modernist approach of modularity

camps for displaced people, the government employed a new approach

is employed to establish a better controlling regime within the camps.

of dispersed camps, where displaced people were fed into existing civic

Food and water facilities are set up for each sector in order to control

infrastructure systems. This helped in a faster development and recovery

overlaps and congregation. This order becomes jeopardized in the

of the devasted regions. Although this isn’t the ultimate solution, it testifies

CAMP MODULE

context of violence and catastrophes and it is specifically its neutrality

that camp planning today requires a new set of architectural and

4 SECTORS

that makes the planning approach so susceptible to instrumentalization

planning techniques, that are built to to isolate the camp but rather help

and politicization.

the displaced; It calls for a paradigm shift.

1,250

SECTOR

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

THE REFUGEE CAMP

4 BLOCKS 5,000 1 SCHOOL BLOCK 1 DISTRIBUTION POINT

20,000 1 HEALTH CENTER + 1 FEEDING CENTRE + 1 MARKET + 1 DISTRIBUITION POINT

CAMP as CITY

CAMP in CRISIS

3 camps 3 States of Exception 3 Identities in Transition CAMP as NEW CITY : NAHR AL-BARED REGUGEE CAMP, SYRIA NAHR Al-BARED, was established by UNWRA in 1948 in North of Lebanon, to house Palestinians, post the Arab - Israel war. The coastal camp remained segregated from the rest of the city and was 90% destroyed in the clashes of 2007. For welfare of the refugees, an urban development program was undertaken by UNWRA to rebuild the community.

CAMP as CITY : JARMANA REFUGEE CAMP, LEBANON JARMANA, was established by UNRWA in 1948 in Syria, to house Palestinians, post the Arab-Israel war. Over the years, Jaramana adapted

JARMANA

ZAATARI

LOCATION: NORTH LEBANON

LOCATION: SYRIA

LOCATION: JORDAN

2007. Today, the Camp has turned into a city much like the urban fabric

ESTABLISHED: 1949

ESTABLISHED: 1948

ESTABLISHED: 2012

of Damascus.

REFUGEE: PALESTINE

REFUGEE: SYRIA

ORGANISATION: UNRWA

ORGANISATION: UNHCR

150,000 and a daily influx of 3000 refugees with over 40%, the camp has

AREA: 0.0004 km2

AREA: 0.03 km2

AREA: 3.3 Km2

grown to be the biggest refugee camp of the Middle East.

POPULATION: 30,000

POPULATION: 18,658

POPULATION: 144,000

to the city’s fabric and further densified with the influx of Iraqi refugees in

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

NAHR AL BARED

CAMP in CRISIS : ZAATARI REFUGEE CAMP, JORDAN ZAATARI refugee camp is one of the most recent camps established by UNHCR to house Syrian refugees since 2012. With a population of

IN THE STATE OF EXCEPTION

CAMP as NEW CITY

NAHR AL-BARED

CAMP as NEW CITY

AERIAL VIEW, 2007

Nahr al-Bared is a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, 16 km

OLD CAMP

from the city of Tripoli. Almost 30,000 displaced Palestinians and their

NEW CAMP SITE DESTROYED, 2007

descendents live in and around the camp. Under the terms of the 1969 Cairo Agreement, the Lebanese Army does not conventionally enter the Palestinian camps, and internal security is provided by Palestinian factions. The camp was established in December 1949 by the League of Red Cross Societies in order to accommodate the Palestinian refugees suffering from the difficult winter conditions in the Beqaa Valley and the suburbs of Tripoli. The camp was built outside any major Lebanese towns or settlements, leaving it more isolated from the Lebanese society than many of the other camps in Lebanon. Despite this, due to its position on the main road to Syria and its proximity to the Syrian border, Nahr al-Bared grew to be a central commercial hub for the local Lebanese of the Akkar region. The camp became the centre of the fighting between the Lebanese Army and Fatah al-Islam. It sustained heavy shelling while under siege. Most of

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

the inhabitants fled to the nearby Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp. The conflict between the Lebanese Army and Fatah al-Islam ended on Sunday September 2, 2007 with the Lebanese Army taking full control of the camp after eliminating the remaining terrorist pockets. UNRWA, charged with the care of the Palestinians, struggled to contain the unprecedented humanitarian crisis. In the meantime, most of the displaced refugees waited in improvised shelters in Beddawi camp and elsewhere for a sustainable solution to arrive.

CAMP as NEW CITY

SCALE

NAHR AL-BARED

MASTER PLAN

LOW RISE SECTORS

BUILDING TYPOLOGY

Recipient of the Agha Khan Award for Architecture, the reconstruction of

the Nedr al Bared camp for 27,000 refugees which was 95% destroyed

during the 2007 war involved a planning effort with the entire community, followed by a series of eight construction phases. Limited land and the exigency of recreating physical and social fabrics were primary considerations. The camp followed the extended-family pattern and building typology of the refugeesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; villages. In a layout where roads provided light and ventilation, the goal was to increase non-built areas from 11% to 35%. It was achieved by giving each building an independent structural system allowing for vertical expansion up to four floors on a reduced footprint. Nahr al-Bared is a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, 16 km from the city of Tripoli. Almost 30,000 displaced Palestinians and their descendents live in and around the camp. Under the terms of the 1969 Cairo Agreement, the Lebanese Army does not conventionally enter the Palestinian camps, and internal security is provided by Palestinian

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

factions. The camp was established in December 1949 by the League of Red Cross Societies in order to accommodate the Palestinian refugees suffering from the difficult winter conditions in the Beqaa Valley and the suburbs of Tripoli. The camp was established outside any major Lebanese towns or settlements, which left it more isolated from the Lebanese society than many of the other camps in Lebanon. Despite this, due to its position on the main road to Syria and its proximity to the Syrian border, Nahr al-Bared grew to be a central commercial hub for the local Lebanese of the Akkar region.

IN THE STATE OF EXCEPTION

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

NAHR EL BARED REFUGEE CAMP, LEBANON, 2006-2013

CAMP as CITY

JARAMANA

Overtime,

Damascus has received extensive waves of refugees,

impacting in different ways on the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fabric. The oldest refugee communities can be identified in the Palestinian settlements on the foot of

SYRIAN MAJORITY IRAQI MAJORITY MIXED

the Qasioun Mountains, who fled the crusaders in the 12th century. The twentieth century saw an influx of Palestinians fleeing their homeland after the creation of the State of Israel. Yarmouk and Jaramana, refugee camps established 1955 and 1949 respectively, within the city perimeter has since developed into a dense urban neighborhood, resembling some of the other more traditional quarters of Damascus. Sharing a border of over 600km in length with Iraq, Syria has become host to many hundred thousand refugees since the US led war against Iraq. In 2007, UNHCR estimated that the number of Iraqi refugees in Syria exceeded 1.2 million, a huge influx to a country with a population of 18 million. The large number of refugees had an extreme effect on all facets of life in Syria, particularly on the services which the state offers to citizens. There has been a large increase in the cost of living and the

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

unexpected weight of numbers has had dramatic impacts on the infrastructure and the economy and now as recently seen, politics. The integration though of the Iraqi refugees into the Syrian society with little conflict and virtually no outside support is generally considered as a great achievement. Jaramana, a neighborhood southeast of the city center, has transformed considerably since the arrival of the Iraqi refugees. Formerly an area occupied by Palestinian refugees, it has experienced a vast amount of housing construction and a considerable densification since the arrival of the Iraqis.

CAMP as CITY

SCALE

JARAMANA

CAMP LAYOUT

SECTOR LAYOUT

BUILDING TYPOLOGY HIGH DENSITY HOUSING FLOORS ADDED OVERTIME

SECTORS WITH HOUSING BLOCKS

Mostly self-reliant, with little support from UNHCR and arriving with a

certain amount of financial means the Iraqi refugees where recognized as ideal clients for real estate developers, who quickly constructed new apartment blocks in the neighborhood, or extended existing structures. In

MARKETS + GREEN SPACES

the meantime refugee welfare organizations and UNHCR have begun constructing schools and other institutions for the Iraqi refugees. The

SCHOOLS + HOSPITALS

magnitude of the annual increase in infrastructure, buildings and population can be seen as a result of the investments in the city of Jaraman over the last decade. Today, Jaramana, seen as the cancer of the city, is a crowded busy area with a downtow ambiance, organized along a broad main road. It offers new employment oppotunities and residential space. These institutions, after many Iraqis have begun to return home, are forming the nuclei of the young neighborhoods and aid in upgrading the services available to the non-refugee population. Jarama experienced the Iraqi refugees as a catalyst for urban development in the region. The

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

new strucutres in the city stay of significant spatial relevance to the evolution of new areas around Damascus. However, the relevance is not just limited to social and spatial structures in Syria but the influx of refugees and the hybrid ideologies of the Palestinians and Iraqis, paved the way for revolutions across Syria and the onset of the civil war.

2-5 STOREY OLDER BUILDINGS NEW BUILDINGS GRADUAL ADDITION OF FLOORS

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

IN THE STATE OF EXCEPTION

JARMANA REFUGEE CAMP, JORDAN, 1949-2013

CAMP in CRISIS

ZAATARI

SITE OCCUPATION: JULY 2012 - JULY 2013

Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, is located 10 km east of Mafraq. It was

SEPT 2012 ~ 3,000

established in July 28, 2012 to host Syrians fleeing the violence in the ongoing Syrian civil war that erupted in 2011. In July, 2013, the camp population was estimated at 144,000 refugees in an area of 3.3 km2, making it Jordan's fourth largest city. It is connected to the road network by a short road which leads to the highway 10 OSM.The camp features

NOV 2012 ~ 5,163

market-like structures along the main Street where goods like vegetables, basic household equipment and clothes can be purchased. Since the opening of the camp in July 2012 there have repeatedly been demonstrations held by the camp population. The main concern relates to the lack of sufficient food supplies and better accommodation. The

JAN 2013 ~ 11,966

camp has seen an increasing number of reports of crime, including prostitution and drug-dealing.Furthermore demonstrations are used as a forum to create awareness of the conflict and to express political views against the current government lead by Bashar al-Assad and the violence inflicted by the Syrian Armed Forces. Due to the maximum

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

FEB 2013 ~ 18,169

capacity of 60,000 refugees a second camp was built 20 kilometres east of Zarqa in the Marjeeb Al Fahood plains. Even in it’s current state of emergency, Zaatari hosts a Champs Elysees that is flooded with refugee shops with all sorts of possibilities. With entrepreneurial zeal, Syrians have – with their own or borrowed money –

APRIL 2013 ~ 25,378

set up shops in the camp, in pursuit of a livelihood. The site which has over 50% children currently has 3 large schools, many playgrounds and 2 hospitals. It costs roughly $500,000 (£300,000) a day to run Zaatari and Jordanians.

CAMP in CRISIS

ZAATARI

SCALE

CAMP LAYOUT

SECTOR LAYOUT

BUILDING TYPOLOGY

The camp has electricity and residents have tapped into the grid to

SHELTER SECTORS

SHELTERS

divert it to individual homes and shops. Around 40% of the homes have

RECREATIONAL + MARKETS + SCHOOLS

LATRINES

televisions. Jordanian NGOs and aid workers agree that the burden of

MEDICAL + FOOD SUPPLIES + CHECK POINTS

DISPERSED CAMPS

supporting more than 500,000 Syrian refugees is stretching resources to the limit. Syrians are beginning to fan out across the country and the region â&#x20AC;&#x201C; to Morocco, Algeria and even Yemen. The severe winter this year SEMI PERMANENT TRAILERS UNHCR

DISTRIBUTION POINT

has raised concerns on the quality of shelters provided by the UNHCR. Along with the most temporary UNHCR tents and trailers, the government has now agreed on using IKEAs pre febricated housing. Although camp Zaatari has seen the largest influx of refugee population and has grown into the largest refugee camp in the Middle East in less than a year, it

HOSPITAL

remains a site of hope. A site of a new generation of Syrians. Even with deteriorating conditions and continued conflict, Syrians still hope to

MARKET

maintain the temporality of Zaatari in hopes of returning home. And, it is TEMPORARY TENTS UNHCR

in the temporality of these tents, that the world might see the emergence of a New Identity. The identity of the liberal, post colonial Arab.

who fled Syria were refugees from Palestine (1949) and Egypt (2007). CHECK POINT

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

Tracing back the trajectory of conflict, one can note that many of those

HOSPITAL

This notion of identity that moves from generation to generation, camp to

FOOD POINT

camp, poses the largest identity conflict in the Middle East. An identitty continuoulsy being transfigured, resultant of the power and politics. Being host to the largest refugee population ever and an exuberrant PREFAB UNITS IKEA

amount of children, Zaatari has become a focal point for the future of humanitarian agencies and refugee camps. . The life in Zaatari matters more than mere data metrics by UNHCR. It is the future.

IDENTITY IN CRISIS

IN THE STATE OF EXCEPTION

ZAATARI REFUGEE CAMP, JORDAN, 2013

THE END OF POST COLONIALISM

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Agamben

feared that camps - from Auschwitz to Guantanamo -

These revolutions are not against "the West", for "the West" - as the

revealed the "nomos of the modern" and that it signaled the rise of

imaginative geography of our domination, and in the fabrication of which

totalitarianism, not against democracy but in fact through democracy. But

we "Orientals" ourselves have been co-conspirators - no longer exists.

here on Camp Zaatari, something more radical is on display, for it is here

This round of uprisings is no longer between an abstract modernity and a

that the Arab revolutions go back to point zero of their history. What

belligerent tradition. All these tired old cliches are now in the dustbin of

Agamben was theorising was the condition of the camp as a state of

history. The new history is beginning at the site of Camp Zaatari, where

exception, where sovereignty becomes absolute. On the site of Camp

Syrians have gone to give birth to their future. When the carnage of

Zaatari, the bared lives of the campers are the naked subjects of the

Bashar al-Assad and his militant nemesis is over, the Syrians will go back

sovereignty. Law here has categorically lost its self-transcendence.

from Camp Zaatari to build their democracy. This is now not obvious in

Agamben takes the camp as that state of exception that does not prove

the heat of the battlefield - but it is evident in the ruins of Camp Zaatari.

the rule but in fact has become the rule. At Zaatari, the moment when the

The wretched of the earth are grabbing the bastards who have used and

state of exception has become the rule, but not sustaining the rule - here

abused them by the throat. The world has been mapped out multiple

that rule is being re-written.

times over. The colonial mapping of the world, with "the Middle East" as its normative epicentre and Israel as the last colonial flag still casting its European look on the regional history, is now witness to the shadow of their own demise. Afghanistan is the current site of imperial hubris, the Islamic republic, the last aftertaste of colonised minds that crafted an

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Islamic ideology, looking askance at the very last Arab potentate ruling de facto postcolonial nation-states, now rising to reclaim historical agency to remap their world - and on that emerging map Camp Zaatari is the new cosmopolis.â&#x20AC;?

Hamid Dabashi is Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York. He is the author of Arab Spring: The End of Postcolonialism (2012).

IN THE STATE OF EXCEPTION

A NEW COSMOPOLIS, CAMP ZAATARI

All

maps and illustrations have been made or reproduced with

modifications. All statistical information through various reports and publications, published through UNHCR or UNRWA. Mapping data and illustations through Google Maps, IDMC and UNOSAT . Illustration of Jaramana Camp with reference to ETH –Basel Jaramana study.

1. Michel Algiers, Between War and City, Towards and urban anthropology of refugee camps, Ethnography 2. Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, trans Daniel Heller – Roazen (Stanford, Calif: Standford University Press, 1998) 3. Ibid. 4. Manuel Herz, Camp as City, Refugee camps of the Western Sahara 5. Edward Said, ‘Orientalism’. 6. Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali Zamindar, The Long Partition and the Making of Modern South Asia: Refugees, Boundaries, Histories (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007) 7. Manuel Herz, Camp as City, Refugee camps of the Western Sahara 8. ‘Ethnic conflict and state- building’, Saad Eddin Ibrahim 9. Manuel Herz, Camp as City, Refugee camps of the Western Sahara

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10. Ibid. 11. Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Ethnic Conflict and State Building, 2005 12. UNHCR Website (Documents, Maps, Statistics) 13.UNWRA Website (Documents, Maps, Statistics) 14. Rony Brauman and Eyal Weizman in Conversation, Text fromVideo Recording. Panel on Human Rights and Architecture, 2006.

IN THE STATE OF EXCEPTION

BIBLIOGRAPHY