VZCZCXRO4555 
RR RUEHROV 
DE RUEHAM #1724/01 1611501 
ZNR UUUUU ZZH 
R 091501Z JUN 08 
FM AMEMBASSY AMMAN 
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2826 
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 AMMAN 001724 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREF KPAL JO
SUBJECT: PALESTINIAN REFUGEE CAMPS IN JORDAN, PART 1: THE REFUGEES AND THEIR WORLD 
 
REF: A. AMMAN 391 B. AMMAN 1466 C. AMMAN 670 
 
¶1. (SBU) Note: This is the first of a four-part series of 
cables examining the world of Jordan's Palestinian refugee 
camps. Part one will focus on the different categories of 
refugees, and the basic structure of the camp system as it 
exists in Jordan. Part two will examine the isolation of the 
camps - how they are largely separate from Jordanian society, 
politics, and economics. Part three will look at the 
economic situation of the camps and their inhabitants, 
particularly in light of recent strains on Jordan's economy. 
Part four will examine Islamist politics and extremism in the 
camps. These cables are the result of focus group meetings 
with diverse residents of nine camps in Jordan. End Note. 
 
¶2. (U) Summary: Only a small proportion of Palestinians in 
Jordan live in refugee camps. The ten official and three 
unofficial camps were founded in two waves - four during and 
after 1948, and nine during and after 1967. The first wave 
of camps have for the most part been integrated into major 
urban centers, while those of the second wave are often more 
isolated. The camps are extremely crowded. End Summary. 
 
Camp Residents A Minority Of Palestinian Refugees 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶3. (SBU) While refugee camps are the most visual reminder of 
a Palestinian presence in Jordan, the number of camp 
residents is a relatively small subset of the population of 
Palestinian-origin Jordanians. The government of Jordan does 
not officially collect data on country of origin, yet 
conventional wisdom (even among Jordanian government 
officials) says that a majority of Jordanians are of 
Palestinian origin - at least sixty percent. Depending on 
one's estimate, up to about half of Palestinian-origin 
Jordanians are registered as refugees. The UN Relief and 
Works Agency (UNRWA), which administers aid to Palestinian 
refugees in Jordan and the region and runs the camps, has 
official figures which indicate that there are 1.9 million 
registered Palestinian refugees in Jordan - about one-third 
of the country's population. However, it is only a smaller 
fraction that lives in UNRWA-administered refugee camps - 
approximately 330,000, or just eighteen percent of the total 
refugee population in Jordan, by the agency's estimates. 
 
¶4. (SBU) For Palestinian-origin Jordanians living outside of 
the camps, refugee status is a choice. Some see an official 
refugee designation as a political statement - a reminder to 
Israel (and sometimes the Government of Jordan) that the 
Palestinian issue has yet to be solved. Others are hoping 
for supposed compensation that may come in place of the right 
of return to a future Palestinian state - compensation that 
some think will go only to registered refugees (Ref A). Yet 
for the residents of the camps, refugee status is a 
necessity. Official designation as a refugee allows 
Palestinians to live in the camps and gives them access to 
all the services of UNRWA. 
 
Who Lives in the Camps? 
----------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) While refugees are dispersed within Jordanian 
society, refugee camps and their residents are far more 
easily defined. There are ten official UNRWA refugee camps 
in Jordan. Four of these camps (Zarqa, Jebel Hussein, 
Wahdat, and Irbid) were constructed for refugees who fled to 
Jordan in 1948. The residents of these camps are for the 
most part full Jordanian citizens. These camps are all in 
urban areas, and in the sixty intervening years since their 
founding, the cities they are located in have largely 
engulfed them. Contacts in these camps tend to be far more 
integrated into the fabric of Jordanian life than those who 
came later. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Five camps (Al-Husn, Baqa'a, Hitteen, Souf, and 
Talbieh) were created for refugees from the "Six-Day War" of 
¶1967. Many of the refugees in these camps were originally 
housed in camps located in the Jordan Valley - camps that 
were abandoned due to ongoing cross-border clashes in the 
period leading up to the 1970 Civil War. The camps founded 
in 1967 and later were built further outside the urban areas 
of Jordan. The sprawl is just starting to reach some of 
them, but they remain for the most part more isolated than 
the earlier camps. Residents of these camps are a mixed bag 
in terms of status and official disposition. The vast 
majority are Jordanian citizens, but there are some refugees 
who live in these camps who have only limited access to 
Jordanian government services and citizenship rights. Note: 
For a description of the different categories and gradations 
of citizenship status that Palestinians and refugees possess 
in Jordan, see Ref B. End Note. 
 
¶7. (U) Jerash camp (founded 1968) is a unique case: it is 
populated almost exclusively by former residents of the Gaza 
Strip. These refugees are by definition non-Jordanians. 
They carry "temporary" Jordanian travel documents with two 
year validity that function as a laissez passer. They cannot 
vote, and have no access to any services (such as health 
care) provided by the Jordanian government. Note: There are 
scattered refugees from Gaza in some other camps, but 
generally their numbers are low. End Note. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Beyond the officially recognized refugee camps, 
there are neighborhoods of several cities which house large 
populations of refugees, either as designated overflow areas 
or as unplanned concentrations. Three of these neighborhoods 
(in Madaba, Zarqa, and Amman) are designated by the Jordanian 
government as refugee camps. While UNRWA provides services 
to these areas in the form of schools and health centers, it 
does not recognize them as camps. Even more far-flung areas 
of Jordan have smaller concentrations of refugees which merit 
occasional services from UNRWA, but fail to rise to the level 
of camps by any definition. In all of these Palestinian 
concentrations, there is a mix of refugees from various eras 
of the conflict and different status groups. 
 
Is it Crowded in Here, or is it Just Me? 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶9. (U) Refugee camps in Jordan are extremely crowded. The 
population density of Jordan's camps is over 11,000 people 
per square kilometer - over seven times the average for the 
Amman municipal area, which stands at 1,570 per square 
kilometer, and almost 170 times the population density of 
Jordan as a whole. In fact, the crowded nature of the camps 
is frequently one of the only things that distinguish them 
from the surrounding neighborhoods. Since the camps were 
built as "temporary" shelters, the buildings are often 
haphazardly constructed in tight spaces - a factor that 
contributes to high population density. A 2006 UNRWA study 
put the average space of refugee dwellings in the camps at 
just 721 square feet. 
 
¶10. (SBU) The population density of the camps is increasing. 
The boundaries of the camps are fixed, and the Jordanian 
government has no intention to expand them (and in several 
cases, no room to do so). Outflow is very low - most people 
in the camps simply cannot afford to move, especially as real 
estate prices in Jordan continue to skyrocket (Ref C). UNRWA 
officials told us that they are starting to think about the 
possibility of longer-term solutions for the housing crisis 
in the camps, including construction of high-rise apartment 
buildings that would accommodate more refugees in a smaller 
space. Subsequent cables in this series will examine the 
political and social geography of the camps. 
 
The Camps: A Closer Look 
------------------------ 
 
¶11. (SBU) The following are brief descriptions of 
Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan: 
 
Baqa'a Camp 
 
The largest and most crowded refugee camp in Jordan, Baqa'a 
camp is located around thirty miles northwest of Amman, near 
the town of Ein Basha. It was founded in 1968 as a smaller 
settlement, but later received larger numbers of refugees who 
were displaced from fighting in the nearby Jordan valley. 
Baqa'a Camp holds over 102,000 refugees on just 1.4 square 
kilometers (.87 square miles) of land. Unlike many other 
camps in Jordan, Baqa'a camp is not integrated into the 
surrounding community. The camp is currently represented in 
parliament by Mohammed Akel, an Islamic Action Front (IAF) 
member. 
 
Jebel Hussein Camp 
 
Jebel Hussein Camp is one of the oldest camps in Jordan. 
Founded in 1952, the camp is now well integrated into the 
fabric of Amman. It is on the northern side of the city, 
near a heavily trafficked commercial area. The camp holds 
over 30,000 registered refugees on .42 square kilometers (.16 
square miles) of land. 
 
Hitteen Camp 
 
Hitteen Camp (aka Marka Camp, aka Schneller Camp) is located 
ten kilometers northeast of Amman - roughly equidistant from 
Amman and Zarqa. The camp was founded in 1968 on .92 square 
kilometers (.35 square miles) of land, and now houses over 
63,000 people. The camp lies on the main thoroughfare 
between Amman and Zarqa, and is noticeably more crowded than 
the suburban neighborhoods which surround it. On the Zarqa 
side of the camp, there are large industrial complexes which 
are known for their deleterious environmental impact on the 
area - much of Jordan's chemicals are processed here. 
 
Wahdat Camp 
 
Wahdat Camp (aka Amman New Camp) lies on the southeastern 
corner of Amman, just above the older downtown area. It was 
founded in 1955, and lies on .48 square kilometers (.19 
square miles) of land. Wahdat camp houses over 50,000 
registered refugees. Like Hitteen camp, Wahdat camp is in a 
heavily industrial area. The district is full of auto repair 
shops, and consequently the air in the area is thick with 
fumes. Wahdat camp is the center of Amman's second electoral 
district, which has the distinction of being the most 
disproportionately under-represented district in Jordan - 
just four representatives for 200,000 people. 
 
Al-Husn Camp 
 
Located six miles southeast of Irbid on a crowded hillside, 
Husn camp was founded in 1968. It is located on .74 square 
kilometers (.29 square miles) of land, and houses over 27,000 
people. Even though the camp is located on a major 
thoroughfare between Irbid and Amman, it is still relatively 
isolated. Farmland dominates the surrounding landscape, and 
passing herds of sheep are not an uncommon sight on the main 
streets of the camp. 
 
Irbid Camp 
 
Founded in 1951, Irbid Camp is one of the oldest refugee camp 
in Jordan. The camp is also one of the smallest in Jordan: 
.24 square kilometers, or just .09 square miles. It houses 
over 25,000 refugees, and has been effectively swallowed up 
by the city of Irbid - only the older residents of the camp 
can remember a time when it was still a separate village 
north of the city. Today, the only marker that indicates the 
presence of a refugee camp is a low wall surrounding the 
camp's graveyard and a sudden tightening of the street 
pattern to fit with the increased population density of the 
camp in comparison to the surrounding area. 
 
Souf Camp 
 
Souf Camp is in a secluded valley north of the city of 
Jerash. The camp was founded in 1967 on .5 square 
kilometers, or .19 square miles, and houses over 21,000 
refugees. It is surrounded by olive groves - the city of 
Jerash has yet to expand quite to the border of the camp, but 
this will likely happen in the coming decade. Souf camp is 
represented in parliament by Suleyman Al-Sa'ed, a member of 
the Islamic Action Front. 
 
Jerash Camp 
 
Jerash Camp was created in 1967 for refugees from the Gaza 
strip, and remains the primary (but not only) location of 
Gazan refugees, who are not entitled to Jordanian 
citizenship. Contacts in the camp told us that in fact, most 
of the residents of Jerash camp are not Gazans originally. 
The majority are refugees from Beersheba who fled first to 
Gaza in 1948, and then to Jordan in 1967. As a consequence 
of the peculiarities of Palestinian refugee status in Jordan, 
many of the stateless families in the camp have relatives who 
came directly to Jordan from Beersheba in 1948, and hence are 
entitled to full Jordanian citizenship. The camp is located 
five miles west of Jerash, on the road to Ajloun. Unlike 
many camps in Jordan, Jerash camp has clear boundaries. It 
has a markedly more compact feel than the surrounding area, 
which is mostly agricultural. The camp is located on .75 
square kilometers (.29 square miles) of land, and houses over 
28,000 people. 
 
Zarqa Camp 
 
Zarqa Camp is the oldest refugee camp in Jordan. Founded in 
1949, the camp has since become an integrated neighborhood of 
Zarqa. It is located in the heart of the city, right behind 
the main bus station. Most of its residents are 1948 
refugees with full Jordanian citizenship. It is housed on 
.18 square kilometers, or .06 square miles, and houses over 
18,500 refugees. 
 
Talbieh Camp 
 
Talbieh Camp is near the turnoff for Queen Alia International 
Airport, thirty-five kilometers south of Amman. The camp 
houses a mixture of West Bank and some Gaza refugees, and was 
founded in 1968. The camp is .13 square kilometers (.05 
square miles) in size, and houses 9,000 people. It is 
surrounded by agricultural land. 
 
The "Unofficial" Camps 
 
Three neighborhoods in Jordan receive UNRWA services, but are 
not considered refugee camps by the agency. These 
pseudo-camps are located in or near Madaba, Amman (Emir 
Hasan), and Zarqa (Sukhna). For example, the unofficial 
Sukhna camp is located about twenty minutes north of Zarqa, 
in an isolated patch of desert which is half camp, half East 
Banker village. Unlike the official camps, there is nothing 
to suggest the presence of a concentration of Palestinian 
refugees - no UNRWA office, no sudden increase in population 
density, no string of auto repair shops that for one reason 
or another seem to delineate the boundaries of the 
established camps. The camp residents are fully integrated 
into the surrounding community, and are a mix of refugees 
from 1948 and 1967, the West Bank and Gaza. Unlike the 
official camps and their problems with land ownership (see 
part three), structures and property in these camps are 
bought and sold as in the rest of Jordan. 
 
Hale