Balata

Infobox Palestinian Authority muni
name=Balata Camp


imgsize=
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arname=مخيم بلاطة
meaning=
founded=
type=ref
typefrom=1950
altOffSp=
altUnoSp=
governorate=nb
population=17,650
popyear=2006
area=
areakm=

Balata Camp ( _ar. مخيم بلاطة) is a Palestinian refugee camp established in the northern West Bank in 1950, adjacent to the city of Nablus. It currently houses 17,645 registered Palestinian refugees. Residents of the camp suggest that the number of residents is closer to 30,000. It is currently the largest refugee camp in the West Bank.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) funds a school in the Balata camp, with approximately 4,000 pupils. [http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/westbank/balata.html UNRWA page on the Balata camp] UNRWA]

Balata is one of the most densely populated locations on Earth. Less than two square kilometers in size, 30,000 people live in its concrete block houses. The layout of the camp is a product of its creation. In 1950, the UN gave the refugees from the Jaffa area temporary housing. These people initially refused the UN's offers, stating their eagerness to return to their homes. They desired no sense of permanence. After two years, these refugees accepted the UN's offer and settled at Balata.

In 1956, the Jaffa refugees desired more permanent housing. The border with the recently created State of Israel having been sealed, the refugees accepted the UN's offer to build concrete structures in place of the refugee's tents. Balata camp today is so dense because these concrete structures were built on the actual plots families had been given for refugee's tents. There are some alleyways in the camp that are so narrow that large people cannot traverse them.

Intifada history

Balata residents took leading roles in both Palestinian Intifadas, the first in the late 1980s through the early 1990s and the second in the first five years of the new millennium. In 1987, when people in the Gaza Strip ignited the First Intifada, Balata camp was the first community in the West Bank to engage in violence.Fact|date=November 2007

During the course of the al-Aqsa Intifada, the IDF has developed various tactics, like "traveling through walls", that allow them to enter the camp without suffering many casualties. In the traveling through walls tactic, Israeli soldiers enter a home on the edge of the camp in cover of night, and proceed to blow holes through the walls of homes down a given street, using the homes as shields against Palestinian fire.Fact|date=November 2007

ee also

*Palestinian refugee camps

References

External links

* [http://www.balatacamp.net Balata camp.net Community Project]

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