Talk:Al-Zaatari Camp

Intro to Zaatari Camp
Jordan has taken in relatively few Syrians, at least per capita, compared to, say, Lebanon, or say, other parts of Syria, often in succession. But the ones who do settle in Jordan tend to be in one big community that's the biggest one anywhere. I just read about it today in a recent issue of Time. I'd like to start a page with that, and starting the section. The article apparently isn't on their site. It's based on black and white photos from inside the camp-cum-city. I did find this:
 * Za’atari: the Rapid Growth of the Largest Camp for Syrian Refugees - Satellite image of the whole place. Might be of interest. Might be carefully screened and incomplete by now, for all we know.

One woman there says her husband was shot by "uniformed men." There was another interviewee I wanted to quote, still mortified by seeing a 90-year-old man hit with a meat cleaver. He blames the regime and its supporters. He's a candy vendor with young kids, and says he wants to return to the revolution soon. Then, he promises, if they succeed, we'll start seeing the real massacres. Lovely. Wish I could just show it.

Anyway, point of interest to me about this places include the attitude of those who live here, how that attitude is maintained/how neighbors relate, what variety of flags are displayed around, etc. and what they plan and do about Syria's future while there. I hear some of them are being shaped up into fighters before going back in, kind of like the camps in Turkey. --Caustic Logic (talk) 13:21, 4 February 2014 (UTC)


 * Now I can cite it. Abu Anas, age 46, a candy seller from Damascus:
 * "I want to go back to the revolution ... as soon as we succeed, you're going to see the massacres."
 * The article closes "which, of course, would mean a whole new refugee crisis." --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:49, 5 February 2014 (UTC)
 * I thought it was a pretty damning quote, but still a Google search says no one, even me, has posted it on the Internet yet. Thinking about it tonight, it struck me that John McCain is probably arranging right now to get his picture taken with "Abu Anas," perhaps handing him his first starter knife, then saluting him with a seig heil. --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:41, 7 February 2014 (UTC)

Political Views Inside the Camp

 * ‘We Just Wish for the Hit to Put an End to the Massacres’ For Syrian refugees in Jordan’s Zaatari camp, arguments about international law ring hollow. By Max Blumenthal. The Nation. September 13, 2013
 * When news of the August 21 chemical attacks that left hundreds dead in the Ghouta region east of Damascus reached Zaatari, terror and dread spiked to unprecedented levels. Many residents repeated to me the rumors spreading through the camp that Bashar would douse them in sarin gas as soon as he crushed the last vestiges of internal resistance—a kind of genocidal victory celebration. When President Barack Obama announced his intention to launch punitive missile strikes on Syria, however, a momentary sense of hope began to surge through the camp. Indeed, there was not one person I spoke to in Zaatari who did not demand US military intervention at the earliest possible moment.
 * “We follow the news minute by minute,” Abdel told me. “The whole camp’s opinion is in favor of a strike. Nobody wants the country to be hit. I swear we don’t like it. But with the kind of injustice we have seen, we just wish for the hit to put an end to the massacres. We feel strange because we’re wishing for something that we have never wished for before. But it’s the lesser of two evils.”
 * “Just do it, Obama! What are you waiting for?” an elderly woman in a tent on the other side of the camp remarked to me. “Hit him today and bring down the whole country—we have no problem with that. We just want to go back. Besides, the country is so destroyed, even if Obama’s strike destroys houses, we can rebuild them again.”


 * Inside every canvas tent and corrugated tin caravan I visited across the gravelly wasteland of Zaatari, this is what residents told me: We have no future if Bashar is allowed to remain in power, and he is not going anywhere unless the United States intervenes.


 * Like most Americans, I am staunchly against US strikes, ... However, I believe that the refugees trapped in Zaatari deserve to be heard. ... it is they who will have to face the direct consequences of any outcome of outside intervention.
 * ... they and/or their massacre victims, etc. As noted above, another man there later said "as soon as we succeed, you're going to see the massacres." And ironically, the unanimous argument was framed in September as "the Hit to Put an End to the Massacres."


 * ‘We are begging you for a no-fly zone’: Angry Syrian refugees confront John Kerry with demands - Zaatari refugees speaking for all Syrians saying the same basic thing in July, 2013 when Kerry opted to go there and spur such a thing. Combo action, pleading and threats: "“We are begging you for a no-fly zone ... You as the U.S. government look to Israel with respect. Cannot you do the same with the children of Syria? ... if the situation remains unchanged ... We will return to Syria and we will fight with knives. ... The international community can decide to keep its eyes closed as long as it wants. We will return to Syria and we will remember everything.”

Military Training Base?

 * Sarina tweets:
 * 1500 gunmen,of al-Zaatari camp residents- #Jordan, were trained for fighting & using weapons to join nearly 50,000 others existing in #Syria

Recruiting: known: Syrian Rebels Illegally Recruiting From Jordan Refugee Camp Time, Nov. 11, 2013