Updated: Lost Palestinian Refugee Camps on UN-Google Earth Map
Written by Haitham on 10. April 2008, 1701hrs // Part of Haitham's adventure in (Mis) Use of Technology, Action, Breaking News, Failures, Palestine // Other posts by Haitham
It was a happy moment when I heard the news that UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) launched in coordination with Google Earth, a new layer that focus on refugee camps around the world. This should be a great tool to follow the crisis of Palestinian refugees under occupation and expose it to the world through one of the most used Web 2.0 applications (Google Earth claims to have more than 350 million downloads and counting).
In their press release, UNHCR said:
Google Earth’s new mapping programme takes you on a virtual reality tour with the UN refugee agency of some of the world’s major displacement crises and the humanitarian efforts aimed at helping the victims.
The first use of this geospatial tool focuses on refugees and displaced people located in remote areas of Chad, Iraq, Colombia and Sudan’s volatile Darfur region. Sit in front of your computer and, with a few clicks, see, hear and develop an emotional understanding of what it is like to be a refugee.
Highlighted are not only the physical area of the camp and surrounding country, but key parts of daily life such as education and health in photo, text and video format. Within seconds, Google Earth brings the daily life of a refugee camp into your home thousands of kilometres away.
To start your journey, click here.
However, my happiness did not last for long when I discovered that NONE of the Palestinian refugee camps within the Occupied Palestinian Territories are published there (see map below). So, even if you “Sit in front of your computer“, with a few clicks you can “see, hear and develop an emotional understanding of what it is like to be a refugee“, but not the Palestinian refugees’ experience. They don’t exist!
(Click image to enlarge)
This misfortune seems to be a result of one of two things:
1. Either the issue of the Palestinian refugees under Israeli occupation got solved and nobody told me (in this case I only blame myself for missing last night’s news), or;
2. The UNHCR does not recognize the Palestinian refugee camps in the Occupied Palestinian Territories all together as “refugee camps who needs emotional understanding“, so they are not one of the “major displacement crises,” thus do not require “the humanitarian efforts aimed at helping the victims“! We understand that UNHCR mandate is to take care of refugees all around the world, but not those inside Occupied Palestinian Territories, UNRWA does that. However, one of UNHCR’s mandates is to offer refugees to return to their home country, an act that is rejected by Israel. Hence, this does not justify the UNHCR to wash its hands of Palestinian refugees under occupation and not mention them altogether. They are still refugees no matter if they have been able to make the best of a horrible situation, and they all should be represented.
It is disturbing to see such a horrible mistake (intentional or unintentional, we need to know) spread by a UN agency which claims to be taking care of refugees all around the world. The UNRWA lists the name of all the refugees camps in West Bank (19 camp) and Gaza (8 camps) and their population (West Bank 486,479, Gaza 478,272, total 964,751). Not only that, but they also have location maps for these refugees camps on their website:
(Click image to enlarge)
The question is, how can UNHCR ignored a total of 27 Palestinian refugee camps in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, populated with almost one million inhabitants?
Understanding that in general, refugee camps almost by definition have limited visibility, and the Palestinian refugee camps in Palestine are located in a war zone, such camps go unseen by most of the world except when the occasional crimes conducted by Israel are fortunately picked up by some reporters who might write a small segment for the evening news about that “incident“.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) claims and hopes to give more visibility to the work that it does in refugee camps around the world by bringing the reality of refugee life into the laptops and living rooms of web surfers, but not the Palestinian refugee camps under occupation!!! This is not acceptable.
Action Alert:
1. Use UNHCR contact form here http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/contact and ask them to correct this mistake immediately. Sample letter can be as follows:
Dear UNHCR,
We are pleased to know that UNHCR launched it’s ‘Google Earth Refugee World’ layer to take Google Earth users on a virtual reality tour with the UN refugee agency of some of the world’s major displacement crises and the humanitarian efforts aimed at helping the victims.
Reference: http://www.unhcr.org/events/47f48dc92.htmlHowever, we are disappointed to see that Palestinian refugee camps in Occupied Palestinian Territories were not shown anywhere.
Reference: http://tinyurl.com/4jnpoyWe are sure that this is an oversight on UNHCR part, but 27 Palestinian refugee camps that exist in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are not shown on your new Google Earth Refugee World layer. Over one million people live in these camps. Do you not believe that they are living under most non humanitarian conditions and should be mentioned on UNHCR’s ‘Google Earth Refugee World’ like all other refugees?
Please correct your listings to include these camps. They DO EXIST and they MUST be known about.
Alternatively, you may write to Mr. Antonio Guterres (the UN high commissioner for refugees) and ask him to correct this mistake immediately (Headquarters contact form here: http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/contact?hq=y). Sample letter can be as follows:
Dear Mr. Guterres,
We are pleased to know that UNHCR launched it’s ‘Google Earth Refugee World’ layer to take Google Earth users on a virtual reality tour with the UN refugee agency of some of the world’s major displacement crises and the humanitarian efforts aimed at helping the victims.
Reference: http://www.unhcr.org/events/47f48dc92.htmlHowever, we are disappointed to see that Palestinian refugee camps in Occupied Palestinian Territories were not shown anywhere.
Reference: http://tinyurl.com/4jnpoyWe are sure that this is an oversight on UNHCR part, but 27 Palestinian refugee camps that exist in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are not shown on your new Google Earth Refugee World layer. Over one million people live in these camps. Do you not believe that they are living under most non humanitarian conditions and should be mentioned on UNHCR’s ‘Google Earth Refugee World’ like all other refugees?
Please correct your listings to include these camps. They DO EXIST and they MUST be known about.
2. Sign this petition asking UNHCR to correct this mistake and add all Palestinian refugees camps within the Occupied Palestinian Territories to their “Google Earth Refugee’s World Layer“.
Petition: http://tinyurl.com/4re8du
3. Republish, share and e-mail this post. Click following “ShareThis” link below.
Update (Apr 11, 2008): Good news! I just got a positive reply to my email to Mr. Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
from: Antonio Guterres
to: haitham.sabbah@gmail.com,
date: Fri, Apr 11, 2008 at 6:27 PM
subject Re: Palestine Refugee Camps on Google EarthDear Mr. Sabbah,
Thank you for your email. You are absolutely right. However, as we have only just launched “Google Earth Refugee World” layer, we only have three sites for the moment: Iraq, Colombia and Darfur. Other sites will follow.
With best regards,
António Guterres
I replied to Mr. Guterres and urged him to put adding Palestinian Refugee Camps on top of their priorities.
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April 10th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Lost Palestinian Refugee Camps on UN-Google Earth Map…
However, my happiness did not last for long when I discovered that NONE of the Palestinian refugee camps within the Occupied Palestinian Territories are published there (see map below). So, even if you “Sit in front of your computer”, with a few clic…
April 11th, 2008 at 2:48 am
[...] Via Sabbah [...]
April 11th, 2008 at 9:06 am
I can’t believe that the UNHCR would leave out the world’s longest standing refugee camps from its maps of refugees
April 11th, 2008 at 10:04 am
The UNHCR .kml is total crap.
Not only does it fail to include most of the refugee camps, but it does not work - the cute blue icons which it makes seem to have no effect. nut, best of all, it includes “news” items like a NY Times article located in IRAN stating that Ahmadinejad woulkd do something or other with his centrifuges - what, EXACTLY, does that have to do with refugees, Palestinian or otherwise ?
The UNHCR .kml is probably more reflective of their own incompetence and political bias than of the situation of Palestinian refugees.
PalestineRemembered has a colelction of maps, Google and otherwise, which would be far better to inform people about the situation. There is one .kml with LOTS of destroyed villages, but it does ot have the camps. Check their maps here –>> http://www.palestineremembered.com/Maps/index.html
April 11th, 2008 at 10:09 am
I forgot, PalestineRemembered has an extensive list of refugee camps, with GoogleMaps points, here:
http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General/Story2045.html
April 11th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
[...] Haitham of Sabbah’s blog was initially very excited over the project until he realised that “NONE of the Palestinian refugee camps within the Occupied Palestinian Territories are published there” [...]
April 11th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Done.
April 11th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
[...] Lost Palestinian Refugee Camps on UN-Google Earth Map [...]
April 11th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
[...] Haitham Sabbah's happiness was short-lived when he discovered that the UNHCR's new Google Map which draws [...]
April 12th, 2008 at 8:41 am
Although I love to use Google Earth, I am under no illusion that it is not run by Zio-sympathisers/shils. Therefore, it’s no surprise that they ignore Palestinian issues. Great blog though. Thanks.
April 12th, 2008 at 10:34 am
OMG, you’ve GOT to go to the website itself up there!
GO TO IT, click on the symbol you see in Africa, which is Darfur,
Do you have any idea who is hosting this thing with the UNCHR?
The WHOLE thing is partnered with the United States HOLOCAUST MUSEUM!
April 12th, 2008 at 10:39 am
Updated: Lost Palestinian Refugee Camps on UN-Google Earth…
So what if we can track refugee camps? What are we going to do about it?…
April 12th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Here’s the link to show you which is what I linked to off the Google Earth Darfur location (one link-the others go directly to the US Holocaust Museum and all THEIR information)
http://www.ushmm.org/maps/
and this one http://www.ushmm.org/
What exactly does that entire press release say from UNCHR? Here’s the longer press release http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/47f5e7e02.html
NOTHING about the US Holocaust Museum! And that in itself surprises me, because they always want their name in lights. I ask why NOT this time?
And no, I am NOT besmirching the horrendous and never to be forgotten Holocaust.
But “never to forget” APPLIES TO THE PALESTINIANS TOO!
April 12th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Robin,
When you say “website itself up there!”, which website do you mean? Any link?
April 12th, 2008 at 11:33 am
I mean the one To start your journey, click here.
April 12th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Sorry, when you get there rotate the map to Africa, and see where there’s a symbol-that will take you to what I’m talking about
April 12th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Oh, you mean on Google Earth… I got what you see. So, Zionist tail are there too… what a SURPRISE (not)!
April 12th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Please add Palestinian refugee camps to your Google Map site as soon as possible. They remain connected to UN oversight and should be viewable.
Sincerely,
Lois T. Dickason
April 12th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
So far, that looks promising… I am glad he knows about this and that he has responded. I think this is as close to a commitment as you will get, but it’s still something positive. It’s important to keep an eye on if there are changes made.
You did a great job!!
April 13th, 2008 at 4:41 am
You have to remember that special cars with special cameras take these pictures.
If the Zionists wont let them in, they can’t take the pictures.
Then, again, Google is Zionist controlled.
I guess that the Palestinians do not exist to them.
April 13th, 2008 at 11:54 am
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum issued their press release on April 3:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum today launched World Is Witness, a new initiative that opens a window into the lives of people affected by genocide and its long-term consequences.
A project of the Museum’s Genocide Prevention Mapping Initiative that documents and maps threats of genocide and related crimes against humanity, World Is Witness brings together testimonies, photographs, videos, and other first-hand data in Google Earth, situating eyewitness accounts in their geographic location. World Is Witness can be found in Google Earth’s Global Awareness folder under the heading, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, or at the Museum’s Web site, http://www.ushmm.org.
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/press/archives/detail.php?category=07-general&content=2008-04-04
If you link to the whole article you will see that no mention of the UNHCR is made.
The UNHCR issued their press release on April 8th, if you link to it you will see that no mention of the USHMM is made, yet it is their project which is predominantly displayed on the front of the UNHCR google earth project.
The UNHRC’s press release also says that they are starting off by displaying their Iraqi and some Latin American camps, yet they are NOT mentioned on the front of the globe and can only be seen by zooming in close-and-you have no idea of where to look because you would have to look for them like a needle in a haystack. Whereas you can easily see the Darfur USHMM icons even without the advertisement for it. The UNHCR has allowed the USHMM google earth World is Witness overlay to be incorporated into THEIR google earth project.
UNHRC and UNRWA are separate entities, yet both fall under the UN Charter:
COOPERATION WITH OTHER U.N. AGENCIES AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
Why do Palestinian refugees not come under the mandate of UNHCR?
Palestine refugees were specifically and intentionally excluded from the international refugee law regime established by the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol thereto, as long as the Palestine refugees receive assistance from UNRWA. UNHCR was established by UN General Assembly Resolution 319 (IV) of 3 December 1949 and is guided by the 1951 Convention. The Statute of UNHCR was adopted by the General Assembly in 1950 as an annex to Resolution 428 (V) of 14 December 1950. UNHCR, however, has always supported Palestine refugees insofar as its constitution permits.
http://www.un.org/unrwa/overview/qa.html
The last sentence is the pertinent one: “UNHCR, however, has always supported Palestine refugees insofar as its constitution permits.”
Well, their constitution has permitted a PRIVATE organization, the USHMM to put their project on THEIR google earth project, so, since their constitution has allowed that, then their constitution will certainly allow for the UNRWA camps to be displayed.
If you zoom in on Darfur, you will see flames, those are destroyed villages. It is great that the USHMM wants to help in Darfur, however, where is their conscience concerning the refugees which were created upon the founding of Israel? They are the one strongest “humanitarian” voice for the Holocaust, yet it is the Holocaust which is used as the central sympathy to create a state that created refugees!
The Palestine Remembered google overlay has villages, destroyed villages. These destroyed villages made refugees of the inhabitants. If the USHMM is able to get a public relations free ride via the UNHRC google earth project then by God, the destroyed villages of Palestine need to be on that project too!
One nice thing about this project, if you zoom in on Israel, you will see a little box, “Every Human Has Rights”. If you click on it, you will see Abdelfatteh Abusrour, it CLEARLY states he lives in a Palestinian refugee camp, yet there are no Palestinian refugee camps on this project! He works in teaching methods of non-violent resistance.
Non violent resistance to WHAT? On that little box about him there is a link to this http://www.theelders.org/ where you can sign the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
From the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
May the UNRWA camps be included in this project and may it be SOON.
And may the camps themselves soon be no more, because the universal HUMAN RIGHT of return is rightfully implemented so that every Palestinian may return to THEIR homes, the “flames” that burn in their hearts.
April 13th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
[...] صباح می نویسد که در نقشه زمین گوگل که اردوگاه های پناهندگان را نشان [...]
April 14th, 2008 at 6:24 am
Just a quick question, the statement clearly states that the first phase focuses on a few countries and not on Palestine. I don’t really find this suspicious.
April 14th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Thanks for posting this Sabbah, I wonder if the UNHCR reply is true and that they are willing to put Palestinian Refugees in Palestine on the map, if not then we need to send them lots of email objecting this
April 16th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
We Will never forget. Let the world know that the Palestinians are the Key holders of Peace. For all pro Palestinians, enough talk. Let your ACTIONS be louder than your words. Be pro active. Let us come together to assert the Palestinian’s legal right to FREEDOM and Self Determination. Here how you can get involved:
Click on this url http://www.panc2008.com
April 27th, 2008 at 6:25 am
By the UNHCR definition, there are relatively few palestinian refugees. UNHCR applies only to individuals who lost their homes, not their descendents. Palestinian refugee camps are a UNRWA construction…which uniquely counts the children and grand children of palestinian refugees as refugees. No other group has this recognition.