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Source: http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/142230/sec_id/142230
Responding to Pro-Palestinian Solidarity Tours
(New English Review) Ardie Geldman - As a member of the Efrat Town Council, I have spoken with nearly 4,000, mostly non-Jewish, visitors to Efrat, a community of some 10,000 residents that looks a lot like a middle-class American suburb. Their tour itinerary is designed by one of the many pro-Palestinian NGOs and includes a brief stopover in a "settlement," though all the visitors are clearly sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. A critical stop is a pre-arranged tour of the Dheisheh and/or Aida refugee camps, both adjacent to Bethlehem. Dheisheh is operated under the auspices of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). When a stopover in Efrat follows a visit to Dheisheh or Aida, the questions the visitors ask convey the mistaken assumption that Israel forcibly interred the original Palestinian residents in these camps in 1948 and that Israel remains responsible for the camps' continued existence and their current squalid conditions. Yet UNRWA has resisted any contraction of its operations, and responsibility for services to the camps' Palestinian residents were never transferred to the Palestinian Authority, with which it competes for funds and responsibilities. The western edge of the Dheisheh refugee camp lies directly across the road from Ducha, a section of the Palestinian town of Beit Ja'alah. Ducha is noted for its large and ornate homes, not a few with expensive cars parked in their driveways. Years ago, some residents of Dheisheh began building homes in Ducha while retaining their homes in Dheisheh. The camp home, typically a small slum, is the only home that foreign visitors are taken to see; they remain unaware of Ducha. Even wealthy Ducha families still receive UNRWA financial support and services as long as they officially retain residency in Dheisheh.