New Generation of Syrians Were Born in Exile

Syrian women wait at a clinic in the Zaatari camp - AFP
Syrian women wait at a clinic in the Zaatari camp - AFP
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New Generation of Syrians Were Born in Exile

Syrian women wait at a clinic in the Zaatari camp - AFP
Syrian women wait at a clinic in the Zaatari camp - AFP

Ten years after fleeing war in her native Syria, Hadeel is expecting a third child, brought into a life of poverty and uncertainty at the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan.

The camp, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the capital Amman, is home to some 80,000 Syrian refugees, according to the United Nations.

Half of the camp's residents are children, and many have no memory of Syria.

"I was hoping to be at home, in my country," Hadeel said, asking to use a pseudonym for safety concerns.

"Fate decided I would be here, get married and give birth to my children here."

Like most refugees in the camp, she and her family arrived from Syria's southern Daraa province, the cradle of the 2011 uprising against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

The ensuing war has killed nearly half a million people and displaced around half of the country's pre-war population.

Hadeel, who is six months pregnant, married a Syrian refugee who also lives in Zaatari, and the couple have two children, aged six and seven.

At least 168,500 Syrian babies have been born in Jordan since 2014, according to the UN, part of an estimated one million children born to Syrians in exile across the world over the same period.

Many are born in overcrowded refugee camps, with limited access to education and the threat of child labor and forced marriage hanging over them.

Sat on a red plastic chair in a large hall, Hadeel awaited a checkup at the only clinic in the camp that delivers babies.

"My children grew up here. When they hear me talking to other women about Syria, they ask me, 'Mama, where is Syria? Why do we live in this?'" said Hadeel.

"I try to explain to them that this is not our country. We are refugees. It's difficult for them to understand".

Some 675,000 Syrian refugees are registered with the UN in Jordan, but Amman estimates the real figure to be about twice that and says the cost of hosting them has exceeded $12 billion.

While fighting in southern Syria has abated, Hadeel said it still is not safe enough to return.

Her cousin, "fed up" with the camp, returned to Syria earlier this year.

He was killed less than a month later, and his widow and five children still in Zaatari do not know how he died.

"The bad security situation makes us think a thousand times before returning," Hadeel said.

The maternity ward at the UN-run clinic -- the camp's biggest health facility with 60 staff including 21 midwives -- has 10 beds.

The clinic's director Ghada al-Saad said the facility "works 24/7, offering everything for free, including medicines, treatments, tests and vaccinations" up to the age of two.

Midwife Amon Mustafa, 58, who has worked there since the camp opened in 2012, checks on the new mothers.

"We deliver between five and 10 babies every day, with the five today, the total number of births in the camp has reached 15,963," Mustafa said.

"I know most of the women and children in the camp," she added with a smile.

Nagham Shagran, 20, holding her newborn son, has spent nine years in the camp, where she and her cousin married.

"At first we hesitated to have our first child," she said. "Every human... has the right to be born and live in his or her country, but what can we do?"

Mustafa said staff "are trying" to educate women on family planning and the use of contraceptives, but uptake is limited.

"Children are a blessing, but I hope this will be my last pregnancy,"said Eman Rabie, 28, expecting her fourth child. "My husband loves children; he says they are a blessing from God."

Rabie's home in Daraa was destroyed during the war.

"If we are asked to leave the camp and go back to Syria," she said, "I will be the last to leave".



Palestinian Olympic Team Greeted with Cheers and Gifts in Paris

Palestinian athletes Yazan Al Bawwab and Valerie Tarazi try a date offered to them by a young supporter upon arriving to the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Roissy, north of Paris, France. (AP Photo/Megan Janetsky)
Palestinian athletes Yazan Al Bawwab and Valerie Tarazi try a date offered to them by a young supporter upon arriving to the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Roissy, north of Paris, France. (AP Photo/Megan Janetsky)
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Palestinian Olympic Team Greeted with Cheers and Gifts in Paris

Palestinian athletes Yazan Al Bawwab and Valerie Tarazi try a date offered to them by a young supporter upon arriving to the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Roissy, north of Paris, France. (AP Photo/Megan Janetsky)
Palestinian athletes Yazan Al Bawwab and Valerie Tarazi try a date offered to them by a young supporter upon arriving to the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Roissy, north of Paris, France. (AP Photo/Megan Janetsky)

Palestinian Olympic athletes were greeted with a roar of a crowd and gifts of food and roses as they arrived in Paris on Thursday, ready to represent war–torn Gaza and the rest of the territories on a global stage.

As the beaming athletes walked through a sea of Palestinian flags at the main Paris airport, they said they hoped their presence would serve as a symbol amid the Israel-Hamas war that has claimed more than 39,000 Palestinian lives.

Athletes, French supporters and politicians in the crowd urged the European nation to recognize a Palestinian state, while others expressed outrage at Israel's presence at the Games after UN-backed human rights experts said Israeli authorities were responsible for “war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

“France doesn’t recognize Palestine as a country, so I am here to raise the flag,” said Yazan Al-Bawwab, a 24-year-old Palestinian swimmer born in Saudi Arabia. “We're not treated like human beings, so when we come play sports, people realize we are equal to them.”

"We're 50 million people without a country," he added.

Al-Bawwab, one of eight athletes on the Palestinian team, signed autographs for supporters and plucked dates from a plate offered by a child in the crowd.

The chants of “free Palestine” echoing through the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport show how conflict and the political tension are rippling through the Olympic Games. The world is coming together in Paris at a moment of global political upheaval, multiple wars, historic migration and a deepening climate crisis, all issues that have risen to the forefront of conversation in the Olympics.

In May, French President Emmanuel Macron said he prepared to officially recognize a Palestinian state but that the step should “come at a useful moment” when emotions aren’t running as high. That fueled anger by some like 34-year-old Paris resident Ibrahim Bechrori, who was among dozens of supporters waiting to greet the Palestinian athletes in the airport.

“I'm here to show them they're not alone, they're supported," Bechrouri said. Them being here “shows that the Palestinian people will continue to exist, that they won't be erased. It also means that despite the dire situation, they're staying resilient. They're still a part of the world and are here to stay.”

Palestinian ambassador to France Hala Abou called for France to formally recognize a Palestinian state and for a boycott of the Israeli Olympic delegation. Abou has previously said she has lost 60 relatives in the war.

“It’s welcome that comes as no surprise to the French people, who support justice, support the Palestinian people, support their inalienable right to self-determination,” she said.

That call for recognition comes just a day after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a scathing speech to Congress during a visit to Washington, which was met with protests. He declared he would achieve “total victory” against Hamas and called those protesting the war on college campuses and elsewhere in the US “useful idiots” for Iran.

Israel's embassy in Paris echoed the International Olympic Committee in a “decision to separate politics from the Games.”

"We welcome the Olympic Games and our wonderful delegation to France. We also welcome the participation of all the foreign delegations," the Embassy wrote in a statement to The Associated Press. “Our athletes are here to proudly represent their country, and the entire nation is behind to support them.”

The AP has made multiple attempts to speak with Israeli athletes without success.

Even under the best of circumstances, it is difficult to maintain a vibrant Olympics training program in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem. That's become next to impossible in nine months of war between Israel and Hamas as much of the country's sporting infrastructure have been devastated.

Among the large Palestinian diaspora worldwide, many of the athletes on the team were born or live elsewhere, yet they care deeply about the politics of their parents’ and grandparents’ homeland. Among them was Palestinian American swimmer Valerie Tarazi, who handed out traditional keffiyehs to supporters surrounding her Thursday.

“You can either crumble under pressure or use it as energy,” she said. “I chose to use it as energy.”