Supervised by

Eisa Abu Kheran

Camp Services Officer Arroub

The present study aimed to know the economic / social situation at the Arroub camp in the difficult circumstances through which we have been living since the eruption of Al-Aqsa Intifada. In order to achieve the aim of this study, the research team prepared two questionnaires to know this situation. The first questionnaire measures the commercial situation in the camp whereas the second questionnaire deals with the living and social situation of the camp’s inhabitants who are citizens. The two questionnaires were applied to a selected sample of merchants and citizens in the camp. The sample consisted of 35 merchants and 200 citizens. The sample was randomly chosen and it included different population categories of the inhabitants. After collecting the data of the study, the research team reviewed them and entered them into the computer to carry out the necessary statistical analyses of the data. This was done by using the statistical package programs SPSS, and SAS. The study reached many results, the most important of which are:

On the commercial level in the camp, the results indicated a large decrease in demand for the various kinds of goods. The citizens bought a great deal of local cheap priced goods. The majority of the merchants emphasized the ability of our local goods to replace Israeli products.

The results of the study also indicated the size of the big commercial losses incurred by the camp’s merchants due to the strict Israeli closure imposed on the Palestinian territories since the beginning of the Intifada including the decrease in the size of sales by the merchants in the camp, the increasing percentage of debts, and the decreasing percentage of profits which do not herald a good mercantile season.

As for the living and social situation of the citizens, the Israeli closure has a great effect on the camp’s citizens if we know that 80% of the citizens are workers in Israel. The monthly income for the family decreased from 2000 sheqels to 977 sheqels, which was reflected on several aspects of the economic life of citizens. The percentage of their debts increased, many families cancelled their necessary and urgent projects such as building, and dome families sold gold and the home furniture to provide their daily requirements which they can hardly provide.

The current events had a grade impact on the social aspects of the citizens whereby:

Social relation in the camp deteriorated, there was a lack of family secure in by the citizens and an increase in spare time for the majority of the citizens which led to an increase in the family problem in the camp.

However the citizen in the camp adhered to the teachings f our Islamic religion and their commitment to religion in these difficult circumstances.

The results of the study also indicated the dissatisfaction of the majority of the citizens in the camp with the UNRWA and the services it offers for the citizens at the present circumstances. On another level, the majority of the citizens showed their pessimism about the future. Based on these results the research team submitted several recommendations the most important of which are the necessity that the relevant authority follow up the site conditions of the palestinians refugees in general and of the camp’s inhabitants in particular through providing them with all they need in their daily requirements in the present circumstances and all the year round due to the difficult living conditions experienced by the camp’s inhabitants in particular and inhabitants of all palestinian camps in general.