SHU’FAT is a Palestinian refugee camp in Israeli occupied territory near Jerusalem. It is large, overcrowded and is home to 40,000 Palestinians.

It lies within what Israel considers to be “Greater Jerusalem” but is surrounded on three sides by Israel’s “separation wall.” Behind the wall are a growing number of Israeli settlements, illegal under international law.

Five workers from the camp are on a 19-day tour of Britain speaking at public meetings, meeting MPs, medical and educational professionals, trade unions, activist groups and others.

They work for a charity, the Al-Quds Charitable Society for Disabled and Special Education Centre, located in the camp.

They are accompanied by their hosts, members of Unite Community’s London and Eastern Region.

Unite Community is Unite’s section for people who are not in full-time employment, such as students, and unemployed and retired people.

The delegation’s travels are taking them to communities as far apart as Hastings on the south coast of England and the Isles of Orkney off the northern coast of Scotland, stopping at many more in between.

The Palestinians spoke at a fringe meeting at the TUC Congress in Liverpool earlier this week.

Another meeting was in the town hall at Hebden Bridge, a small town in the middle of the Pennines near Halifax in West Yorkshire.

The Hebden Bridge meeting, which was organised by their hosts and Halifax Friends of Palestine, was so packed that extra chairs had to be brought in.

From each of the five speakers, the story of Shu’fat emerged.

Its occupants suffer poverty, disease, lack of services and regular violent raids by Israeli border police and military which leave inhabitants choking from tear gas and stinking from “skunk juice” sprayed from water cannon.

Some victims of the attacks have been permanently blinded or otherwise disabled by plastic bullet injuries.

There are few schools and those they do have are overcrowded.

Mohammed Abd El Rahman is a retired teacher and lives in Shu’fat. He is treasurer of the Al-Quds Society’s centre in the camp. The centre was created by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA).

“Shu’fat was built in 1965 for refugees from the old city of Jerusalem,” he said.

“Before 1948 they had lived in the centre of Palestine. Refugees had fled to Syria, the West Bank and Jordan. Those from central Palestine fled to Jerusalem in 1948.

“Until 1966 they lived in the old city. Then the United Nations and Jordan said: ‘You have to leave your houses in the old city because we have built you houses which are more comfortable, you will have more dignity.’

“They did not want to leave Jerusalem but they forced them to, in 1966, one year before the 1967 war. There were 500 families, 3,500 people, forced to leave Jerusalem to live in the camp.

“They gave each refugee a small room and land of about 15 metres by five metres.

“The numbers of refugees began to grow. Shu’fat is two kilometres by two kilometres square. Now the population is 40,000 people living on the same area of land. They cannot leave.”

The separation wall surrounding three sides of the camp has one entrance and exit which has an Israeli checkpoint run by Israeli border police and military.

Checkpoints are the bane of Palestinian lives, a daily nightmare created by apartheid Israel. They humiliate and delay Palestinians moving between the camp and East Jerusalem.

Mohammed Abd El Rahman said: “You can leave Shu’fat only if you have Israeli ID documents.”

Lack of space is a dire problem for a community where children comprise at least 50 per cent of the population. They have nowhere to play.

One of their rare treats is an annual visit to the sea, organised by the Al-Quds Society.

The community runs itself through the creation of five committees, each responsible for a designated aspect of administration, among them health and education.

Dr Saleem Anati is the chairman and medical director of the Al-Quds Society, working particularly with disabled children and their families in Shu’fat.

He was a doctor at the camp but is now retired. When working he was assisted by four nurses, with access to only the most basic medical equipment, and sometimes not even that.

“I would see 120 patients a day with the help of the four nurses,” he told the meeting. “I had to be a paediatrician, a gynaecologist — everything. There are no specialists.

“I had to take care of all the people.

“There is not enough land for people. There is a lack of playgrounds, gardens, and places for sporting activities. More than 70 per cent of the population of the camp are under 18, as in all the refugee camps.

“There are diseases. There is no hospital. No emergency clinic. The equipment in the health centre is primitive.

“There is a lack of money. The camp is overcrowded.

“The camp is unhealthy. You do not have privacy. The houses are full. There is a lack of ventilation and the sun does not enter the houses. This causes problems — we face a lot of problems.

“Shu’fat is the closest refugee camp to Jerusalem. It is like a big prison, surrounded by settlements and the wall and just one entrance and checkpoint. Most of the time as a punishment they close the checkpoint.

“There are big water tanks on the roofs but people do not have enough water. The tanks are used as targets by the police and soldiers.”

Nafeza Anati, the doctor’s wife and a retired teacher who works with women and girls in the camp, said: “There are three schools with approximately 1,000 children,” she said. “There are 45 to 50 in a class.

“After year 10 they go to schools in Jerusalem and have to go through the checkpoint. Sometimes they are kept for hours, stripped and beaten, made late for school.

“For these reasons, many students drop out of school. Parents of girls make them leave school.”

Mahmoud Sheikh Ali is the mayor of Shu’fat. He liaises with UNRWA, working to improve the camp’s infrastructure, such as roads, drainage, sewage systems and general living conditions.

“Every day there are raids,” he said. “More shootings, more injuries, more house demolitions and more young people taken to prison.”

Sheikh Ali speaks bitterly of the lives of Palestinians since the state of Israel was established in 1948.

“We have lost 75 years of our lives, our parents’ lives, our grandparents’ lives,” he said.

“We want peace, dignity and to return to our homeland. Do we not deserve to live in dignity? Do we not deserve to live as other human beings?

“We are no different from you. We see you with two eyes. We walk on two legs. It is time to end our suffering. Seventy-five years are enough.

“It is time to return to our homes. We are peace-loving people. We do not hate Jews. We hate injustice. We want to live with dignity. We want our independence. We need the world’s support.”

Dr Saleem spoke again, this time telling a positive story. His eldest son won a scholarship to study medicine in Cuba and is now a doctor. Dr Saleem is very grateful to Cuba for that.

At the back of the room in Hebden Bridge town hall was a stall containing intricately embroidered bags, purses, clothing and other items.

The distinctive style of embroidery was developed in Shu’fat through a workshop in the centre run by Al Quds and is one of the few ways of bringing money into the community. Thirty per cent of the community’s population lives in absolute poverty.

The link between the people of Shu’fat and the Unite Community members in London and the south-east of England is part of the nationwide British-Palestine Friendship and Twinning Network.

Jean Fitzpatrick from London is involved in the twinning and is a Unite Community member.

“Each group has its own link to a particular community,” she said. “We got in touch with the camp through a development worker in the friendship and twinning network.”

The Shu’fat delegation’s visit to the Orkneys was organised at the request of the Palestinians.

“The leader of the delegation, Dr Saleem, said a woman from Orkney had worked as a volunteer in the refugee camp and when we met him he said they wanted to go to Orkney,” said Fitzpatrick.

“There is a small but very strong Friends of Palestine group on Orkney.”

After the Shu’fat Palestinians told their stories Fitzpatrick said: “You cannot hear them without being moved and angry. They are the stories of people’s lives.

“The Palestinians themselves were moved that so many people were interested in their stories.

“They are about life and death, murder, and it has been going on for 75 years. We have to stand with them. How can we not? And the more people who hear their stories the more will do that.”

The Palestinians’ tour continues with visits which include the Palestine Forum in London, the Stoke Mandeville Hospital, the International Transport Workers Federation, and Ealing Trades Council on September 21, after which the group heads for the Orkneys. The Palestinians will return to Shu’fat on September 27.

A link to a leaflet on the work of the Unite Shu’fat Twinning Group can be found at www.mstar.link/UniteTwinning and their Facebook group at www.mstar.link/Shufat.