On the dusty streets of Al-Baqa’a, the world’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, children run through a maze of market stalls.
They weave past caged chickens and peddlers of second-hand goods selling anything from belts to books.
The youngsters are one of several generations of Palestinians to have been born in the camp, which is around 12 miles north of Jordan’s capital, Amman.
On Tuesday, Norway, Spain and Ireland formally recognised a Palestinian state, established on the boundaries as they were prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
That war looms large in Baqa’a, which was set up by the United Nations as an emergency shelter for refugees from the conflict.
And conversation in the camp, which houses at least 131,600 people in just under one square mile, often turns to the desire to return home.
“Of course I have a belief that Palestine will be free, that it will come back to us,” says Muhammed al-Qteshat, 52, who was born in Baqa’a.
“This is what we raise our children on,” he adds, from inside the shop where he sells women’s cosmetics and creams.
The slogan on his shirt – “seek the positive” – reflects Mr al-Qteshat’s unyielding optimism on the possibility of returning to Palestine.
His father, Abdel Halim, now 78, passed on his memories of life there before the establishment of Israel in 1948.
“Palestine before the nakba was a flourishing civilisation,” says Abdel Halim, using the Arabic word for catastrophe, which is how Palestinians remember that fateful year.
“We showed generosity to everybody despite their religion; we found love and peace.”
When he was still a toddler, Abdel Halim left Palestine with his family as war forced the displacement of thousands of people.
As they left, a truck accident killed most of his immediate family – but two heavy bags of flour landed in such a way as to create a pyramid over his head, sparing the boy.
Today, with more than 35,000 people killed in Gaza since Oct 7, when Hamas attacked Israel, international support for recognising a state of Palestine is at its highest in recent memory.
Several more European states have hinted they may recognise a Palestinian state in the future. Lord Cameron, the Foreign Secretary, has said the UK is considering the move, although it could not happen while Hamas remains in Gaza.
Some 140 of the 190 countries represented in the UN have already recognised a Palestinian state.
To a certain extent, the global diplomatic push is the closest someone like Mr al-Qteshat has come to the dream of returning home.
The reality remains a long way off. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has refused to endorse the idea of a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians.
Even if he – or his successor – were to be won over, hard questions would still need to be answered.
On a practical front, Gaza will need to be rebuilt before residents can return, as so much of the territory has been levelled in the ravages of war.
Then, there is the complex question of who would run the territory.
“There needs to be a leadership that has legitimacy and is representative if you want to bring Palestinians into a political process that has broad-based buy-in,” said Hugh Lovatt, a senior fellow with the Middle East and North Africa programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
The options in terms of Palestinian leadership are limited.
This week, Norway called to “strengthen” the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank, another Palestinian territory, and which led Gaza until Hamas’s 2006 takeover.
“The goal is to achieve a Palestinian state that is politically cohesive, and that derives from the Palestinian Authority,” said Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s minister of foreign affairs.
But many people are disillusioned with the PA and consider it to have failed to respond in any meaningful way to the current war in Gaza, and the overall plight of the Palestinians.
“Leadership is really the problem here,” said Dahlia Scheindlin, a political strategist at the Century Foundation, a think tank in Tel Aviv.
An effort to reach resolution will first “mean completely different leadership, frankly, for both sides: Palestine would need to create different leadership, and Israel will need to choose a new leadership”.
Still, to get to a point where such deep discussions can occur, there needs to be a ceasefire in Gaza. That will require the US – Israel’s staunchest ally – to put greater political pressure for an end to war, said Mr Lovatt.
‘We want what is ours’
Then Palestinians themselves will have to grapple with the question of what they’re willing to accept.
In Baqa’a – where temporary tents have been replaced by concrete structures – the idea of a two-state solution is not a popular option; instead, most simply want back what they say is rightfully theirs.
“I feel that it’s my home, and I love it,” said Razan Sa’adeh, 19, who wears a necklace with a silver pendant in the shape of Palestine around her neck – despite never having visited her ancestral homeland.
“It is my grandfather’s and father’s land; whatever happens, you cannot give up your home,” she said, vowing to return once the state of Palestine is re-established.
She, like Mr al-Qteshat and his father, refuse to entertain the idea that anyone not indigenous to the land can remain – something that, in practice, would mean the departure of many Israelis.
“The Palestinian Authority – they didn’t do anything for us; instead they have blocked the resistance for us to take our occupied land back,” said Mr al-Qteshat.
“I don’t believe in a two-state solution; this land is our land, from the river to the sea. It was ours, and it should remain ours.”
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