AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST When “Humanitarianism” Becomes “Development”: The Politics of International Aid in Syria’s Palestinian Refugee Camps Nell Gabiam ABSTRACT In recent years, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has attempted to go beyond its role as a provider of relief and basic services in Palestinian refugee camps and emphasize its role as a development agency. In this article, I focus on the Neirab Rehabilitation Project, an UNRWA-sponsored development project taking place in the Palestinian refugee camps of Ein el Tal and Neirab in northern Syria. I argue that UNRWA’s role as a relief-centered humanitarian organization highlights the everyday suffering of Palestinian refugees, suffering that has become embedded in refugees’ political claims. I show that UNRWA’s emphasis on “development” in the refugee camps is forcing Palestinian refugees in Ein el Tal and Neirab to reassess the political narrative through which they have understood their relationship with UNRWA. [humanitari- anism, development, UNRWA, Palestine, refugee camps] RESUME Depuis quelques ann ´ ees, l’UNRWA, (Office de secours et de travaux des Nations Unies pour les r ´ efugi ´ es de Palestine dans le Proche-Orient) s’efforce d’aller au del ` a de son rˆ ole de fournisseur d’aide et services de premi ` ere n ´ ecessit ´ e dans les camps de r ´ efugi ´ es palestiniens et de mettre l’accent sur son r ˆ ole en tant qu’agence de d ´ eveloppement. A travers l’ ´ etude du Projet de Rehabilitation de Neirab (« Neirab Rehabilitation Project »), pour lequel l’UNRWA intervient dans deux camps du Nord de la Syrie (Ein el Tal et Neirab), cet article vise ` a montrer ce processus de transformation. Alors que le r ˆ ole de l’UNRWA en tant qu’organisation humanitaire d ´ edi ´ ee au secours met en lumi ` ere la souffrance quotidienne des r ´ efugi ´ es palestiniens, une souffrance qui a ´ et ´ e pleinement int ´ egr ´ ee dans leurs revendications politiques, l’accent mis r ´ ecemment sur le «d´ eveloppement» dans les camps force les r´ efugi ´ es de Ein el Tal et Neirab ` a reconsid ´ erer le discours politique ` a travers lequel ils avaient d ´ efini leur relation avec l’UNRWA. I n the summer of 2009, I returned to Ein el Tal and Neirab, two Palestinian refugee camps in Northern Syria, where I had conducted fieldwork some three years earlier. Ein el Tal and Neirab have, since 2000, become the target of the Neirab Rehabilitation Project, a UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East–sponsored sustainable development project (hereafter, UNRWA). My first stop was Ein el Tal, where the initial phase of the project had recently been completed. This initial phase entailed moving 300 Palestinian families from former World War II army barracks located in Neirab Camp to brand new UNRWA- built houses in the neighboring Palestinian refugee AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Vol. 114, No. 1, pp. 95–107, ISSN 0002-7294, online ISSN 1548-1433. c  2012 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1433.2011.01399.x camp of Ein el Tal. As I was walking through Ein el Tal’s barren hilly area where the new UNRWA-built houses are located, a giant mural on the side of one of the houses, strategically looking down on the rest of the camp, caught my attention (see Figure 1). Among the more striking scenes painted on the mural were a group of fleeing refugees, a Palestinian woman dressed in traditional garb desperately hugging an olive tree, a giant hand holding what appears to be a land deed with the words not for sale stamped on it, the Dome of the Rock mosque in Jerusalem, and a young girl wearing a red headband with the word Palestine written on it, holding a stone in her raised fist. At the top right-hand