{"id":20672,"date":"2012-06-28T13:49:38","date_gmt":"2012-06-28T09:49:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=20672"},"modified":"2012-06-28T13:49:57","modified_gmt":"2012-06-28T09:49:57","slug":"the-predicament-of-palestinian-refugees-in-lebanon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/showcase\/the-predicament-of-palestinian-refugees-in-lebanon\/","title":{"rendered":"The Predicament of Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When Lebanese security reportedly killed 18-year-old Ahmad\u00a0al-Qasim over a documentation dispute in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, the\u00a0camp\u2019s Palestinian refugee population erupted in anger and dismay.<\/p>\n

Within a few days of the June 15 incident, the outrage had\u00a0spread and more refugees were killed. Fouad Muhi\u2019edeen Lubany was killed on\u00a0June 18, as a crowd of mourning refugees attempted to bury the first victim of\u00a0Nahr al-Bared, near Tripoli in the north. Another victim of the violence was\u00a0Khaled al-Youssef, who was shot in Ein al-Hilweh refugee camp, near Saida,\u00a0about 30 miles south of Beirut. More Palestinians were reportedly injured,\u00a0along with three Lebanese security officers.<\/p>\n

See also: Lebanon Says ‘No’ to Violence<\/a><\/p>\n

Palestinian refugees in Lebanon exist on the margins of a\u00a0larger political question concerning the country\u2019s irreconcilable sectarian,\u00a0factional and familial divides. This makes it somewhat difficult to place the\u00a0tragedy of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon within a single political context. Lebanon\u2019s\u00a0enduring conflicts and political alliances are in a constant state of flux. So\u00a0when such events concerning Palestinian refugees in Lebanon take place, the\u00a0issue becomes almost entirely hostage to political considerations and hyped\u00a0factional sensitivities. Instead of attempting to uncover the best way to tackle\u00a0the underpinnings of such dramas, or examining the relationship between\u00a0economic, social and other forms of alienations and political violence, the\u00a0priority repeatedly revolves around trying to cover the festering problem.<\/p>\n

The problem, however, will not disappear on its own. 450,000\u00a0United Nations-registered refugees live in Lebanon. They subsist in poverty,\u00a0living in 12 concentration camp-like physical entities. They are denied basic\u00a0rights and lack even nominal political horizons. Most of the refugees were\u00a0forced out of Palestine between 1947-48 by Zionists militias, who later became\u00a0the Israeli army. It was no accident that Nahr al-Bared was established in\u00a01949. Since then, few if any substantial efforts have been made to remedy the\u00a0numerous problems created by the violent dispossession.<\/p>\n

Years later, Palestinian refugees have become embroiled in Lebanon\u2019s existing conflicts – first by accident (since it happened that\u00a0majority of the refugees are Sunni Muslims), and later by design (following the\u00a0PLO\u2019s departure from Jordan in the early 1970s). After the Israeli war on\u00a0Lebanon in 1982 \u2013 accompanied by such infamous massacres as Sabra and Shatila,\u00a0among others – the fate of the refugees worsened, reaching points of near\u00a0complete neglect.<\/p>\n

In the summer of 2007, the Lebanese army clashed with Fatah\u00a0al-Islam, an extremist group which had earlier moved to Nahr al-Bared. \u00a0According to Amnesty International, \u201cthe violence caused considerable\u00a0destruction to the camp, forcibly displaced the camp\u2019s 30,000 residents and led\u00a0to at least 400 deaths, including 42 civilians and 166 Lebanese soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Considerable destruction\u2019 is a mild way of putting it. The\u00a0camp was literally \u201creduced to rubble,\u201d as described in a report in the\u00a0Lebanese Daily Star on June 22. Many media outlets reported the story as if it\u00a0simply concerned another fight between an army and an al-Qaeda inspired group.<\/p>\n

The stories barely acknowledged the fact that within the confines of the lethal\u00a0fight there were hundreds of impoverished families, now mostly unemployed and\u00a0homeless.<\/p>\n

Five years have passed since Nahr al-Bared was destroyed.\u00a0Yet many of its residents remain stranded between an old refugee status \u2013 as\u00a0Palestinians who were forced out of or fled Zionist violence in Palestine in\u00a01948 \u2013 and a new refugee status, fleeing from one refugee camp to another. This\u00a0condition of old-new destitution is highlighted by, but not unique to Nahr\u00a0al-Bared. It is a reality shared by many Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.<\/p>\n

The multiple tragedies that struck the dwellers of Lebanon\u2019s refugee camps throughout the years provide much needed insight into the nature of the Palestinian refugee problem in the country. They also offer obvious clues to its remedy. However much of the political discussion today is still devoid of any substance.<\/p>\n

Lebanon-based US writer Franklin Lamb quoted a pledge on\u00a0behalf of Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji, stating that a \u201cthrough (and) a\u00a0swift investigation will determine the perpetrators and prevent a similar\u00a0incident from occurring in the future.\u201d Lamb rightly comments: \u201cGiven past\u00a0experience, few believe the investigation will be serious or even completed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s Interior Minister conveniently discounted the obvious link\u00a0between the clashes in Nahr al-Bared and Ein al-Hilweh, branding it a mere\u00a0\u2018coincidence\u2019 (Akhbar al-Youm, June 20 as referenced by Lamb). Palestinian PLO\u00a0and Fatah official, Azzam al-Ahmad told the Daily Star during a recent visit to\u00a0Lebanon that \u201cregional powers are exploiting the hardship of Palestinian\u00a0refugees\u2026to push their own agendas in Lebanon.\u201d He insisted that these powers don’t\u00a0include Syria.<\/p>\n

Lebanon\u2019s Palestinian refugees continue to be victimized by a bewildering political landscape and unmistakable discrimination by the state. Their treatment is often justified by the pretense that Palestinian refugees are temporary \u2018guests\u2019 in Lebanon. Now even third generation \u2018guests\u2019 of a UN-registered population of nearly 450,000 refugees are denied home ownership, inheritance of land or real estate. They are also barred from many professions.<\/p>\n

The state of near complete economic stagnation has resulted in socioeconomic\u00a0regression, placing Palestinian refugees in Lebanon at a very low standing with\u00a0little hope for the future.<\/p>\n

In a report released on June 20 to coincide with World\u00a0Refugee Day, American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) resolved that \u201cPalestinian\u00a0refugee camps in Lebanon are considered the worst of the region\u2019s refugee camps\u00a0in terms of poverty, health, education and living conditions.\u201d ANERA reported\u00a0that two out of three refugees subsist on less than $6 a day, and that discrimination\u00a0against them is expressed in multiple areas ranging from health care to\u00a0housing.<\/p>\n

It is important to note Israel\u2019s role in the perpetual suffering of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon \u2013 as everywhere else. But extending this awareness to include the inhumane treatment of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon no longer suffices. As in the case of refugees the world over, Palestinians must be repatriated to their homes and compensated for their pain, suffering and multiple losses. Until that goal is achieved, refugees must be treated with dignity and respect – regardless of the political calculation of their host countries.<\/p>\n

The predicament of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon must be handled with decisiveness and urgency. It is a responsibility that ought to be\u00a0shared between the Lebanese government, the Palestinian leadership, the Arab\u00a0League and the United Nations. Any more neglect and the potential crisis could\u00a0morph into a full-fledged conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RAMZY BAROUD: 450,000 UN-registered refugees live in Lebanon. They subsist in poverty, living in 12 concentration style camps, denied basic rights and lack nominal political horizons. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":20673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,82,158],"tags":[169,691,114,575,18311,2605,18305,4523,1875,18309,1997,3605,1747,184,894,18330,8467,471,387],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20672"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}