Refugees find sympathetic, ambivalent welcome in Arab states

May 14, 2008, 13:49 GMT

FEATURE: Refugees find sympathetic, ambivalent welcome in Arab states By Weeda Hamza, dpa Eds: Feature on Palestinian refugees in the Arab world; Please note previous feature on Palestinian refugees in the occupied territories; epa photos available =

Nahr al-Bared, Lebanon (dpa) - Nahr al-Bared seems to be rising from the ashes again. The Palestinian refugee camp on Lebanon's northern coast saw more than three months of heavy fighting between the Lebanese Army and a Palestinian fundamentalist group loyal to al- Qaeda, Fatah al-Islam, in the past year.

According to the Lebanese government, about 222 militants and 169 Lebanese soldiers were killed in the clashes. Palestinians officials have said that 47 Palestinian civilians also died in the camp, which is one of 12 official such camps in the country.

Destruction is still obvious everywhere. Three-storey buildings were flattened to the ground, while others still standing are riddled with bullet and shrapnel holes.

Most of the camp's 31,000 residents are still absent. The United Nations Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNWRA) estimates the battles have either destroyed or rendered uninhabitable 85 per cent of the homes in the camp. Infrastructure was ruined too.

'Even Israel doesn't destroy like this, does it?' one female refugee commented.

Many refugees who deserted the camp took refuge in others in Lebanon, especially in nearby Beddawi, whose original population more than doubled, adding to the pressure on the refugees, UNWRA and the facilities in the already overcrowded camp.

The Lebanese army allowed the Nahr al-Bared refugees back into their camp in October after the fighting seized.

Life is gradually returning to Nahr al-Bared, but it has never been easy for the now over 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

Now, every day is even more of a struggle for the camp residents.

Lebanese army checkpoints still search people and cars at each entrance of the camp.

And many who returned to the camp in recent months live in cramped conditions, sometimes 10 to a room. Most rely on handouts to make ends meet.

Aida, a mother of five, just moved into a prefabricated home after spending months living on the classroom floor of a school in the nearby Beddawi camp.

'It is as if we did not have enough problems already... We needed this battle to destroy what we have left to live a normal life,' she said.

'Life in Lebanon for us Palestinian refugees is worse than the camps in the West bank or the Gaza strip,' she added.

Of the three neighbouring Arab states that have absorbed refugees from historic Palestine, those in Lebanon are worst off.

Jordan's 1.9 million Palestinian refugees - who make up almost a third of the total population - have full citizenship, including the right to vote and employment in the government.

Syria never granted citizenship, although its now 450,000 Palestinian refugees are just 2.3 per cent of its population. Such a move could be interpreted as a de-facto acceptance of the outcome of the 1948 war, perhaps even of Israel, the country argues.

Nonetheless, Palestinians are fully integrated into Syrian society, and have the same access as citizens to education, government hospitals and employment.

In Lebanon, however, where they make up about 10 per cent of the population, the Palestinian refugees have no social and civil rights. Considered foreigners, they are banned by law from more than 70 trades and professions, resulting in soaring unemployment.

The Palestinian refugees are viewed with sympathy by their Arab hosts, but tensions have also arisen over fears that their presence could upset the delicate equilibrium in the countries in which they reside, especially in Lebanon.

In the land of the cedars, which is beset with its own problems and also concerned with the radicalization of Palestinians in the camps and links to al-Qaeda, the refugees are most unwelcome.

It is no surprise therefore that Palestinian President Mahmoud told the al-Arabya television channel en route to the US in April that he was negotiating a solution to the refugee problem with Israel, which would see no refugees remaining in Lebanon.

Prior to the 1982 Israel-Lebanon war, which resulted in the expulsion of the Palestine Liberation Organization to Tunisia, southern Lebanon was known as 'Fatah Land' - after the largest faction in the PLO.

Some Lebanese resented the movement's behaviour, comparing it to a state within a state. At the same time, the September 1982 massacre in Beirut's Sabra and Shatila camps of hundreds of Palestinians by Lebanese Christian militiamen, allies of Israel, has left a deep scar on Palestinian collective memory.

Jordan too has its own dark chapter in its relations with the Palestinians, known as Black September 1970, when the Hashemite King Hussein squashed an attempt by the PLO to overthrow his monarchy and expelled the movement and thousands of Palestinians to Lebanon. Thousands were also killed on both sides.

'I wish I had a tent to live in Saffourieh and not have to live through this humiliating life in Lebanon,' said Abu Ali, an 80-year-old resident of Naher al-Bared, referring to the village he left behind 60 years ago, near Nazareth in northern Israel.

'I will do anything to go back and spend my last days and die in dignity,' said the father of six and grandfather of 14.

'The Palestinians will not accept compensations in return for their rights. We want to go back and live on our lands where we were born and grew up,' he said.