Abd Al-Salam Aql - Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon Speak (1995)

8/10/2019 Abd Al-Salam Aql - Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon Speak (1995)

1/8

Palestinian Refugees of Lebanon Speak

Author(s): Abd al-Salam AqlSource: Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Autumn, 1995), pp. 54-60Published by: University of California Presson behalf of the Institute for Palestine StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2538104.

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2/8

S

PALESTINIANREFUGEES OF

LEBANON SPEAK

Theseinterviews ere conducted n the summer f 1994 by

'Abd

al-SalamAql

for

he nstituteor alestine tudies. They

were

published

n our sister

ublications,Majallat al-Dirasat

al-Filastiniyyand Revued'etudes alestiniennes,n theirwin-

ter

nd

fall

1994 issues,respectively.

MuhammadAbd l-Mu'ti usayn, 8 years ld,Burj

l-

Barajneh amp

Mornings, helpout in thecamp mosque,and in theafternoons

work

t a

pastry

tand.

A

wound has leftme with

only

one

eye, nd

I

have four

bullets n

mybody. Living

onditions re

very

harsh n the

camp.Some

families erehaveas

many

s nine

members,

ithno one

to

support

hem.

The

father an

be

dead

or

ill,

or

in

thebest

of

cases

without ork hanks o the

heavy

estrictions

mposed

on

the

Palestini-

ans

of Lebanon.

I

myself ave four hildren.Whatwill become ofthem, nd ofme,

now that he

Gaza-Jerichogreement

as dashed all our

hopes? Why

notspendthemillions f dollarsbeing penton thesenegotiationsn

the families

f

martyrs

ho don't even have

enough

fortheir

daily

survival?

Abir AdnanAdas,

18

years ld,Burj l-Barajneh amp

My

father

ell

n

1982

during

he Zionist nvasion

f

Lebanon.

My

older

brother, ahmud,

ad fallen he

year

efore.We were hen orced

to return o the

camp

to

ive,

nd

my

mother as sincebeen

working

n

a

nearby akery

o

give

us a decent ife.As

you see,

we haverented his

little hopto sell uices in thecamp.This was after NRWA's United

Nations Relief

nd

Works

Agency]department

f

social

affairs

us-

pended

the

aid

we were

receiving

n the

grounds

hat

my 17-year-old

brother ad

completed

blacksmith

raining

ourse at the

"Orphans

Journal f

Palestine tudies

XXV,

no.

1

(Autumn1995), pp.

54-60.

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3/8

PALESTINIAN

EFUGEESOF LEBANON

55

House"

in Beirut nd thathe therefore

as a profession.What they

didn't ake

nto ccount s

thathe's beenunemployedince

the course

ended.

Wehave ll stopped ur

studies ecausewe don'thave

hemeans.All

except or

my ittle ister, ho's at theUNRWA

chool nsidethecamp.

She

was

onlytwo months ld whenmyfather

as martyred.

We were

ll bornduringwar.We grew

up duringwar

n a land that

isn't ours.

Not once havewe been able to

see our future,ecause our

futurewas unknown ver

ince we wereborn. Now we

simplydon't

havea future

t

all, sincethis greementhat

avePalestine

o theJews.

There

re

otsofus Palestinians ho have

been deprived

ftheword

"papa." I can'texplain t,but when hear someone call out "papa,"

have trouble

reathing.

ecause

this

word,

can't

utter

t.

Fayza

Adas, 7 years ld, Abir's

mother

Iftherewere omeone o

ook after hefamilies fmartyrs,

aughters

would have offeredheir ives

before hesons,forPalestine. can't tell

you

whatwe haveendured.We

are a

living eople ready

for

ny sacri-

fice.But

they ry

o break

us

every ay.

The education f our

youth

s

wasted.Our

universityraduates re

forced o work

s

masons since

theoil countries f theGulfhave closed their oors.The Lebanese au-

thorities

on't

give

them

work

permit, NRWA

has

cut off ts serv-

ices, the PLO is

no

longer

aying he mall

sums

t

used

to

allocate

to

the

families

f

martyrs.

urfamily,

or

xample,

asn't

gotten

nything

for

leven

months.

lus,

I

am not

well-high

blood

pressure, idney

problems,

wollen

glands,

slipped disk,

and

hardening

f the

arter-

ies-I don't

venhavemoney

or

my

medicine.

he Red

Crescent,

hich

used

to ook after

ur medical

needs,

s no

longer

ven

n

the

camp.

ts

staff

orks

without

ay.May

God

grant

s

patience myself

m Leba-

nese,married o a Palestinian,utI feelPalestiniann myblood.My

children re

Palestinian,

o I

live

n

the

amp

so as notto

cut

them

rom

their

nvironment

nd

their

eople.

There

s

no

peace

agreement

ut

the

one that

will return

s to

our

country.

MahmudAbbas, 5 years

ld,

Mar

lyasCamp

How did

we

get

o this

point?

Our

realityoday

s theworst

t has

ever

been,

from

ll

standpoints.

t

was understandable

hatwe would

be in a

bad situation

n

1948

and

during

he

years

following.

ut

that

we

shouldgo backto zeroforty-fiveears fter heCatastrophe aises a

number f

questions.

How is

it

possible

that our

people,

who never

stinted

n

sacrificing

hemselves,

re

confronted

oday

with

uch

a fu-

ture?

n

the

past,

we knew hat

n

the

nd we wouldreturn

o

our coun-

try. oday,

we know

nothing.

re we

going

to

stay

n Lebanon? The

Palestinianxpelled

or

he

umpteenthime,

will he have

a

house

some



4/8

56 JOURNAL F PALESTINE TUDIES

day? don'twant o keepusing heword plot." t's not surprisinghat

the mperialist ionistmovementlots gainst ur people.What s ter-

rifyings tofind our wn eadership lottinggainst ou.We couldn't

say now

f

t's voluntaryr against heirwill-thingswill be knownby

their esults.n truth,hisdeviation ithin hePLO began n the 1970s.

And

f

our opposition oesn'tknow t,there's problem, nd if t did

know

t,

it's

even

more serious.Anyway, orthe Palestinian efugee

there

s

no differenceetween he eadership nd theopposition. ust

difference

n the

speeches nd communiques.

Many campshere

n

Lebanon

are still n

ruins.Unemployment

s

raging, nd we are deprived f ll civil

nd social rights. oday hemost

realistic estimatesof Palestinianrefugees n Lebanon is between

300,000

and

350,000,

divided

mong

he welve

amps officiallyecog-

nized by theLebanese authorities.

he Dbayeh amp s halfdestroyed,

and others re

totally estroyed,

uch

as

Tal al-Zatar nd

Nabatiyya.

n

addition o the twelve fficial

amps,

there re others

ecognized y

UNRWA hat

grew

out of the

displacements

f the civil

war; UNRWA

provides services there. These include Abu al-Aswad,Qasmiyya,

Shabriha,Wasita,Burghuliyya,all

l-Bahr,Ma'shuq,

Jmayjim,

nd

Ad-

loun. Then there re the mmediateurroundings f the AynHilwa,

Nahr l-Barid, nd Baddawi amps, nd,finally,hePalestinian oncen-

trations

n

the central

iqa' or

evenwithin

ebanese

cities.

UNRWA ervices eem tied to

progress

n

the

peace process,

but

in

an

opposite

direction-it's he

poor

who

pay

the

price

for he

political

advances

n

the

negotiations y

supporting

reduction

n

UNRWA's

social services.

We

believe hat

hisreduction f aid is a deliberate

ol-

icy

of

the

UN,

and

more

exactly

f

the

Americans,

ho want to

put

more

pressure

n the Palestinians.

As for hePLO's

concessions,

t'seven

worse.

A

year go,

we believed

the authorities henthey lamedeverythingn the cutoffn aid from

theGulf ountries.

utwhatcan

they ay today

o

thefamilies f

mar-

tyrs,

o

the

PLO

secondary chools,

when

we

have

seen thatthere

s

money

or

he henchmen

f

this

or that eader?How can

they xplain

the

ending

of

the

Red Crescent's

ervices?

ur

sick

people

are

in

an

indescribable ituation, specially

he

heart

nd

cancer

patients

nd

the ones who need

dialysis.

UNRWA

meets

only

10-15

percent

f

the

health

xpenses

which sometimes

each

$10,000 per patient.

Where

are our

hospitals?

As for ducation, he closureofthePLO schools has left n enor-

mous

void

sincethe

overwhelming

ajority

f

the

refugees

an't

get

he

funds eeded

to

go

to Lebanese

econdary

chools.Not

to

mention

he

fact hat he Lebanese schools

can't evenmeet he

Lebanese needs.

An

estimated

,000

to

8,000

Palestinian amilies

ave

been

displaced

within ebanon

following

arious

massacres,

nd

only

170

to

200

of

thesefamilies ave found

solution

o

their

roblems.

A

greatmany



5/8

PALESTINIAN EFUGEESOF LEBANON 57

houses inside the

camps are still

n

ruins and we have no money o

rebuild. Worse,

the Lebanese authoritieshave officially otified

UNRWA hat ebuildingn theSabra and Shatila amps s not allowed.

According o them,here s no need for alestinianso remain n Beirut.

The Palestinians ave to go-in otherwords,yet nother xodus-and

the

authoritiesay t's up to UNRWA o foot hebill. The official eba-

nese declarationsbouttheir ntentionsoncerninghefate ftherefu-

geeshere re

contradictory,

nd

UNRWA

s

trying

n

vain to sort hings

out

so it can decide

on

its own

course

of

action.

It's up to thePLO to takeresponsibilityor hefate fthePalestinians

in exile,whose

situations themostdifficultf all. It is true hat am

anArab, eady o sacrificemyselformyLebanese, yrian, gyptian,rIraqi brothers. utin the final nalysis am a Palestinian-Ihave to

return o Palestine.

ere are our camps.They re open to anyonewho

wants o come

n

and find ut what's

going

on. You

will not

find

wo

people

who

are

not convinced

hat

the

Gaza-Jerichogreement

s an

agreement

f

capitulation

nd

betrayal.

ou will not find soul

who

believes hat

t

holds

ny dvantage

or ur

people,

ither

n

Palestine

r

in

exile,

or

even

n

Gaza and

Jericho.

Muhammadl-Bajirmi,5years ld,Rashidiyyaamp

I

What ets

us here n the

region

f

Tyre part rom heother alestini-

ans of Lebanon

s

that

we are

very

lose to northern alestine.We

see

our

countryvery ay,

nd that

trengthens

ur

hope

ofreturn

espite

the duration

f

our

exile

and our

dispersion.

As far s the

iving

onditions

re

concerned-well, hey

re

going

from ad to worse.We are

living

here

n

three

amps,recognized y

UNRWA

nd theLebanese

tate:

Rashidiyya17,000 residents), urj

l-

Shamali

15,000),

and Bass

(7,000).

Plus

you

have

to

add

the

concen-

trations hat re notofficiallyecognized,or xampleQasmiyya4,000

residents),

bu

al-Aswad

4,000),

Shabriha

3,000),

Jall l-Bahr

3,000),

Ma'shuq 3,000),

and others.

hey

stimate total

of

60,000

Palestini-

ans

in

the

Tyre egion.

We

are

facing

erious

hortages

n

housing, chools,

health are.Not

to mention

he

unemployment

hat s

strangling

s. Most Palestinians

in

this area count

on work

n

the citrus

groves

nd

in

agriculture

n

general,

nd

hire

themselves ut for

pay

below the

minimum

wage

in

Lebanon.

f

you

add to that

he

drop

n

UNRWA

ervices

nd thecutoff

inaid formerlyrovided ythePLO,yousee that hepeopleherehave

reached critical nd

dangerous

hreshold.

ven the

full-timetaff f

the

organizations,

uch as

Fatah,

re now

getting

heir

monthly

alaries

only

once

every

hree r fourmonths.

nd mostof

themhave no

pro-

fession,

o

you

see themhere

nd

there,ooking

or

imple obs.

Some

get

hiredon construction

itesor,

f

they

re

lucky,

s taxi drivers.



6/8

58

JOURNAL OF PALESTINE STUDIES

We are livinghere n Lebanon n unusual conditions.We have no

civilrights. NRWA sed to provide

monthlyssistance o thefamilies,

butonly tiny ractionf hem et ssistance oday. ickpeople,mean-

while, re now required o settle 5 percent f the costs of their are,

and you often ee people trying o raise moneyfortheir reatment

amongtheir elatives nd friends.

inally, nlythe threemain camps

have

schools,

o

of course here

s a tremendous emand,not to men-

tionthe fact hatpaper and pencils

re no longer upplied o the chil-

dren and books are often acking. ast month, NRWA's lour ation

had rotted, nd since thenpeople

decided to boycott he food aid. No

one raises a

finger

o

help

us

in

this ituation.

There s nota single alestinian ho has designs n the oil ofLeba-

non. On the ontrary,e are ready or ny acrifice or ebanonand its

people,

nd we consider ur residence n

this

ountry

s

temporary.

ut

theLebanese

government

hould

help

us lead a decent nd human

ife.

We contributedhrough he sweat

of our brow to the building f the

Lebanese

conomy-the

outh

nd

other

egions

re witness o this.Pal-

estinian ands

abored

longside

ebanese

handsto

develop

outhLeb-

anon's agriculture,

nd it's not

right

o treat s like

foreigners.

Even

o, thegreatest ifficulty

hatwe'refacing s thesigning fthe

Gaza-Jerichogreement.hePalestinians fLebanonwillbe thebiggest

losers

under his

greement,

hichhas crushed ur

dreams

nd

aspira-

tions.

Everyone

s

afraid, ow,

thatmore xoduses are in store.

Uthman

alim, 4 years ld,

Bass

Camp

Our

principalworry

s

daily

ife.

mployment

s

totally

losed

to

our

universityraduates,

who

have

to

accept any ob they

can find.

t's

reached

a

point

where Palestinians re

beginning

o have a

negative

viewof education.More and moreparents re nterruptinghestudies

of their hildren

o

they

an look for

work,

ince

ncreasinglyhey

ee

diplomas

s a

useless waste

of

money

withno

future-thiss even

true

for

arents

who could afford

t.Andofcourse

here re fewer nd

fewer

of

those, specially

incethe

PLO's

secondary

chools

closed.About

he

school

closures,

here re

disparities:

n the

Biqa' region,

or

xample,

three

econdary

choolsfinanced

y

the

Palestinian

epartment

f

edu-

cation

n

Damascus*

are still

functioning

s before.

But our schools

here,

ven

hough hey epend

on

the

same

department,

o

longer et

anymoney,ither ecause of ack oforganizationrbecausethefund-

ing

has been stolen.

This

doesn'tprevent

he teachers

rom

eaching

with

hemeans

theyhave,

but

they're

arely aid.

*

The

Damascus-based

epartmentepends

n the

Palestinian

pposition-Ed.



7/8

PALESTINIAN REFUGEES OF

LEBANON 59

I

myself ave a son

who successfullyompleted is

secondary tud-

ies, n mathematics.

can't ffordo send himto university,specially

sincethe cholarshipsbroadthat sed to be availableno longer xist.

And even when one

comes along,practically o one can

afford he

travel xpenses and upkeep.Besides, he man who has the

means to

send his son abroaddoesn'tneed a scholarship-he an

enrollhis child

in one of the universitiesn Beirut.

As for mployment,he

demand s so high nd the

supply o small

thatwageshavedropped

o four r six dollars day. Some

regular m-

ployees f organizations

avemanaged o geta lump sumseverance.

know some political cadreswho were able to become

cab drivers,

otherswho used themoney oopensmallbusinesses nthecamp. But

since theyweren'txperienced,mostof thesewentunder.

The PLO has madea

big

mistake

ver hepast twenty ears y decid-

ing to gradually eplace

UNRWA's ocial institutions.f thadn'tdone

so, UNRWA

ould have continued o

provide

hese ervices

n

accord-

ance with ts

mandate.

With

he risis,when hePLO

suddenly topped

its aid, UNRWA ervices

were lreadymuch reduced.

HusaynMahmud asan, 67 years ld,Shatila

Camp

There s

not

single amily

n

this

amp

that oesn'thave

t

eastone

martyr.

ut where s the blood of

martyrs?

he

campmosque

is an

immense ommon

rave,

nd our

popular

ommittee ad to

construct

floor o

thatwe could

pray.

That's

where, very riday,

we

try

o

organ-

ize modest ollections

or hefamilies.What can we

say

to our

martyrs

whenover heir

raves

we

collect hesehumble onations or

heir hil-

dren nd families?

Our

camp

s intheheart fthe

apital, eirut, et lectricity

ere

has

been cut off ince 1986. UNRWA sked each household ogive$30 to

hook

us

up,

but four

months ave

passed

and

nothing

as

changed.

Almost ll

thehouses

n

this

amp

were ither

ompletely

r

partially

destroyed.

he streets

re still

n

the

shape they

were eft n

by

the

s-

raeli nvasion

n

1982.

The

camp

had

three

chools,

ut

only

one is left.

Each

class used to have between 0

and

25

pupils; today,

here re so

many

hildren hat ach classroom

ooks

ike a

street

emonstration.

What else should

be said? What

happened

o the

rights

f thePales-

tinian

eople?

The

PLO?

The

UN?

The

Lebanese tate?

We

have

no

righttowork,nd we don'thave nstitutionsoemploy s. The RedCrescent

no

longer rovides are,

nd

UNRWA

as

drastically

educed ts serv-

ices.

The

popular

committee oes what t

can,

but with ts

extremely

limited

means

t

can

only

do small tasks.

Da'uq camp,

near

ours,

quite simply

no

longer xists,

nd

its

resi-

dents

have been

scattered

hroughout

ebanon.



8/8

60 JOURNAL OF PALESTINE STUDIES

As for he Gaza-Jerichogreements, e the 1948 refugees re not

happy.The agreements on'tconcern s. In reality, think hey on't

concern nyPalestinian. heygavemyhouse and my and awayto the

Israelis, ornothing. am a Palestinian romGalilee and these agree-

ments on't venbring s to Gaza andJericho.n anycase, don'twant

to talkpolitics nymore-it o longer erves ny purpose.

AhmadMuhammadl-'Ali, 7 years ld,Burj l-Barajneh

Camp

So

here s

Burj l-Barajneh.

ur

sick

people

are

dying

orwant f

care

becauseemergencyoomsno longer ccept hem.AndUNRWA,when

it

tries o get hem n,choosesthepoorly quippedhospitals n order o

cut

costs,

o

they

on't

getproper reatment.

Our

schools were

among

thebestin

Lebanon,

and the

Palestinian

studentwas knownforhis scholastic

uccess.

But

today, t's the oppo-

site.Our children re obsessedwiththe dea of emigratingo escape

from hishell,where venuniversityraduates an't findwork.

I

guessyou know hatwe haveno civilor social rights. ven hegen-

eral

amnesty romulgated y

the

Lebanese state after he civil war

doesn't ncludePalestinians. nd all thePalestinians ho wereforced

to fleetheirhomes under the

pressure

f armed conflicts ave been

struck

rom he officialist of

refugees egistered

ith

the Lebanese

Sarete

enerale,

o

they

an not come back.*

We havecountless

roblems.

he

population

f the

camp

s

13,000,

and

UNRWA

as

only

one clinicherewith

single

doctorwho is sub-

merged y

hundreds f

ick

peoplewaiting

or

im

very ay.

As

for

he

local

pharmacy,

t's

empty. heyconstantly

ellus that

he medicines

will

come

at the

beginning

f the

month.And when

we

do

manage

to

gettreated, e nowhave topay,whereas eforemedical are was free.

Some

families

manage

o make

do,

either ecause

they

avea

family

member

broadwho

sends them

money

r because

they

ave

relative

at UNRWA.

For

everyone lse,

it's

extremely

ifficult. o

work,

no

rights,

o institutions.

efore,

herewere

a lot

of

workshops

n

the

camp

that

employed

round

1,500 people.

But these

workshops

no

longer

xist.

Can

you

believe

hat his

amp

hasn'thad

drinking

ater ince 1979?

Isn't

this shame?

*

The

number

fPalestinians

n

this ituations

estimatedt

40,000-Ed.

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Documents

Abd Al-Salam Aql - Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon Speak (1995)