Suffering Side By Side
Of the nearly a million of Internally Displaced Lebanese fleeing the conflict in the south an increasing number are finding temporary homes in the camps of the Palestinian refugees. They are also now receiving services from the aid organizations set up to care for their inhabitants. However, even now, more than 50 years after the establishment of the camps, which are dotted across Lebanon, the Palestinians within them are still denied access to government services including schools and hospitals, along with citizenship, the right to own land and the right to participate in over 70 professions.
That the aid organizations are providing for these families is remarkable. Along with the largely dependent residents of the camp they have also been caring, as best they can, for many Palestinians who have fled from camps further to the south, some of which have already been bombed and from those, such as Burj-el-Barajneh camp where the Israelis had been dropping pamphlets instructing the residents to evacuate as they intended to bomb in the coming days, closer to Hezbollah strongholds such as Dahiyeh and Chiyeh in the of south Beirut.
Approaching Shatila, one of the larger camps in Beirut's southern suburbs, infamous for a massacre carried out by the Phalange Christian militia here during the Israeli occupation in the Eighties, we saw a building burnt out and collapsed, our guide, Sanaah, a young Palestinian woman, explains that it was destroyed during the late eighties in the "Camp Wars" between the Palestinian Militias inside the camps and the Amal Militia's from the predominantly Shia suburbs which surround them. Inside we passed a mosque and were informed that the bodies of more than 750 people are interred beneath it. During a period of six month siege laid to the camps by the Amal militia's, when many died of starvation and disease as well as from the violence, not even bodies could be moved form this crowded patch of land which, thought it does not cover more than a square kilometer is home to more than 17,000 people. These, other burnt out buildings and the bullet holes which mark the walls serve as physical reminders that the tension between the Palestinian's who arrived in this country after 1948 and the Lebanese community has often flared into violence.
Despite this however, over the years increasing numbers of Lebanese, particularly poor Shia form the south, have moved into these camps and the largely Palestinian areas directly surrounding them. Since the current conflict they have been joined by hundreds more mostly relatives of those who had already moved into the areas. We spoke to Mrs M'uallam from the Nabatiyeh region in the south west of the country, who along with her teenage son Haadi, is now staying with her brother in the camp. She told us of her gratitude, mixed with embarrassment, at taking aid from the organizations set up to care for the Palestinian residents of these camps. While not rich, she had felt her self financially secure with a house and land. Though when she left three weeks ago, the windows had already been blown out and cracks were appearing in the walls from the bombing of the region and she has not heard since if it is still standing.
In another apartment in Shatila we met brothers Aymad and Jihad Ali Ali, who along with their wives Iklus and Ra'eda, and a combined total of ten children, had fled their home in the Rashidiyeh camp in Tyre. They are staying now with their mother and two other brothers – a total of seventeen people in the tiny flat, with its kitchen bathroom and one small living/bedroom. They too have been receiving food and hygiene aid from the numerous NGOs who work to provide for the camp.
While on all fronts these organizations are being stretched, the most pressing issue is that of medical care. The United Nations Relief Works Agency which is charged with caring for the Palestinian refugees here and in other Arab countries provides the camp with one doctor who will often see up to 200 patients in a day. The short fall is some what met by organizations such as the Red Crescent and smaller, Palestinian run. However these organizations can offer little more than first aid due to a crippling lack of resources. One aid worker told us of Hamza, a nineteen year old Palestinian man who broke his jaw when running from an explosion in Tyre. He has spent three painful weeks seeking medical treatment to no avail. With no access to government hospitals, his family, must some how raise $2000 (US) to have it re-set. Money they simply do not have.
Technorati Tags: Lebanon,
That the aid organizations are providing for these families is remarkable. Along with the largely dependent residents of the camp they have also been caring, as best they can, for many Palestinians who have fled from camps further to the south, some of which have already been bombed and from those, such as Burj-el-Barajneh camp where the Israelis had been dropping pamphlets instructing the residents to evacuate as they intended to bomb in the coming days, closer to Hezbollah strongholds such as Dahiyeh and Chiyeh in the of south Beirut.
Approaching Shatila, one of the larger camps in Beirut's southern suburbs, infamous for a massacre carried out by the Phalange Christian militia here during the Israeli occupation in the Eighties, we saw a building burnt out and collapsed, our guide, Sanaah, a young Palestinian woman, explains that it was destroyed during the late eighties in the "Camp Wars" between the Palestinian Militias inside the camps and the Amal Militia's from the predominantly Shia suburbs which surround them. Inside we passed a mosque and were informed that the bodies of more than 750 people are interred beneath it. During a period of six month siege laid to the camps by the Amal militia's, when many died of starvation and disease as well as from the violence, not even bodies could be moved form this crowded patch of land which, thought it does not cover more than a square kilometer is home to more than 17,000 people. These, other burnt out buildings and the bullet holes which mark the walls serve as physical reminders that the tension between the Palestinian's who arrived in this country after 1948 and the Lebanese community has often flared into violence.
Despite this however, over the years increasing numbers of Lebanese, particularly poor Shia form the south, have moved into these camps and the largely Palestinian areas directly surrounding them. Since the current conflict they have been joined by hundreds more mostly relatives of those who had already moved into the areas. We spoke to Mrs M'uallam from the Nabatiyeh region in the south west of the country, who along with her teenage son Haadi, is now staying with her brother in the camp. She told us of her gratitude, mixed with embarrassment, at taking aid from the organizations set up to care for the Palestinian residents of these camps. While not rich, she had felt her self financially secure with a house and land. Though when she left three weeks ago, the windows had already been blown out and cracks were appearing in the walls from the bombing of the region and she has not heard since if it is still standing.
In another apartment in Shatila we met brothers Aymad and Jihad Ali Ali, who along with their wives Iklus and Ra'eda, and a combined total of ten children, had fled their home in the Rashidiyeh camp in Tyre. They are staying now with their mother and two other brothers – a total of seventeen people in the tiny flat, with its kitchen bathroom and one small living/bedroom. They too have been receiving food and hygiene aid from the numerous NGOs who work to provide for the camp.
While on all fronts these organizations are being stretched, the most pressing issue is that of medical care. The United Nations Relief Works Agency which is charged with caring for the Palestinian refugees here and in other Arab countries provides the camp with one doctor who will often see up to 200 patients in a day. The short fall is some what met by organizations such as the Red Crescent and smaller, Palestinian run. However these organizations can offer little more than first aid due to a crippling lack of resources. One aid worker told us of Hamza, a nineteen year old Palestinian man who broke his jaw when running from an explosion in Tyre. He has spent three painful weeks seeking medical treatment to no avail. With no access to government hospitals, his family, must some how raise $2000 (US) to have it re-set. Money they simply do not have.
Technorati Tags: Lebanon,
posted by Austin Gerassimos Mackell at 4:12 PM
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