I have traveled to Lebanon 5 times since early 2017 and most recently as the end of October, 2019 being front and center caught up in the protests and demonstrations that are going on throughout the country. BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon’s Defence Minister said on Thursday November 14th the country was in a “very dangerous situation” and compared street unrest of recent days to the start of 1975-90 civil war. But aside from the ongoing mounting tensions flaring up throughout the country, my reasons for going to Lebanon are to show solidarity and support for the Palestinian and Syrian refugees.
There are some 450,000 refugees registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with many living in the country’s 12 refugee camps.Palestine refugees represent an estimated 10% of the population of Lebanon. They do not enjoy several important rights; for example, they cannot work in as many as 39 professions. Because they are not formally citizens of another state, Palestine refugees are unable to claim the same rights as other foreigners living and working in Lebanon. Among the five UNRWA fields, Lebanon has the highest percentage of Palestine refugees living in abject poverty.
Around 53% of the Palestine refugees in Lebanon live in the 12 recognized Palestine refugee camps, all of which suffer from serious problems, including poverty, overcrowding, unemployment, poor housing conditions and lack of infrastructure. Three other camps were destroyed during the course of the Lebanese Civil War, while a fourth was evacuated many years ago.
The ongoing conflict in Syria has forced many Palestine refugees from that country, including men, women and children, to flee to Lebanon in search of safety. UNRWA is working to adjust to their numbers and their needs - including education, health care, shelter and relief.
Before the Lebanese Civil War, Beirut was widely regarded as The Paris of the Middle East, often cited as a financial and business hub where visitors could experience the Levantine Mediterranean culture. Beirut's diverse atmosphere and ancient history make it an important destination, which is slowly rebuilding itself after continued turmoil.
However, in recent times, certain countries, such as the United States, have frequently placed Lebanon, and Beirut in particular, on their travel warnings lists due to a large number of car bombings and orchestrated acts of political violence.
I always seem to come across a friendly taxi driver who I use and continue to use on return visits. Tarek a very nice man who introduced me to his family and on a few occasions he brought me to his home and we ate lunch and dinner. One afternoon I decided to go it alone and with my Kevlar vest on started walking in no particular direction but found myself on the edges of the Shatila camp. It’s an area of one square kilometer and home to some 14,000 Palestinians according to a census conducted by the Lebanese Palestinian Dialogue committee in 2017.
I stopped at a local sandwich shop and rested for a bit, and started wandering through a maze of small alleyways finding myself to the sea. The raw sewage along with empty plastic bottles and piles of garbage littered the beach.
As I walked back I was approached by an older man speaking Arabic but gesturing why I was there and not to take photos. I brushed him off though a few other people started following me. I thought nothing of it and proceeded to make my way back to a more familiar area. I didn’t feel very comfortable and 100% safe so I made the hike back to the main road until I could grab a taxi and make my way back to the hotel.
The following day I figured I would have Tarek drive me around, as that would be safer. I asked him to drive me through Shatila, which he did only to tell me and point out the local mafia control the area. What he really meant to say but either didn’t want to or wasn’t obliged to say was that Hezbollah controlled the area.
Hezbollah is a Shi'a Islamist political party and militant group based in Lebanon. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese parliament. Since the death of Abbas al-Musawi in 1992 the group has been headed by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.
As always I aim to get myself in the mix. As we meandered through the bustling narrow streets laden with markets stalls selling all sorts of food and paraphernalia I took out my iPhone and started videoing through my side window. It took all of 30 seconds before a young guy on a scooter drove past and quickly turned around blocking our path. He got off the scooter and started yelling in our direction and walked beside my passenger side door. He was yelling in Arabic and Tarek was talking back at him. The guy wanted to see my phone and asking why was I videoing, saying it wasn’t allowed. He started calling on other people close by and then they started surrounding the car.
Tarek was saying to me “crazy mafia” and he would repeat it over and over. Tarek is a very robust guy, with a gravely voice and certainly no pushover. He held is ground talking with this young guy and was able to deescalate things before they got out of hand. The guy moved his scooter and we kept on driving and I took a huge sigh of relief. All Tarek could keep saying,
“This place no good, all mafia.” and laughed it off.
In subsequent trips to Lebanon I've visited four refugee camps in Lebanon. Three camps in the Beirut area - Shatila, Burj Barajneh, Mar Elias and the Beddawi camp located in Tripoli, Northern Lebanon. With the enormous and seemingly insurmountable task I thought it best to try and focus on helping one camp and that led me to the Beddawi camp.
Each time I’ve returned to Lebanon I've brought donations of clothes and medical supplies and I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to be allowed to teach the students martial arts and have also made some incredible friendships. One particular Palestinian woman, Maysoun Mustafa who is the UNRWA Communications Coordinator in the North has become a wonderful friend. She and her family grew up in the camp initially being displaced from one camp to another until they settled in Beddawi. Her story like so many is a tragedy and a travesty considering the sad history of the Palestinian people that has continued for over 70 years. Another wonderful gentleman is Mr. Fawzi Tweisi who was the Camp Services Officer for many years. A very learned, wise and extremely funny man
The Palestinians are a group comprising the modern descendants of the peoples who have lived in Palestine over the centuries, including Jews and Samaritans, and who today are largely culturally and linguistically Arab. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one half of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in historic Palestine the area encompassing the West Bank the Gaza Strip and Israel. In this combined area, as of 2005, Palestinians constituted 49% of all inhabitants, encompassing the entire population of the Gaza Strip (2 million), the majority of the population of the West Bank (approximately 2,800,000 versus about 600,000 Jewish Israeli citizens which includes about 200,000 in East Jerusalem) and 20% of the population of Israel proper as Arab citizens of Israel.
Many are Palestinian refugees or internally displaced Palestinians, including more than a million in the Gaza Strip, about 750,000 in the West Bank and about 250,000 in Israel proper. Of the Palestinian population who live abroad, more than half are stateless, lacking citizenship in any country. Between 2.1 and 3.5 million of the diaspora population live in neighboring Jordan, over 1 million live between Syria and Lebanon and about 750,000 live in Saudi Arabia with Chile’s half a million representing the largest concentration outside the Middle East.
Palestinian Christians and Muslims constituted 90% of the population of Palestine in 1919, just before the third wave of Israeli immigration under the post World War 1 British Mandatory Authority opposition to which spurred the consolidation of a unified national identity, fragmented as it was by regional, class, religious and family differences. The history of a distinct Palestinian national authority is a disputed issue amongst scholars.
The term Palestinian: was used to refer to the nationalist concept of a people by Palestinian Arabs in a limited way until World War I. After the creation of the state of Israel the exodus of 1948 and more so after the exodus of 1967, the term came to signify not only a place of origin but also the sense of a shared past and future in the form of a Palestinian state. Modern Palestinian identity now encompasses the heritage of all ages from biblical times up to the Ottoman period.
Founded in 1964, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) is an umbrella organization for groups that represent the Palestinian people before international states. The Palestinian National Authority officially established in 1994 as a result of the Oslo Accords is an interim administrative body nominally responsible for governance in Palestinian population centers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Since 1978, the United Nations has observed an annual International Day of Solidarity for the Palestinian people. It is estimated that half of the population in the Palestinian territories are refugees and that they have collectively suffered approximately U.S. $300 billion in property losses due to Israeli confiscations.
After speaking with many Palestinian families in numerous camps and especially Beddawi where I have spent the most time. I can’t help but feel for these people who’ve been stripped of their dignity, their culture, identity, homeland and right of citizenship. It’s a damn outrage and the Israeli government should be completely ashamed of them selves. It is highly doubtful that the foreign policy and situation will change anytime soon. Therefore, I will continue on my path and help these people as much as I can. God Bless these people and all they have suffered for more than 70+years.📷