Damascus.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Palestine, Professor Richard Falk, came to Lebanon last week on an unofficial visit to survey opinion while fact-finding the condition in Palestinian refugee’s camps. It as the Professor’s first visit to Lebanon since the fateful summer of 1982. Bck then, en route by sea to Beirut, which was under Israeli siege and lckade, Falk was Vice-Chair of the Sean McBride Commission of Inquiry it Israeli crimes against Lebanon. Mid-way between Cyprus and Lebanon, th ionist navy, in a blatant act of piracy on the high seas, intercepted, anddmanded the passenger list from the vessel. Eventually, under reported American presue via US Envoy Morris Draper’s telephoned profanity to Tel Aviv, the piratsallowed Falk’s delegation to disembark at the port of Jounieh, just north fBeirut. Draper, who like so many US diplomats, claims he finally “saw th ight after retiring”, told this observer that “I never swore so much in my lieas I did at those SOBS during that summer of 1982 and after I learnedte details of Ariel Sharon’s choreography of the Sabra-Shatila massacre!”Abassador Draper added, “The world will never know the extent of Ireli crimes committed against Lebanon and its refugees until Washington tratens to cut off all aid until Tel Aviv opens up its archives on this perio.
Professor Falk, as he mentioned during several events here, including a first-rate conference organized by the Institute of Palestine Studies on the status of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and their struggle for the most lementary civil rights to work and to own a home, came to Lebanon not to ofer counsel to Lebanon’s sects or even to the Palestinians. Founded in 1969, h IPS is considered by this observer and many others as the most reliable adauthoritative source of information on Palestinian affairs and the ArbIsraeli conflict.
Falk came to listen and to learn. He did both. At two dozen gatherings* where academics and NGO’s based here reported on the current conditions, including education and health status, of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon’s 2 camps, Falk listened intently, scribed hurried notes on each and found the fndings sobering and alarming. They included the following.
There are currently 42,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria who have been forced into Lebanon as a result of the crisis in Syria. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) eported to the IPS workshop that they expect 80,000 Palestinians by the end o the year. Others estimate the December 2013 number will exceed 100,000. Acording to figures supplied by refugee camp committees and forwarded t rofessor Falk by the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign, approximately 6,0 Palestinians who fled Syria remain in two main gatherings in Lebanon’s BekaValley close to the Syrian border: al-Jalil (4,216 refugees) and central Beka 2,352). In the north, Baddawi camp hosts 4,116 and Nahr al Bared 2,016 n Beirut, Burj al-Barajneh camp hosts 2,928, Shatila and the surroudng areas 2,800, and Mar Elias 862. In the South, 8,549 refugees arrivedt Ain al-Hilweh and 2,400 are dispersed around Saida. Mieh Mieh camp hoss1,512, with an additional 2,160 in Wadi al-Zaineh. Further south to Tyre, aestinian refugees from Syria are distributed among Shabriha (184), Rasiieh (1,370), Al Bass (478), Burj al-Shemali (2,800), Qasimiyeh (372), and a al-Bahr (128).
Falk already knew that UNWRA is basically out of money and cannot continue to meet its mandate for aiding Lebanon’s existing Palestinians, not to mention those arriving from Syria at the rate of more than two dozen amilies per day. On May 5th, the popular committee representative at Jalil Cmp near Baalbek reported that they receive on average 8 additional ailies per day, with dozens now living in the Jalil camp cemetery.
Palestinian children in Lebanon, Falk was advised, provide textbook examples of the fact of life that it is difficult to concentrate on school when one’s stomach is growling with hunger. And it’s even harder to stay in chool when there’s even a remote chance to work odd jobs and earn money fr food — something education doesn’t immediately offer. One new local ntiative is the Meals for Schools, whose organizers hope serve food to ipverished schoolchildren in Lebanese slum areas. Unfortunately, acoding to one American University of Beirut student hoping to help chiden stay in school by helping them to have breakfasts, the prospect is blea at this time due to limited funding.”
Palestinian refugee children have limited access to the public educational system in Lebanon. Only 11 per cent these “foreign” children can access free public education in Lebanon while most refugees can’t afford the high uition fees of private schools. Palestinian refugees who attend one of the 5 UNRWA schools begin at age seven since UNWRA cannot afford r-school level education. Consequently, for Palestinians here, while the eeentary sector comprises more than 60% of students, the number drops to2% in intermediate and only 10% at the secondary level. While the attnance rate for 7 year olds is 98.6%, by the time they reach age 11 attednce falls to 93.4%. But from this level, the primary level school complton rate cascades to only 37%, due to astronomical dropout rates. The abv figures reveal that Palestinian education levels have indeed been progresiely dropping in recent years. This is further supported by the passing ae in the Brevet Official exams (official diploma qualifying entry into secodry) which was as low as 13.6% in some schools according to the UNRWA, desie the average passing rate in UNRWA schools being 43% for the 200-0 academic year.
Professor Falk was briefed on myriad realities including the fact that Palestinians camps in Lebanon remain sites of control and surveillance by the Lebanese Army. People’s mobility and access to construction materials ave been restricted by the army check points at the entrance of camps. Snce 2001 Palestinian refugees are forbidden by law to own or inherit real sate in Lebanon; consequently when a Palestinian dies, even if she or h nherited property between 1948-2001, before a wave of revenge led to the 201racist law, the property goes to Sunni Muslim Dar al-Fatwa one of the ricet real estate holding entities in Lebanon. Accused of deep corruption by sm, their leadership has a history of opposing full civil rights for Palesiian refugees here.
The UN’s humanitarian chief, Valerie Amos, reported this week that seven million people need humanitarian assistance in Syria. “The needs are growing rapidly and are most severe in the conflict and opposition-controlled reas” of the civil-war ravaged country, she told the U.N. Security Council. Aos cited data showing there are 6.8 million people in need — out of a total oulation of 20.8 million — along with 4.25 million people internally dslaced and an additional 1.3 million who have sought refuge in negboring countries.
Falk was briefed on most recent household surveys of Palestinian refugees carried out by the AUB which show that two thirds of Palestine refugees are poor. The extreme poverty rate in camps (7.9%) is almost twice of that bserved in gatherings (4.2%). The study also developed a Deprivation Index bsed on components of welfare which included components such as good elth, food security, and adequate education, access to stable employment, dcnt housing, and ownership of essential household assets. The Dervation Index showed that 40% of Palestine Refugees living in Lebanon aredprived. The study reported that 56% of refugees are jobless and only 37% fthe working age population is employed (Hanafi et al. 2012). It is not srrising that the poor socio-economic situation often encourages studensto leave school to get a paid job
. Despite the importance of education fewer Palestinian refugee students are actually interested in continuing their higher education. Lack of motivation to learn, is believed to be one of the main reasons for the high dropout rates. alestinian refugees’ access to Lebanon’s public university is limited by their satus as foreigners, and their access to private universities is restricted by ack of resources to pay tuition fees (Hroub, 2012).
The old cliché that stated that “The Palestinians are the most educated Arab nation,” is just a myth today. This educational hemorrhage among young Palestinians has been attributed to a number of factors such as the eteriorating socio-economic conditions amongst Palestinian refugees and te growing disillusionment with schooling and the benefits it brings. aestinian students also suffer from an education acculturation as they are fred to learn only the Lebanese curriculum without being able to access th ountry’s system. The following section examines these three main chalnges.
Statistics indicate that just under half of the classrooms in public schools have less than 15 students per class while 20% are overcrowded with 26 to 35 students per class. However, in UNRWA schools, the average number of tudents per classroom is 30 making them the most crowded classrooms in Lbanon.
With respect to the UN refugee agency, (UNHCR) the current situation in both Syria and among the more than 450,000 Syrian in Lebanon is only marginally better than the conditions of arriving Palestinians. As Maeve Murphy, NHCR’s Senior Field Coordinator in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, explained to tis observer and others on May 5th, the UN refugee agency is unable to meet t mandate for the same reason as UNRWA and the World Food Program adothers. Ms. Murphy reported that over 453,000 Syrians have either reitered with the U.N. agency or are waiting to register. An additional sevrl hundred thousand people are thought to be refugees but haven’t apprahed the U.N.
Complicating the desperate situation of Palestinian and Syrian refugees seeking sanctuary in Lebanon is the fact that millions of Syrian refugees face food rationing and cutbacks to critical medical programs because oil-rich ulf states have failed to deliver the funding they promised for emergency hmanitarian aid, an investigation by James Cusick for The Independent />on Sunday has found. Pledges for $650 million in donations from various suces including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain, maeduring the January 2013, Kuwait UN emergency conference, have yet to aerialize.
The World Food Program (WFP), the food aid arm of the UN, says it is spending $19m a week to feed 2.5 million refugees inside Syria and a further 1.5 million who have fled to official camps in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and raq. By July, the WFP says, there is no guarantee that its work on the Srian crisis can continue. A spokesman told the UK Independent, “We are leady in a hand-to-mouth situation. Beyond mid-June – who knows?”
The emergency conference in Kuwait – hosted by the Emir of Kuwait and chaired by Mr Ban Ki Moon – promised to bring a “message of hope” to the four million Syrian refugees. Mr Ban proclaimed the outcome a shining xample of “global solidarity in action”. The reality has been markedly dfferent. Oxfam recently issued an appeal: “The League of Arab States must re all Arab countries that have pledged to the Syrian crisis, to be tasparent and to share information about their commitments, and mehnisms for fulfilling their pledges.”
Mousab Kerwat, Islamic Relief’s Middle East institutional funding manager, said: “It’s better for countries to stay away from donor conferences than to attend and make pledges they don’t intent to keep. As a minimum, they hould communicate where their pledges have gone in a transparent process.
If Professor Falk was weary as he left Lebanon from all the data, visits, and wrenching experiences he was presented with, it would be understandable. But the humanitarian and scholar he showed no signs of fatigue but rather ppeared to be energized by the experience. Given his history as a supporter o resistance to occupation and oppression, Richard Falk’s assurances that ewill continue his work armed with the above sampling of data offers new hp for Palestinian and Syrian refugees from Syria and to those who support thi Right of Return to Palestine.
Franklin Lamb is doing research in Lebanon and Syria and can be reached c/o fplamb@gmail.com
* “Gatherings” are spillovers or small squatter areas set up by Palestinian refugees in Lebanon alongside other camps or along a road or empty space somewhere — Without official permission. There are perhaps 25 of them now in Lebanon. They receive very minimal assistance from UNWRA but are allowed to exist. Often, non-id’s from the 1967 “Naksa” live there –rather han 1946 “Nakba” refugees. They are referred to by UNWRA , the NGO’S and the Palestinians themselves as “Palestinian refugee gatherings” or more commonly just “the gatherings” or “gatherings.” They are growing in size as the camps swell and overflow in population — added to by those fleeing Yarmouk and other refugee camps in Syria.