Lebanon (all aspects)

[Rex Brynen]

In ruins for 18 months, a Palestinian enclave languishes in disrepair

Lebanese officials worry that Gaza has overshadowed efforts to help Palestinian refugees there rebuild from a 2007 battle between the Army and militants.

By Nicholas Blanford | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the March 11, 2009 edition

NAHR ALBARED REFUGEE CAMP, LEBANON - Rebuilding Gaza isn't the only effort under way to improve the Palestinians' plight. Eighteen months after it was wrecked in fighting between the Lebanese Army and Islamist militants, this impoverished refugee camp is just beginning to be put back together again in a project hampered by a political crisis, slowed by donor apathy, and overshadowed by the war between Hamas and Israel.

"We are telling donors if you really want the camps improved and to end the misery, which makes these places fertile grounds for extremism, then we need resources," says Khalil Makkawi, a former Lebanese ambassador and chairman of the Lebanon-Palestinian Dialogue Committee.

Even though Lebanon has been trying to raise funds to improve conditions for Palestinians across the country, it may not even have enough money to rehouse some 30,000 refugees left homeless after the 2007 battle in Nahr al-Bared.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which is responsible for the welfare of Palestinian refugees, only has sufficient funds to rebuild homes for a quarter of the camp's population.

[Rex Brynen]

Building a better relationship: Palestinian refugees, Lebanon, and the role of the international community

Source: International Development Research Centre (IDRC)

Date: 15 Jun 2009

Summary

In recent years, official Lebanese policy towards Palestinian refugees in Lebanon has undergone major changes. Increasingly, Lebanese officials have voiced their support for improved social and economic conditions for the refugees, while at the same time maintaining staunch opposition to their permanent resettlement (tawteen) in the country.

These policy changes have been marked by the formation of the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee (LPDC), by limited policy reforms in areas ranging from employment to the issuance of ID to unregistered refugees, as well as an unparalleled change in the tone of official pronouncements. The government has also been an essential partner with UNRWA in efforts to reconstruct Nahr al-Barid refugee camp (NBC), destroyed in fighting between the Lebanese Armed Forces and the radical Fateh al-Islam jihadist group in 2007. Just as important, LPDC has sought to change the narrative of Lebanese-Palestinian relations in a way that holds out greater promise to all communities.

These changes in policies have profound implications for the humanitarian circumstances of the refugees, as well as the economic and security interests of Lebanon. Improved Lebanese-Palestinian relations could also pay significant dividends for the region and international community too.

The continuation and deepening of the reform process is far from certain, however. It could be derailed by political changes following the recent June 2009 elections, local and regional developments, and limited Lebanese government policy capacity. A failure to deliver on promises of NBC reconstruction (due to insufficient donor support) could prove especially damaging.

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[Rex Brynen]

Roman ruins put Nahr al Bared camp rebuild at risk

Mitchell Prothero, Foreign Correspondent
Last Updated: September 05. 2009 11:56PM UAE / September 5. 2009 7:56PM GMT

BEIRUT // The seemingly endless struggle by Lebanon’s political factions to form a national unity government appears to have spilt over the efforts to rebuild a Palestinian refugee camp destroyed in 2007, as a major political party has filed a lawsuit to halt reconstruction.

A lawsuit filed by the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), led by the former general, Michel Aoun, demanded that the rebuilding of the Nahr al Bared camp be halted in order to protect Roman ruins that were discovered during the clean up of the 2007 siege, much to the anger of the camp’s 20,000 former residents who are still displaced since the fighting.

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After the lawsuit succeeded last week, Khalil Mekawi of the Lebanese Palestinian Dialogue Committee held an urgent meeting with prime minister Fouad Siniora and warned the prime minister that this decision might cause outrage among Lebanon’s estimated 250,000 Palestinian camp residents that could spill out across the country, leading to, in his words, “chaos”.

Depressing news indeed for those who were hoping that a new chapter in Lebanese-Palestinian relations might be forged in the aftermath of the 2007 NBC clashes.

(Also, UAE-based The National is emerging as an excellent source of English-language regional news, for those of you who may not have seen it before.)

[M-A Lagrange]

[QUOTE=Rex Brynen;82024]
A lawsuit filed by the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), led by the former general, Michel Aoun, demanded that the rebuilding of the Nahr al Bared camp be halted in order to protect Roman ruins that were discovered during the clean up of the 2007 siege, much to the anger of the camp’s 20,000 former residents who are still displaced since the fighting.

No so much suprising coming from Aoun. He is aSyria pupet now and all he can do is supporting Hezbollah efforts.
In 2006, during the war, what surprised me the most was the fight inside the muslims between shia and suny on their legitimacy to be protect the palestinians in Lebanon.
The war behind the war was the fight between shia and sunny over palestinians. Soon after, Hezbollah was established in Gaza a 95% suny place.
And Aoun is with them...

[Rex Brynen]

No so much suprising coming from Aoun. He is aSyria pupet now and all he can do is supporting Hezbollah efforts.

He's politically ambitious, and for this reason finds it very useful to ally with Syria and Hizbullah--and for their part, they find the alliance equally useful. I don't think "puppet" captures the interests that lie beneath the relationships.

In 2006, during the war, what surprised me the most was the fight inside the muslims between shia and suny on their legitimacy to be protect the palestinians in Lebanon.

I'm not sure what you mean here.

The war behind the war was the fight between shia and sunny over palestinians. Soon after, Hezbollah was established in Gaza a 95% suny place.

Hizbullah cooperates with Hamas, and for that matter has cooperated with Fateh cells too. It has no real organization/support inside Gaza.

[M-A Lagrange]

Quote:
In 2006, during the war, what surprised me the most was the fight inside the muslims between shia and suny on their legitimacy to be protect the palestinians in Lebanon.

I'm not sure what you mean here.

By that time (july-august 2006), I was working as head of mission for a muslim humanitarian organisation based in UK (Islamic Relief). I did enter Lebanon during the war and conducted humanitarian operations in Tyr/Sour, Nabathiya and long the border with Israel.
I have been able to witness the struggle inside muslim humanitarian NGOs on Palestinian cause. Most of the middle east based muslim humanitarian NGOs are in fact state organisations (more or less). Them flowded palestinian camps with aid while they refused to provide aid to isolated shia populations in the battle field.
With some others (ICRC, Premiere Urgence, MSF), we were the only ones going physically there to deliver food aid.
There were even fatwa given by saoudi arabia respected religious leaders saying that the suny should not help the shia as it was tem who brought war to Lebanon and Palestinian.

I really witnessed an inside battle between shia and suny on their legitimacy to be the voice and the protector of palestinians, in Lebanon and in Palestine. The battle in the camps, just after the war, between lebanese army and palestinian foundamentalist did not surprised me so much. As the divisions inside the suny between "foundamentalists" and "progressists" were deep during the july war. In fact the inside challenge between lebanon state was more about who will stay between Hariri and foundamentalist inside the suny camp rather between Lebanon government and Hezbollah.

[Rex Brynen]

Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon becoming less of a hotbed for militancy
Christian Science Monitor
By Nicholas Blanford, Correspondent / December 31, 2010

The recent murder of a top Al Qaeda-inspired militant and an exodus of other militants may signal increased stability, due in part to cooperation between Fatah and Islamist factions.

The murder of a senior Al-Qaeda-inspired jihadi and the exodus of other militants from here in recent months may herald some welcome stability for this impoverished Palestinian refugee camp.

With some 70,000 Palestinian refugees squashed into little more than a square mile near Sidon, Ain al-Hilweh lies outside the jurisdiction of the Lebanese government and has long been plagued by Islamic radicalism and factional violence.

But a tacit agreement for calm between a coalition of Islamist factions and the Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has left little space for militants seeking to plot and stage attacks against the Lebanese state or foreign targets in Lebanon.

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