Two-Thirds of Palestinian Refugees are Living in Poverty<\/i><\/p>\n
Damascus, 13 May 2013<\/i><\/p>\n
The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Palestine, Professor \u2028Richard Falk, came to Lebanon last week on an unofficial visit to survey \u2028opinion while fact-finding the condition in Palestinian refugee\u2019s camps. It \u2028was the Professor\u2019s first visit to Lebanon since the fateful summer of 1982. \u2028Back then, en route by sea to Beirut, which was under Israeli siege and \u2028blockade, Falk was Vice-Chair of the Sean McBride Commission of Inquiry \u2028into Israeli crimes against Lebanon. Mid-way between Cyprus and Lebanon, \u2028the Zionist navy, in a blatant act of piracy on the high seas, intercepted, \u2028and demanded the passenger list from the vessel. Eventually, under reported American \u2028pressure via US Envoy Morris Draper\u2019s telephoned profanity to Tel Aviv, the \u2028pirates allowed Falk\u2019s delegation to disembark at the port of Jounieh, just \u2028north of Beirut. Draper, who like so many US diplomats, claims he finally \u2028\u201csaw the light after retiring\u201d, told this observer that \u201cI never swore so much \u2028in my life as I did at those SOBS during that summer of 1982 and after \u2028I learned the details of Ariel Sharon\u2019s choreography of the Sabra-Shatila \u2028massacre!\u201d Ambassador Draper added, \u201cThe world will never know the \u2028extent of Israeli crimes committed against Lebanon and its refugees until \u2028Washington threatens to cut off all aid until Tel Aviv opens up its archives \u2028on this period.\u201d<\/p>\n
Professor Falk, as he mentioned during several events here, including a \u2028first-rate conference organized by the Institute of Palestine Studies on the \u2028status of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and their struggle for the most \u2028elementary civil rights to work and to own a home, came to Lebanon not to \u2028offer counsel to Lebanon\u2019s sects or even to the Palestinians. Founded in 1969, \u2028the IPS is considered by this observer and many others as the most reliable \u2028and authoritative source of information on Palestinian affairs and the \u2028Arab-Israeli conflict.<\/p>\n
Falk came to listen and to learn. He did both. At two dozen gatherings(*) where academics and NGO\u2019s based here reported on the current conditions, \u2028including education and health status, of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon\u2019s \u202812 camps, Falk listened intently, scribed hurried notes on each and found the \u2028findings sobering and alarming. They included the following.<\/p>\n
There are currently 42,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria who have been \u2028forced into Lebanon as a result of the crisis in Syria. The United Nations \u2028Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) \u2028reported to the IPS workshop that they expect 80,000 Palestinians by the end \u2028of the year. Others estimate the December 2013 number will exceed 100,000. \u2028\u2028According to figures supplied by refugee camp committees and forwarded \u2028to Professor Falk by the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign, approximately \u20286,000 Palestinians who fled Syria remain in two main gatherings in Lebanon\u2019s \u2028Bekaa Valley close to the Syrian border: al-Jalil (4,216 refugees) and central \u2028Bekaa (2,352). In the north, Baddawi camp hosts 4,116 and Nahr al Bared \u20282,016. In Beirut, Burj al-Barajneh camp hosts 2,928, Shatila and the \u2028surrounding areas 2,800, and Mar Elias 862. In the South, 8,549 refugees \u2028arrived to Ain al-Hilweh and 2,400 are dispersed around Saida. Mieh Mieh \u2028camp hosts 1,512, with an additional 2,160 in Wadi al-Zaineh. Further south \u2028to Tyre, Palestinian refugees from Syria are distributed among Shabriha \u2028(184), Rashidieh (1,370), Al Bass (478), Burj al-Shemali (2,800), Qasimiyeh \u2028(372), and Jal al-Bahr (128).<\/p>\n
Falk already knew that UNWRA is basically out of money and cannot \u2028continue to meet its mandate for aiding Lebanon\u2019s existing Palestinians, not \u2028to mention those arriving from Syria at the rate of more than two dozen \u2028families per day. On May 5th, the popular committee representative at Jalil \u2028Camp near Baalbek reported that they receive on average 8 additional \u2028families per day, with dozens now living in the Jalil camp cemetery.<\/p>\n
Palestinian children in Lebanon, Falk was advised, provide textbook \u2028examples of the fact of life that it is difficult to concentrate on school when \u2028one\u2019s stomach is growling with hunger. And it\u2019s even harder to stay in \u2028school when there\u2019s even a remote chance to work odd jobs and earn money \u2028for food \u2014 something education doesn\u2019t immediately offer. One new local \u2028initiative is the Meals for Schools, whose organizers hope serve food to \u2028impoverished schoolchildren in Lebanese slum areas. Unfortunately, \u2028according to one American University of Beirut student hoping to help \u2028children stay in school by helping them to have breakfasts, the prospect is \u2028bleak \u201cat this time due to limited funding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Palestinian refugee children have limited access to the public educational \u2028system in Lebanon. Only 11 per cent these \u201cforeign\u201d children can access free \u2028public education in Lebanon while most refugees can\u2019t afford the high \u2028tuition fees of private schools. Palestinian refugees who attend one of the \u202858 UNRWA schools begin at age seven since UNWRA cannot afford \u2028pre-school level education. Consequently, for Palestinians here, while the \u2028elementary sector comprises more than 60% of students, the number drops \u2028to 28% in intermediate and only 10% at the secondary level. While the \u2028attendance rate for 7 year olds is 98.6%, by the time they reach age 11 \u2028attendance falls to 93.4%. But from this level, the primary level school \u2028completion rate cascades to only 37%, due to astronomical dropout rates. \u2028The above figures reveal that Palestinian education levels have indeed been \u2028progressively dropping in recent years. This is further supported by the \u2028passing rate in the Brevet Official exams (official diploma qualifying entry \u2028into secondary) which was as low as 13.6% in some schools according to the \u2028UNRWA, despite the average passing rate in UNRWA schools being 43% \u2028for the 2009-10 academic year.<\/p>\n
Professor Falk was briefed on myriad realities including the fact that \u2028Palestinians camps in Lebanon remain sites of control and surveillance by \u2028the Lebanese Army. People\u2019s mobility and access to construction materials \u2028have been restricted by the army check points at the entrance of camps. \u2028Since 2001 Palestinian refugees are forbidden by law to own or inherit real \u2028estate in Lebanon; consequently when a Palestinian dies, even if she or \u2028he inherited property between 1948-2001, before a wave of revenge led to the \u20282001 racist law, the property goes to Sunni Muslim Dar al-Fatwa one of the \u2028richest real estate holding entities in Lebanon. Accused of deep corruption \u2028by some, their leadership has a history of opposing full civil rights for \u2028Palestinian refugees here.<\/p>\n
The UN\u2019s humanitarian chief, Valerie Amos, reported this week that seven \u2028million people need humanitarian assistance in Syria. \u201cThe needs are \u2028growing rapidly and are most severe in the conflict and opposition-controlled \u2028areas\u201d of the civil-war ravaged country, she told the U.N. Security Council. \u2028Amos cited data showing there are 6.8 million people in need \u2014 out of a total \u2028population of 20.8 million \u2014 along with 4.25 million people internally \u2028displaced and an additional 1.3 million who have sought refuge in \u2028neighboring countries.<\/p>\n
Falk was briefed on most recent household surveys of Palestinian refugees \u2028carried out by the AUB which show that two thirds of Palestine refugees are \u2028poor. The extreme poverty rate in camps (7.9%) is almost twice of that \u2028observed in gatherings (4.2%). The study also developed a Deprivation Index \u2028based on components of welfare which included components such as good \u2028health, food security, and adequate education, access to stable employment, \u2028decent housing, and ownership of essential household assets. The \u2028Deprivation Index showed that 40% of Palestine Refugees living in Lebanon \u2028are deprived. The study reported that 56% of refugees are jobless and only \u202837% of the working age population is employed (Hanafi et al. 2012). It is \u2028not surprising that the poor socio-economic situation often encourages \u2028students to leave school to get a paid job<\/p>\n
.\u2028\u2028Despite the importance of education fewer Palestinian refugee students are \u2028actually interested in continuing their higher education. Lack of motivation \u2028to learn, is believed to be one of the main reasons for the high dropout rates. \u2028Palestinian refugees\u2019 access to Lebanon\u2019s public university is limited by their \u2028status as foreigners, and their access to private universities is restricted by \u2028a lack of resources to pay tuition fees (Hroub, 2012).<\/p>\n
The old clich\u00e9 that stated that \u201cThe Palestinians are the most educated Arab \u2028nation,\u201d is just a myth today. This educational hemorrhage among young \u2028Palestinians has been attributed to a number of factors such as the \u2028deteriorating socio-economic conditions amongst Palestinian refugees and \u2028the growing disillusionment with schooling and the benefits it brings. \u2028Palestinian students also suffer from an education acculturation as they are \u2028forced to learn only the Lebanese curriculum without being able to access \u2028the country\u2019s system. The following section examines these three main \u2028challenges.<\/p>\n
Statistics indicate that just under half of the classrooms in public schools \u2028have less than 15 students per class while 20% are overcrowded with 26 to \u202835 students per class. However, in UNRWA schools, the average number of \u2028students per classroom is 30 making them the most crowded classrooms in \u2028Lebanon.<\/p>\n
With respect to the UN refugee agency, (UNHCR) the current situation in both \u2028Syria and among the more than 450,000 Syrian in Lebanon is only marginally \u2028better than the conditions of arriving Palestinians. As Maeve Murphy, \u2028UNHCR\u2019s Senior Field Coordinator in Lebanon\u2019s Bekaa Valley, explained to \u2028this observer and others on May 5th, the UN refugee agency is unable to meet \u2028its mandate for the same reason as UNRWA and the World Food Program \u2028and others. Ms. Murphy reported that over 453,000 Syrians have either \u2028registered with the U.N. agency or are waiting to register. An additional \u2028several hundred thousand people are thought to be refugees but haven\u2019t \u2028approached the U.N.<\/p>\n
Complicating the desperate situation of Palestinian and Syrian refugees \u2028seeking sanctuary in Lebanon is the fact that millions of Syrian refugees face \u2028food rationing and cutbacks to critical medical programs because oil-rich \u2028Gulf states have failed to deliver the funding they promised for emergency \u2028humanitarian aid, an investigation by James Cusick for The Independent <\/i>\u2028<\/i>on Sunday has found. Pledges for $650 million in donations from various \u2028sources including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain, \u2028made during the January 2013, Kuwait UN emergency conference, have yet \u2028to materialize.<\/p>\n
The World Food Program (WFP), the food aid arm of the UN, says it is \u2028spending $19m a week to feed 2.5 million refugees inside Syria and a further \u20281.5 million who have fled to official camps in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and \u2028Iraq. By July, the WFP says, there is no guarantee that its work on the \u2028Syrian crisis can continue. A spokesman told the UK Independent, \u201cWe are \u2028already in a hand-to-mouth situation. Beyond mid-June \u2013 who knows?\u201d<\/p>\n
The emergency conference in Kuwait \u2013 hosted by the Emir of Kuwait and \u2028chaired by Mr Ban Ki Moon \u2013 promised to bring a \u201cmessage of hope\u201d to the \u2028four million Syrian refugees. Mr Ban proclaimed the outcome a shining \u2028example of \u201cglobal solidarity in action\u201d. The reality has been markedly \u2028different. Oxfam recently issued an appeal: \u201cThe League of Arab States must \u2028urge all Arab countries that have pledged to the Syrian crisis, to be \u2028transparent and to share information about their commitments, and \u2028mechanisms for fulfilling their pledges.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mousab Kerwat, Islamic Relief\u2019s Middle East institutional funding manager, \u2028said: \u201cIt\u2019s better for countries to stay away from donor conferences than to \u2028attend and make pledges they don\u2019t intent to keep. As a minimum, they \u2028should communicate where their pledges have gone in a transparent process.<\/p>\n
If Professor Falk was weary as he left Lebanon from all the data, visits, and \u2028wrenching experiences he was presented with, it would be understandable. \u2028But the humanitarian and scholar he showed no signs of fatigue but rather \u2028appeared to be energized by the experience. Given his history as a supporter \u2028of resistance to occupation and oppression, Richard Falk\u2019s assurances that \u2028he will continue his work armed with the above sampling of data offers new \u2028hope for Palestinian and Syrian refugees from Syria and to those who support \u2028their Right of Return to Palestine.<\/p>\n
NOTE:<\/b><\/p>\n
(*) – \u201cGatherings\u201d are spillovers or small squatter areas set up by Palestinian \u2028refugees in Lebanon alongside other camps or along a road or empty space \u2028somewhere \u2013\u00a0Without official permission.\u00a0There are perhaps 25 of them now in Lebanon.\u00a0They receive very minimal assistance from UNWRA but are allowed to exist.\u00a0Often, non-id\u2019s from the 1967 \u201cNaksa\u201d live there \u2013rather \u2028than 1946 \u201cNakba\u201d refugees.\u00a0They are referred to by UNWRA , the NGO\u2019S and the Palestinians themselves as \u201cPalestinian refugee gatherings\u201d<\/i> or more commonly just \u201cthe gatherings\u201d or \u201cgatherings.\u201d They are growing in size as the camps swell and overflow in population \u2014 added to by those fleeing Yarmouk and other refugee camps in Syria.<\/p>\n
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Franklin Lamb<\/i>\u00a0is doing research in Lebanon and Syria and can be reached c\/o\u00a0fplamb@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n