Nobody suffers like they do...
About 400,000 Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon, eyed with suspicion by a host country that deprives them of basic rights and proper care, continue to long to return home. "The Palestinian refugees stress their right to return, which should not be given up, not even at the expense of having one day an independent Palestinian state," said Suheil Natour, from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
| I often completely forget about the DFLP, since it's practically inactive in Paleostine proper. It's still influential among the Lebanese Paleos, though... |
More than half of the refugees have been living in squalid camps scattered across Lebanon since the 1948 establishment of the state of Israel that caused a mass exodus of Palestinians to neighboring countries. The Palestinians have had a bloody history in Lebanon, as they participated in many chapters of the country's 1975-1990 civil war and continue to witness inter-Palestinian shootouts armed clashes from time to time. Today, the refugee camps are manned by Palestinian militants and remain off limits to Lebanese police and the army -- a fact that prompted many to condemn the presence of such "islands outside the law".
| AKA "festering sores on the body politick"... |
The annual report of the United Nations Relief Works Agency for Palestinian refugees for 2003 said 57 percent of the 395,000 Palestinians registered in Lebanon lived in camps — the highest proportion of refugees living in camps compared to any other host country. According to an UNRWA study conducted last year, the rate of infant mortality among Palestinians in Lebanon declined from 35 per 1,000 live births in 1997 to 19.2 per 1,000 births. But the figure was still higher than the rate in the West Bank which stood at 15.3 per 1,000 births. Palestinians are viewed with suspicion in Lebanon where many, particularly Christians, fear the mainly Muslim community would settle permanently in Lebanon and upset the country's delicate confessional and political balance.
| ... and also bring with them their propensity for violence. |
The fears are reflected in a series of discriminatory measures against the refugees, who remain in much worse conditions than Palestinians in other host countries such as neighboring Syria and Jordan. Lebanon bans Palestinian refugees from practicing more than 72 professions, ranging from lawyers and doctors to taxi drivers. |