Can Richard Falk Achieve Civil Rights for Palestinians in Lebanon?

MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA, SYRIA IN CONTEXT, 20 May 2013

Franklin Lamb - CounterPunch

Two-Thirds of Palestinian Refugees are Living in Poverty

Damascus, 13 May 2013

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 
was the Professor’s first visit to Lebanon since the fateful summer of 1982. 
Back then, en route by sea to Beirut, which was under Israeli siege and 
blockade, Falk was Vice-Chair of the Sean McBride Commission of Inquiry 
into Israeli crimes against Lebanon. Mid-way between Cyprus and Lebanon, 
the Zionist navy, in a blatant act of piracy on the high seas, intercepted, 
and demanded the passenger list from the vessel. Eventually, under reported American 
pressure via US Envoy Morris Draper’s telephoned profanity to Tel Aviv, the 
pirates allowed Falk’s delegation to disembark at the port of Jounieh, just 
north of Beirut. Draper, who like so many US diplomats, claims he finally 
“saw the light after retiring”, told this observer that “I never swore so much 
in my life as I did at those SOBS during that summer of 1982 and after 
I learned the details of Ariel Sharon’s choreography of the Sabra-Shatila 
massacre!” Ambassador Draper added, “The world will never know the 
extent of Israeli crimes committed against Lebanon and its refugees until 
Washington threatens to cut off all aid until Tel Aviv opens up its archives 
on this period.”

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 
elementary civil rights to work and to own a home, came to Lebanon not to 
offer counsel to Lebanon’s sects or even to the Palestinians. Founded in 1969, 
the IPS is considered by this observer and many others as the most reliable 
and authoritative source of information on Palestinian affairs and the 
Arab-Israeli 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 
12 camps, Falk listened intently, scribed hurried notes on each and found the 
findings 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) 
reported to the IPS workshop that they expect 80,000 Palestinians by the end 
of the year. Others estimate the December 2013 number will exceed 100,000. 

According to figures supplied by refugee camp committees and forwarded 
to Professor Falk by the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign, approximately 
6,000 Palestinians who fled Syria remain in two main gatherings in Lebanon’s 
Bekaa Valley close to the Syrian border: al-Jalil (4,216 refugees) and central 
Bekaa (2,352). In the north, Baddawi camp hosts 4,116 and Nahr al Bared 
2,016. In Beirut, Burj al-Barajneh camp hosts 2,928, Shatila and the 
surrounding areas 2,800, and Mar Elias 862. In the South, 8,549 refugees 
arrived to Ain al-Hilweh and 2,400 are dispersed around Saida. Mieh Mieh 
camp hosts 1,512, with an additional 2,160 in Wadi al-Zaineh. Further south 
to Tyre, Palestinian refugees from Syria are distributed among Shabriha 
(184), Rashidieh (1,370), Al Bass (478), Burj al-Shemali (2,800), Qasimiyeh 
(372), and Jal 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 
families per day. On May 5th, the popular committee representative at Jalil 
Camp near Baalbek reported that they receive on average 8 additional 
families 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 
school when there’s even a remote chance to work odd jobs and earn money 
for food — something education doesn’t immediately offer. One new local 
initiative is the Meals for Schools, whose organizers hope serve food to 
impoverished schoolchildren in Lebanese slum areas. Unfortunately, 
according to one American University of Beirut student hoping to help 
children stay in school by helping them to have breakfasts, the prospect is 
bleak “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 
tuition fees of private schools. Palestinian refugees who attend one of the 
58 UNRWA schools begin at age seven since UNWRA cannot afford 
pre-school level education. Consequently, for Palestinians here, while the 
elementary sector comprises more than 60% of students, the number drops 
to 28% in intermediate and only 10% at the secondary level. While the 
attendance rate for 7 year olds is 98.6%, by the time they reach age 11 
attendance falls to 93.4%. But from this level, the primary level school 
completion rate cascades to only 37%, due to astronomical dropout rates. 
The above figures reveal that Palestinian education levels have indeed been 
progressively dropping in recent years. This is further supported by the 
passing rate in the Brevet Official exams (official diploma qualifying entry 
into secondary) which was as low as 13.6% in some schools according to the 
UNRWA, despite the average passing rate in UNRWA schools being 43% 
for the 2009-10 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 
have been restricted by the army check points at the entrance of camps. 
Since 2001 Palestinian refugees are forbidden by law to own or inherit real 
estate in Lebanon; consequently when a Palestinian dies, even if she or 
he inherited property between 1948-2001, before a wave of revenge led to the 
2001 racist law, the property goes to Sunni Muslim Dar al-Fatwa one of the 
richest real estate holding entities in Lebanon. Accused of deep corruption 
by some, their leadership has a history of opposing full civil rights for 
Palestinian 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 
areas” of the civil-war ravaged country, she told the U.N. Security Council. 
Amos cited data showing there are 6.8 million people in need — out of a total 
population of 20.8 million — along with 4.25 million people internally 
displaced and an additional 1.3 million who have sought refuge in 
neighboring 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 
observed in gatherings (4.2%). The study also developed a Deprivation Index 
based on components of welfare which included components such as good 
health, food security, and adequate education, access to stable employment, 
decent housing, and ownership of essential household assets. The 
Deprivation Index showed that 40% of Palestine Refugees living in Lebanon 
are deprived. The study reported that 56% of refugees are jobless and only 
37% of the working age population is employed (Hanafi et al. 2012). It is 
not surprising that the poor socio-economic situation often encourages 
students to 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. 
Palestinian refugees’ access to Lebanon’s public university is limited by their 
status as foreigners, and their access to private universities is restricted by 
a lack 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 
deteriorating socio-economic conditions amongst Palestinian refugees and 
the growing disillusionment with schooling and the benefits it brings. 
Palestinian students also suffer from an education acculturation as they are 
forced to learn only the Lebanese curriculum without being able to access 
the country’s system. The following section examines these three main 
challenges.

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 
students per classroom is 30 making them the most crowded classrooms in 
Lebanon.

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, 
UNHCR’s Senior Field Coordinator in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, explained to 
this observer and others on May 5th, the UN refugee agency is unable to meet 
its mandate for the same reason as UNRWA and the World Food Program 
and others. Ms. Murphy reported that over 453,000 Syrians have either 
registered with the U.N. agency or are waiting to register. An additional 
several hundred thousand people are thought to be refugees but haven’t 
approached 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 
Gulf states have failed to deliver the funding they promised for emergency 
humanitarian aid, an investigation by James Cusick for The Independent 
on Sunday has found. Pledges for $650 million in donations from various 
sources including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain, 
made during the January 2013, Kuwait UN emergency conference, have yet 
to materialize.

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 
Iraq. By July, the WFP says, there is no guarantee that its work on the 
Syrian crisis can continue. A spokesman told the UK Independent, “We are 
already 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 
example of “global solidarity in action”. The reality has been markedly 
different. Oxfam recently issued an appeal: “The League of Arab States must 
urge all Arab countries that have pledged to the Syrian crisis, to be 
transparent and to share information about their commitments, and 
mechanisms 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 
should 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 
appeared to be energized by the experience. Given his history as a supporter 
of resistance to occupation and oppression, Richard Falk’s assurances that 
he will continue his work armed with the above sampling of data offers new 
hope for Palestinian and Syrian refugees from Syria and to those who support 
their Right of Return to Palestine.

NOTE:

(*) – “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 
than 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.

_________________________

Franklin Lamb is doing research in Lebanon and Syria and can be reached c/o fplamb@gmail.com.

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