Beirut, Lebanon – In a context of poverty and social marginalization, where more than 80% of the refugee population is formally unemployed, Palestinian cultural identity and longings for return become a window of change for Palestinian youth sheltered in Lebanese camps.
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“Since we were born as Palestinian refugees we have been deprived of fundamental rights,” agrees in a conversation with France 24, Jamili Shadi, a 70-year-old refugee from the Shatila camp (Beirut) and founder of the NGO Beit Atfal Assomoud (the House of Resilient Children).
Jamili maintains that “education is our best weapon of resistance.” “We are living again as Israel is massacring Palestinians in Gaza. But we are more than five million refugees who continue to wait for Palestine to be returned to us. Resignation and sacrifice are the strength we transmit to the next generation.”
Your organization has educational centers in the 11 refugee camps throughout Lebanonwhich together with UNRWA schools (the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees) provide education to tens of thousands of Palestinian children.
Jamili has seen how the population of the Chatila camp, which occupies just over two and a half kilometers in area, has multiplied, going from 3,000 refugees in 1949 to more than 40,000 today.
It is an overcrowded space, with overcrowded housing surrounded by rampant poverty and cement walls. Under this suffocating atmosphere, three generations of Palestinians have grown up in exile without the right to return.
In fact, Palestinian refugee status has not changed. Since the survivors of the Nakba arrived in Lebanon in 1948 and their descendants who were born in the Cedar Country, they remain stateless, unable to own property and limited to very few jobs that they can do. Due to the social and economic exclusion suffered by Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, young people have few possibilities for the future, fueling the vicious cycle of poverty.
Even though it is a gloomy outlook, the cultural and educational centers that Jamili directs open a window of renewed oxygen for thousands of young Palestinian refugees in the camps. “That would be a life without hope,” Jamili exclaims.
“If we give young people the tools of education, they feel that they are stronger and safer to be able to fight against social marginalization and promote their Palestinian identity.”
Culture to keep the Palestinian essence alive
Through educational and cultural activities such as music and dance offered by the Beit Atfal Assomoud centers, new generations maintain the folklore and traditions of a Palestine that they do not know.
Mohamed el Hajj has been teaching Dabke – a popular Palestinian dance – to boys and girls in the camps for 23 years. He himself learned in one of the centers in Beit Atfal Assomoud and now coordinates the youth Dabke school in the camps of Sabra and Chatila and Burj el Barajneh.
He started dancing when he was 13 and last year he was awarded the best Dabke dancer in a national competition in Lebanon. Mohammed is the example to follow for many of his students. Although he is aware that the majority of his students will not be able to escape their situation of poverty, he encourages them to pursue their dreams.
Hussein, 12, tells France 24 that when he grows up he will be an airplane pilot and will have his own plane so he can travel around the world.
“If I had my own plane I wouldn't need a passport to travel,” the young dancer says innocently. For her part, Mariam, 11, wants to be a lawyer and fight against the injustices of the Palestinian people.
Having a scholarship is the only thing that can get young people out of the camps, but as Mohammed acknowledges, “What's the point of being a doctor or lawyer if in Lebanon they don't let us practice almost any profession.”
The future of UNRWA, in suspense
The support of UNRWA schools in the camps is very important to Palestinian educators, and they are now very concerned about the future of this UN agency.
“Israel wants to end UNRWA to leave Palestinians without education, health services and social assistance. He literally wants to destroy the Palestinian people.“, says Mohammed.
In fact, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has warned that it will not be able to operate beyond the month of May, due to lack of funds, due to a series of Western countries that have stopped financing it after a series of accusations against workers of the UNRWA Gaza for having allegedly participated in the Hamas operation of October 7.
“If Israel wants to put an end to Hamas, it is causing the opposite effect,” acknowledges, for his part, Khasen Hassan, representative of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) in Shatila. Historically, security in Palestinian camps in Lebanon has been in the hands of Fatah, the party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Khasen is concerned about the rise of Hamas among the camp's youth. The labyrinthine alleys of Sabra and Shatila have been filled with posters and murals of Abu Obeida, the military chief of Hamas, masked in the Palestinian kufiya, sharing space with the legendary Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
In his opinion, the Hamas militia “has hijacked the Palestinian cause.” “They made a decision without taking into account the consequences for the Palestinian people”criticizes the head of the PLO, who fears radicalization among young Palestinian refugees, in a context of poverty and frustration.
“It is a moment of unity, of a single voice being heard. Let the world understand that there will only be peace if there are two states. Our claim is the right to return to Palestine.”
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