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28.2%ANMag Issue 21 Public Surveillance
Naughty Palestinians
By Farah Salka, Staff Writer
Beirut, Lebanon − A couple of days back, a crowd of residents in the area of Akkar were protesting quite ferociously against the work of the United Nations Relief and Words Agency (UNRWA) in their village, obstructing by that all possible means of working on re-accommodating the Palestinian refugees who have been displaced from the Nahr el-Bared camp due to recent events. Those refugees have been residing in the Beddawi camp since then. The Lebanese families now believe that those Nahr el-Bared camp residents are the root cause of the suffering they have incurred over the past months, which might in a sense be very true.
According to this tale, the Palestinians are responsible for harboring the Fatah al-Islam group willingly and gleefully. Also, and according to this tale, all the economic hardships that were suffered by the population in the vicinity of the camp have also been caused by the Palestinians. Such “terrorist” groups (and what an overused word) have been growing within the Palestinian camp, and that is true − indeed. However, was this dangerous growth not obviously under the sight and hearing of more than one of the Lebanese security apparatuses? Till when will Palestinians be blamed for anything and everything on the Lebanese spectrum? Till when will they be marginalized socially, economically and culturally (not to mention politically)? Till when will the aftermaths of our political decisions and factions be thrown forth on those refugees? Till when will we celebrate the destruction of a whole camp, reliving ourselves from the grim reality that this camp has once served as a “home” to some?
September 15 marked the twenty-fifth year of the Sabra and Shatila massacre on Lebanese and Israeli hands, a massacre that took the lives of no less than 1000 to 3500 unarmed Palestinians. In a matter of 48 hours, throats were slit, people were axed, babies were shot and women were raped. As Robert Fisk put it, “We might have accepted evidence of a few murders; even dozens of bodies, killed in the heat of combat. But there were women lying in houses with their skirts torn up to their waists and their legs wide apart, children with their throats cut, rows of young men shot in the back after being lined up at an execution wall. There were babies - blackened babies because they had been slaughtered more than 24-hours earlier and their small bodies were already in a state of decomposition - tossed into rubbish heaps alongside discarded U.S. army ration tins, Israeli army equipment and empty bottles of whiskey.” For such a war crime to be committed by an Israeli side is something that does not shock me in any sense. It is only anticipated and predictable by a Zionist regime with such a respected history. However, for such a war crime to be executed by Lebanese militias, several of which still hold positions in parliament till this exact day, is what I would call shameful.
This year marks the twenty-fifth year of the Sabra and Chatila massacres. This year also marks the third time Palestinians have been turned into refugees: Firstly in 1948, secondly in 1967 and today, in 2007. Not only were they expelled from Palestine, but they were also driven out of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Not only were they expelled from the Occupied Palestinian Territories, but they are also banished today from the Nahr el-Bared camp. This is the way we Arabs prove our solidarity with our fellow Arab neighbors. I am truly ashamed.