SDP is developing links with one of the most destitute Palestinian camps, Bourj Al Shamali in southern Lebanon. The residents of the camp are refugees from 27 destroyed villages in what is now Israel. Most come from two villages in the Safad region called Zouk Foukani and Zouk Tahtani (Upper and Lower Zouk).

Right of return

In 1948 the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 194 on the Palestinian question. It says “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date…compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return...”

This principle, often called the right of return, is guaranteed for all people by the Geneva Conventions’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Alas, almost 60 years from the passing of Resolution 194, there are about 3.7 million Palestinian refugees living in inhumane refugee camps in Israel, Arab countries, and in exile around the world. These people constitute the largest and longest refugee problem in the world today.

SDP was started in 2003 by residents concerned about the plight of Palestinians under Israeli rule. They felt that the right of return is an inalienable right and not subject to negotiation with Israel.

They now plan to ask the Somerville City government to support the Sister City effort.

This may be not easy. Last year the City blocked the group’s efforts to put a question on the ballot calling on the City to divest from Israel bonds. SDP is now challenging the City’s actions in court.

SDP believes that establishing a relationship between the camp residents and the residents of Somerville will not be difficult.

A city of refugees

Over the last few months, organizers have talked with Mahmoud Aljoma, the Director of the Beit-Atfal-Assumoud Center for children in Bourj Al Shamali. This center was created in 1983 for homeless orphans whose parents perished in the Tal El Zaatar Massacre in 1976. Nowadays the center hosts art, theatre and sports programs for all children of the camp, with other activities supported by private monthly donations.

Nevertheless, the picture Mr. Aljoma paints for us of the refugee camp is one of economic hardship, social problems, and despair.

Bourj El Shamali is located to the East of the coastal Lebanese city of Tyre. Seven thousand survivors of the 1948 uprooting of Palestinians constituted the original population of the camp. In 1956, the land for the camp was leased by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for 99 years. Today twenty thousand residents live here.

The population density is suffocating, without any space available for a playground or a park. Only 60 percent of the work force is employed, most as temporary workers in nearby orange groves without any medical or social services guaranteed to them. Men are paid an average of $6.50/day and women $4.00/day for their labors.

It wasn’t until a year ago that Palestinians born in Lebanon were allowed to work in many private sector jobs, which were limited only to Lebanese nationals. In addition, 3000 of the refugees in Lebanon have no official identification documents (either lost, destroyed or unrecognized), a situation which restricts them from access to healthcare, education and jobs. They have no access to official medical institutions, and their children will have the same status.

Mr. Aljoma told us that Bourj El Shamali is one of the most impoverished camps, where most residents still live in tin shacks that are extremely hot in the summer and that suffer water leakage from the rusted roofs in the cold winters. Building materials are not allowed in the camp and these refugees are not allowed to purchase land in Lebanon. The hard economic situation is causing malnutrition among children, mal-education and a general state of hopelessness.

One high school for 100,000

He described a dismal education system where almost one hundred thousand refugees in the South of Lebanon have only one high school. This high school is not accessible by foot to his camp and therefore most students don’t enroll for lack of funds for transportation and any hope of finding a job if they graduate. He gives us an example of ninth graders this year where official results indicate that only four students out of 96 who sat for the final examinations managed to pass.

One doctor responds to all the medical needs of the camp, usually prescribing the same medicine for cancer and asthma. This year, there was a severe shortage of medicine for blood pressure and diabetes that lasted two months during which the 600 registered patients with these illnesses suffered severe complications.

Seventy cases of thalassemia exist in the camp where the sick suffer the pain and consequences of this illness without any care at all from the UN. He goes on to describe people who are deprived of their dignity and rights and who are humiliated everyday by the world’s negligence of their plight.

The Catastrophe

On May 15, Israelis celebrate the establishment of their state on the rubble of the 418 destroyed villages and the sad trails of fleeing Palestinians. For Palestinians this day is Al-Nakbah, which in Arabic means The Catastrophe.

Although many would like to argue that these people left of “their own accord”, the record of terrorism carried out by the Army and Zionist paramilitary groups is there to whoever wants to find them. Not a single refugee claims their refugee camp as their home; they all dream of returning, holding the deeds to their lands and keys to homes that mostly don’t exist anymore. Any future settlement must find a just solution for Palestinian refugees, which recognizes their right of return, compensation and their right to citizenship in a state with equal rights for everyone.

[At least 418 Palestinian towns and villages, not counting West Bank and Gaza, were destroyed after 1948. The places Bourj al Shamali’s people came from are Zouk Tahtani, Zouk Foukani, Naami, Dayshoom, Qaytiyeh, Saasaa, Farah, Jaaouneh, Shaab, Shafa Amr, Safourieh, Loubieh, Miar, Absiyeh, Sanbariyeh, Khisas, Sohmata, Maalool, Nahaf, Aablin, Alma, Khalsah, Dowarah, Salha, Malkieh, Mansourah, and Huseinieh—in the northeast corner of the country.]

For more information on the Tri-Sister city project, please visit www.divestment project.org www.bourjalshamali.net/english/ index.html

If anyone is interested in donating money for the Beit-Atfal-Assumoud Center, please contact me. Bourj Al Shamali refugees are in dire need of our moral and financial support. Thank you. salmaandrea@comcast.net

The writer is a member of the Somerville Divestment Project.