Sammy Dallal Photographer

Essays: Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon

There are nearly 400,000 Palestinian refugees scattered throughout Lebanon. Palestinians have been refugees longer then any other ethnic group in the last hundred years. With events in the Middle East focusing on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinian refugees feel they are being pushed aside, lost in a world that would rather sacrifice them in order to achieve peace with Israel.

Lebanon, a country still trying to come to grips with a 16-year civil war, represents the worst-case scenario for Palestinian refugees. The Lebanese government denies them the most basic civil rights with little educational or medical services from either it or the United Nations. They are denied employment from 74 different careers fields, forcing a staggering unemployment rate of more than 70 percent. Unable to go home to Palestine and unwanted in a country that would rather forget about them, Palestinians in Lebanon are in a state of limbo. They are waiting for the day they can reclaim their towns and villages that no longer exist in the heart of Israel.

   
  
     
  
Yuossef Abd El-Gani holds a portrait of her son and daughter killed in the 1982 massacre of Palestinians by the Israeli-supported Christian Phalange.
   
Nawal Akar, 13, left, suffers from brain cancer and is unable to seek treatment because the United Nations Relief and Works Organization [UNRWA] has experienced harsh budget cuts. He is dependent on her mother, Amal, for her care. Nawal is the oldest of seven children who live in a small two-bedroom house at the Shatila refugee camp.
   
     
  
   
  
     
  
Mouhamud Rasheid Abu El Gan holds the deed to his land inside Palestine, which he was forced to leave when Israeli forces took his village near Haifa in 1948.
   
Spectators gather to watch the funeral of eight people killed by an Israeli attack in the West Bank town of Nablis. Among the dead were two brothers, ages 8 and 10.