When the Nakba generation left Palestine and lived in tents, the living conditions were more miserable than those currently living in the camps. At that time, refugees lived in summer and winter for decades in cloth tents or inside “Zinco Barracks”, and our ancestors lived on what canned by “UNRWA”. But they were patient and endured the living situation, the pursuit and injustice of the second office and the occupation army, and they tried to get rid of the spirit of defeat due to losing the homeland, land and identity. Grandparents left their grandchildren with stone houses in twelve camps, in addition to a rifle that can be defended by the person when needed and not for internal fighting.
Indeed, the camps are affected more than others in light of the stormy crises in Lebanon, especially since the poverty, destitution and unemployment rates are high, and 80% have touched during the current year, after the poverty rate was 65% among the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and 56% the unemployment rate according to UNRWA statistics “2015.
If we compare the conditions of grandparents and grandchildren, we discover that the circumstances are not the same at all and for many reasons .. But the most important change occurred in the collective spirit of the Palestinian people. The misfortune of the Nakba gathered the refugees, converged closer, and served each other as best they could. In which family does the grandmother tell, and the grandfather tells stories about helping someone to let out without a favor? And how did the tent with its muddy land turn into concrete and stones with the arms of the neighbors .. But, unfortunately, souls changed except from the womb of my Lord, so the camp became two layers, either affordable or captivated by poverty, and who has a good monthly salary, fled or tries to escape from the camp, and everyone has His motivations, to become a camp for the poor only. Poverty is not a defect, but rather a daily meal or humiliation of people for the crest of the blemish.
We are in Lebanon’s camps in front of an ordeal and not a crisis, and we need to declare a state of emergency to face the disaster, and this is one of the tasks of “UNRWA” and the factions and civil society institutions. When you find families who do not have the price of a bundle of bread or a patient cannot secure the price of the medicine, we are facing a societal problem that turns according to Context to an ethical catastrophe whose consequences are known, the solution begins by itself, especially from businessmen, some of whom took advantage of the Palestinian cause, to become millionaires … It is indeed shameful – for example – that the owners of generators did not reduce the pricing in these circumstances, knowing that their profits are known , Especially a Pricing in the neighborhood is less Lebanese and more hours operation.
It is the turn of families and neighborhood committees to come together and ask about the needy without mediation, temperament or blackmail. Perhaps one of the most beautiful cases in the month of Ramadan is the “rotating plate” where each family gives its neighbors a plate of food, so all the days of the camp will be virtuous days. As for the role of security factions and committees, it starts with monitoring prices and providing as much as possible urgent aid, not only catering, but also providing a monthly income for the poorest families. The primary role of UNRWA remains, after its declaration of the state of emergency, to provide all the needs of the refugees.
The minerals of the people appear at the tribulation, for the sincere and faithful man is pure, and only good will flow from him, and only good, and the hypocrite is an infidel and all that you reap from him is evil, and only evil, even if his appearance is good Palestinian origin is characterized by magnanimity and sustainable goodness, so how in the “starvation war” inside our camps? The calamity must unite us to get out of this societal impasse to confront Donald Trump’s plan to clear the issue and the mission of the diaspora is very important. What we need at this stage is individual and group social solidarity, to be social justice, and to strengthen fraternal relations, through cooperation, sharing and compassion.