| Friday, June 17, 2005 |
| Listen to the Palestinian refugees, they know their foul plight best |
| http://www.islamicity.com/m/news_frame.asp?Frame=1&referenceID=21148 |
| By Karma Nabulsi Commentary by |
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The Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are held hostage in a variety of cruel ways. Several generations of refugees have lived in recognized and unrecognized refugee camps since 1948, not far from their original homes across the border, where they have been prevented by force from returning. Everything else follows from this. Cruel, too, are the conditions in which the refugees are now living, reminiscent of a besieged medieval city. For this, the blame lies with the policies of the Lebanese government, which denies the refugees the basic tenets of international human rights conventions and international labor laws. There is simply no justification for these policies. Added to these two primary systems of imprisonment is the manner in which the refugees are dealt with by the international community and the policy experts of what is optimistically known as the Middle East peace process. The Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are treated like objects. They are quarantined inside reified exclusion zones where they are assessed, categorized, surveyed and classified - objects in a rational-theory game played by "experts," whether sociologists, diplomats, political scientists, charities, NGOs and international agencies. Refugees are asked in some surveys if they have a washing machine or a mobile phone, as if that could identify their level of poverty; in others, if they want to remain in the hell they live, go to some mythical new place, move to Canada perhaps, "return" to a Palestinian state (although this is actually resettlement, as the vast majority of them are from inside the "green line"), or return to their original homes, even as none of these prospects are in fact anywhere in sight. All scenarios are cruelly played out on the refugees, with no prospect of their civil, social, political and economic rights actually being addressed, nor any political will being exercised in their favor by those in a position to do so. This has created many problems, and has also led to a terrible mischaracterization, whereby Palestinian refugees are subjects not citizens, "problems" to be solved rather than victims of a terrible injustice. Most of all, the international community has stopped listening to them, afraid of what they will say, fearful that they will not fit into its plans. This avoidance has led to a profound miscalculation. The people in the refugee camps, old and young alike, are full of creative and practical suggestions about possible ways forward. Palestinian grassroots organizations have held a series of public and union meetings this past year in the refugee camps and exile communities of the Middle East, Europe and North America. The idea was to engage with people on the ground and rely on their participation to generate positive change and creative suggestions for that change. Such efforts are based on the premise that the only real experts on refugees are the refugees themselves, and that they are best placed to articulate both their needs and their rights. What has emerged from this work in refugee communities across the world is that when people set their own agenda for amelioration, the results are enormously positive. From the 20 or more public meetings and union workshops that were held across the Palestinian refugee community in Lebanon (with gatherings of between 40 and 400 people in open debate), the first thing one becomes aware of is that the refugees seek the right to speak for themselves. They desire to shape their own future, and to be the ones taking the decisions that concern them. They are highly articulate and are naturally well aware of their rights and needs and of the discussions that are being held about them in both national and international arenas. They all state that their sole legitimate representative is the Palestine Liberation Organization, and that they are working toward enhancing its institutions and rebuilding them. Palestinian refugees don't like being represented in surveys as objects, and they certainly don't like economic needs assessments that look only at their social or economic conditions in the absence of their all-important political concerns; or that ignore the question of their civic and political rights. Refugees say that many of these studies and opinion polls are a way of trying to force them to choose between economic and other rights, such as the right of return - a right at the very essence of their dignity. The right of return remains the touchstone of shared Palestinian historical identity. It has shaped Palestinians and is why we have stayed refugees for so long. Indeed, the ways in which legal, political, social and economic issues have been discussed illustrate that the refugees in Lebanon understand their social and economic realities as being intertwined with civil and political ones, so that these must be addressed together.
Karma Nabulsi is a fellow of Nuffield College and teaches at Oxford University. For many years she was a PLO representative, serving at the United Nations as well as in Beirut, Tunis and the United Kingdom. This commentary first appeared at bitterlemons-international.org, an online newsletter. |
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{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.}
(Holy Quran-16:125)
{And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33)
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all."
[Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
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