Overview of Palestinian Forced Displacement in and from Lebanon 1948-1990
Introduction
The Palestinian refugees in Lebanon – who numbered around 104,000 in 1948 – can be considered the largest stateless group of Palestinians received by a host state. Several factors have affected the demographic distribution of these refugees in Lebanon since the 1948 Nakba. In this article I will try to briefly highlight the main factors that determined the distribution of the refugees to different places within and beyond the borders of Lebanon.
According to the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, such displacement takes place when people are obliged to leave their homes as a “result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border." Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have faced almost all of these triggers, resulting in their displacement to other parts of Lebanon. In addition, there are many factors which have pushed the Palestinian refugees either to emigrate from Lebanon, or to seek asylum beyond its borders.
The secondary displacement of Palestinian refugees was mainly a
result of the vision that the Lebanese political class had of
itself, and of its country, in the context of the various religious
sects that compose Lebanese society, combined with this class's
view of the Palestinian presence in Lebanon and the Palestinian
liberation struggle. The collective displacement of Palestinian
refugees in Lebanon in the years under examination can be divided
into two historical periods. The first period begins with the
arrival of the Palestinians expelled by Zionist forces during the
1948 Nakba, and ends with the signing of the Cairo Accords between
the PLO and the Lebanese state in 1969, in which the Lebanese
government legalized the activities of the Palestinian resistance
within its sovereign borders. The second period begins with the
1969 Cairo Accords and continues until the late 1980’s; it is a
period marked by the primacy of the Palestinian military presence
as a factor in Lebanese and regional politics.
It must be noted that in neither of these periods were refugees
given a say in choosing to where they would be displaced. Yet, each
stage was shaped by the influence of the Palestinian presence on
Lebanese soil, on the one hand, and/or on the Lebanese religious
sectarian structure on the other. Moreover, the models of
interaction of the refugees within the host community, and the
political status and affiliation of the refugees with political
actors, played a vital role in the displacement of Palestinians in
Lebanon. I make this distinction between the two eras based on the
evolution of the Palestinian community, and its transformation from
a passive actor into an active agent in Lebanese politics, a
transformation that was brought about mainly by the emergence of
the armed Palestinian resistance and the legalization of its
presence in 1969.
Concentration and Segregation: The 1948-1969 Years
The collected data, regarding the distribution of the Palestinian refugees who received relief from UNRWA between 1948 and 1951, shows that they were spread over 126 locations in different parts of Lebanon.[1] During this period, the distribution of the Palestinian refugees as to housing was assessed by UNRWA in the 1948-1951 period as follows: 76.91% in rented houses or with relatives and friends; 20.16% in ordinary tents; and 11.93% in monasteries, churches, mosques, barracks, and cottages.[2] By the mid-1950s, the refugees were gradually concentrated in fifteen refugee camps, and in other UN administered areas that were not considered or recognized as official camps. Both official and unofficial camps were located near the main cities. A minority of the refugees had the financial means to live outside the camps, and have thus had better opportunities to earn their living through finding adequate jobs. The majority of the refugees did not have such an option as they were mainly lower class peasants and workers in Palestine, and had lost what little they did have through the course of their uprooting and Israel's denial of their return. In what follows I discuss some of the main triggers of Palestinian displacement during this period.
Natural Hazards, Drastic and Harsh Living Conditions.
The majority of Baddawi camp inhabitants had settled in the city of
Tripoli in the early years of the exodus. They had mostly inhabited
the old castle which was used for horses, and it was given the
title of the military khan (inn). When the Abu Ali river which runs
through Tripoli flooded in 1955, the khan was severely affected and
UNRWA was obliged to find an alternative place for this group of
refugees. In addition, there were other refugees scattered in some
areas of the south-eastern Bekaa, where the unbearably harsh winter
conditions led UNRWA to transfer this group of refugees to the same
newly-established camp.
The refugees who lived in Goro camp were similarly treated. The
site was that of an old French army barracks in Baalbek. When the
building began to fall apart, the state allowed UNRWA to build a
new section in Rashidieh camp in 1963, and the refugees who lived
in Goro were transferred to the new part of
Rashidieh.[3]
Interests of the Property Owners that Hosted the
Refugees
Jisr Al Basha camp was established in 1952 to accommodate
Palestinian Catholics who fled from Haifa, Acre, and Jaffa. To
begin with, the population found shelter in Azarieh, in Furn Al
Shouback. When the property's owner sold the dwelling, the Lebanese
government and UNRWA reached an agreement to rent a land plot in
Jisr Al-Basha to accommodate the Christian Refugees.
Another Palestinian Christian group, most of whom were from Haifa,
Acre and Jaffa, and who fled to Beirut on board a ship before 15
May 1948, were transferred to the Orthodox monastery of Mar Elias
near UNESCO's headquarters. When the monastery administration
discovered that the refugees were not allowed to return to
Palestine, they agreed, in 1952, to lease the property to UNRWA who
established a camp for the 90 families (500 people) who were hosted
there. The camp was thus established on a nearby site as an
endowment gifted by the Orthodox monastery. In the same context,
the Palestinian Catholics who initially sought refuge at the Saint
Josef Catholic monastery of Dbayyeh were transferred to Dbayyeh
camp when it was established by UNRWA in 1956.
The Interest of the State.
The main reason for transferring refugees from the villages near
the Lebanon-Palestine border was the state's fear of Israeli
reprisal for Palestinians attempting to return to Palestine, or to
carry out attacks on the Zionist settlers on the other side. Since
the issue of the refugees was not settled within the frame of
negotiations, which were carried out between the Arabs and Israel
following the expulsion of the Palestinians, the Lebanese state
worked on moving the Palestinian refugees residing in the villages
of southern Lebanon, bordering the part of Palestine occupied in
1948. The inhabitants of Salha village were hosted in a village
established by the prominent Shi'ite leader Ahmed Al-Asaad in 1956.
Ahmed Al-Asaad was accused by the then Lebanese president Camille
Chamoun of arming the population in order to stir up troubles with
his political rivals. As a result, the inhabitants were transferred
to Nabatiyeh camp. Another group of refugees living in different
villages surrounding Marjayoun district, near the border, were
transferred by the government to live in Nabatiyah camp. Yet
another group of refugees in southern Lebanon were moved to Burj
El-Shamali camp which was established by UNRWA in 1955 on state
land. Meanwhile, the refugees who were living in the Armenian
village of Anjar in the Beqaa faced the same transfer, following a
dispute between some of the refugees' families and the Armenian
families who were living in the area. Again, in 1963, the
government moved refugees living near an excavation site near
El-Buss – near Tyre – to Rashidiyeh
camp.[4] These included refugees living
under the railway bridge on the same site, and a few families who
were living on privately owned properties.
Economic Factors and the International
Community
The factors affecting the external displacement outside Lebanon
were mainly economic motivated by the growing opportunities for
working abroad in the Arab countries, and similarly, albeit to a
lesser extent, opportunities in European countries.
Palestinian refugees faced severe obstacles when it came to
applying for a travel document, and once the document was issued,
the refugees' UNRWA rations were suspended. Furthermore, both Arab
and other countries placed their own set of difficult restrictions
on Palestinian workers. A very small number of highly-qualified
Palestinian refugees were granted work permits in Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, and Libya during this period. In the course of looking for
better work opportunities, a small number of graduates from UNRWA's
Siblin technical training center were given the option to pursue
their studies abroad. These students who had this chance left for
Germany and Sweden, and some of them have chosen, and managed, to
stay abroad.
It is also important to note that UNRWA encouraged the refugees to emigrate during the 1950s, and played a role in assisting a considerable number of families to emigrate to Africa, North America, and Australia, on the condition they give up their relief assistance. Although the refugees, as a collective, opposed this approach - seeing in it a conspiracy to resettle Palestinian refugees - a considerable number of families applied for immigration though UNRWA, and many did emigrate. UNRWA, assisted by the General Directorate of Palestinian Affairs, conducted a comprehensive census on the registered Palestinian refugees residing in Lebanon in 1962. In the process, they crossed off 1,187 people and 2938 families from their records, because they did not find them at their given addresses in Lebanon. It is likely that many of those crossed off had moved abroad.[5]
The Palestinian “Revolution”: 1969-1990
The emergence of the Palestinian military resistance had a positive impact on the living conditions of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. When the PLO started to formalize its presence, it established different institutions which helped in providing a social safety net for large numbers of Palestinians, as well as the Lebanese who were affiliated with Palestinian organizations. Before the withdrawal of the resistance from Lebanon in 1982, the PLO had provided 10,000 jobs directly, and over 30,000 jobs indirectly[6]. This did not, however, hinder job seekers from traveling abroad to secure better economic conditions. Meanwhile, the freedom of movement for Palestinians enabled thousands of them to travel abroad with less complication than before. Tens of thousands of Palestinians left to work abroad, particularly in the oil-rich Gulf States and Libya. Moreover, during the same period, many younger refugees sought work and education in Western Europe.
However, the 1969 Cairo Accords did not put an end to the rising
tension between the Palestinian resistance on one hand and the
Lebanese army, militias and government on the other, as each party
sought to assert its control over parts of the country. On 2 May
1973, the Lebanese Army, supported by Lebanese right wing militias,
attacked the largely Palestinian neighborhood of Sabra in Beirut as
well as the Shatila, Burj el-Barjneh, Tal el-Zaatar, and Dbayyeh
camps.During these incidents the Hawker Hunter jets bombed the
Palestinian artillery positions in Burj el Barjneh camp.
Nevertheless, the continuous growth of the Palestinian political
and military presence in Lebanon, and the support provided by
Islamic religious sects and the Lebanese national movement, ignited
the Lebanese civil war, which started in 1975, following the
collapse of the Lebanese state's administrative apparatus and the
split in the army. The split resulted in the control by Palestinian
resistance, supported by the Lebanese national movement, over some
areas of Lebanon, whereas the right-wing organizations, supported
by the Syrians at first, and the Israelis later on, controlled
other parts of the country.
While there is no space to delve into the complex realities of the
Palestinian situation in Lebanon in the 1980s, it is evident that
this era started to produce different factors that triggered the
displacement of Palestinians. The major factors affecting this
displacement were the political, and military situation created by
Israel's continuous aggression against Lebanon in general, and the
Palestinian military and civilian population in particular. These
attacks reached a climax in 1982 when Israel invaded and occupied
the southern part of Lebanon, including the capital Beirut. In
addition, the Lebanese civil war and the U.S.-brokered removal of
the Palestinian resistance in 1982, and the reinstitution of the
state's authority thereafter all led to the sharp increase in
Palestinian displacement, specifically to Europe. The emigration to
Europe reached its peak after the war of the camps, in Tripoli and
the Beqaa (1983-1985) and then in Beirut (1985-1987).
Israeli Aggression
Israeli aggression against Lebanon in this period can be classified
in two main forms: the first was defined by Israel's attacks on
Lebanon and the Palestinian civilian and military positions during
the period from 1969 until 1978 by the use of artillery and air
raids. The most violent air raid targeted Nabatieh camp in 1974.
The residents of Nabatieh camp were the first group of Palestinians
in Lebanon forced to flee collectively after their camp's
destruction. In 1974, Israeli airplanes raided the camp and
destroyed it completely causing the loss of 50 of the camp's
inhabitants. Around 5,000 residents were obliged to flee to other
areas including Beirut, Nabatieh town, Beqaa valley, Shiehm
village, while others headed to Baddawi camp in North Lebanon.
The second form began with the 1978 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
This invasion resulted in the military occupation of most of
southern Lebanon, and the establishment of the so-called security
zone. The invasion also resulted in the forced displacement of
around 285,000 people from southern Lebanon, among them 65,000
Palestinians.
This continued with the Israeli invasion in 1982 and the raiding of
the camps in the south, combined with the massacres committed
through air raids in Burj El-Shamli camp, and the bombardment of
Rashidieh and Ein El-Hilweh camps; these military campaigns led to
the displacement of about a quarter of Rashidieh camp's population.
The invasion reached its pinnacle in the Sabra and Shatila
massacres, in which Lebanese fascist militias murdered 3,000
civilians with logistical support and under the supervision of the
Israeli army. The invasion provoked great waves of refugee flight
to other places in Lebanon.
Following the invasion, many of the refugees felt safer moving to
Syria. These families and individuals found/took advantage of an
opportunity created by Israel's aggression on the Lebanese-Syrian
border during 9-10 June 1982, as the border was largely
unpatrolled, thus making it easier for thousands of Palestinian
civilians to enter Syria without obstacles. Most of the 8,000
displaced refugees who crossed the border in this period gathered
near the Sayida Zainab shrine. Other refugees fled to the Gulf
states and Europe, especially those who had family members abroad
who were able to secure visas for their displaced relatives.
The Lebanese Civil War
The Palestinian population in Lebanon was severely affected by the
civil war, which occurred in two stages. The first stage
(1975-1976) took place when the right-wing militias attacked three
Palestinian camps in the eastern part of Beirut. The second
(1983-1987) took place over two stages: the first took the form of
internal conflict between the Palestinian factions over the issue
of the policies towards peace, which mainly affected camps in
Beirut and the north. The other was related to the Amal movement's
war on the camps in Beirut and Southern Lebanon following the
withdrawal of the Israeli forces south of the Litani river.
During the civil war which divided Lebanon along religious lines,
right-wing militias committed massacres against the inhabitants of
three camps in 1976: Dbayyeh, Tal al-Zaatar, and Jisr al-Basha.
Thus refugees were forced to flee to other places in the country.
Some of the residents of Dbayeh found shelter in Mar Elias camp.
Around 12,000 survivors of the 17,000 residents of Tal el-Zaatar
were displaced to other areas in Lebanon, including Nahr el-Bared
camp, and particularly to the Lebanese village of Damour which was
raided by Palestinian forces in response to the fall of Tal
el-Zaatar, whereupon the Christian inhabitants fled by boat to East
Beirut. Additionally, refugees who fled Tal al-Zaatar headed
towards Beqaa. Tal el-Zaatar and Jisr El-Basha were totally
destroyed and Dbayyeh camp was partially destroyed. In this context
the refugees from Jisr el-Basha fled towards East Beirut. In
addition there were around 10,000 Palestinians living in
slaughterhouses in Nabaa and Karantina who were forced to escape
towards the western part of Beirut when the phalanges (Kata'ib)
raided the area and destroyed the majority of the shelters. Many
refugees tried to leave Lebanon altogether during this period, and
a considerable number managed to migrate towards Europe, mainly
Germany.
The “War of the Camps”
In 1982, the U.S. brokered an agreement by which, among other
things, Israel was to withdraw South of the Litani river. In
return, the Syrians were to maintain order north of the river and
ensure that the PLO's military presence was eliminated. It was a
time of intense confusion for the Palestinian liberation movement,
and the disputes over the Palestinian liberation strategy, and
accountability for the 1982 defeat, resulted in military clashes
between Palestinian factions – many of them backed by other
regional powers – that characterized the 1983-1985 period. The
internal “war of the camps” erupted in northern Lebanon and the
Beqaa' areas. New waves of forcibly displaced Palestinians were the
direct consequence.
After Israel's withdrawal to southern Lebanon, Syria's main agent
in fulfilling its commitment to eradicate the Palestinian political
and military presence in Lebanon was the Amal movement. Amal, which
controlled East Beirut with Kamal Jumblatt's Progressive Socialist
Party (PSP), applied strict measures on the movement of Palestinian
refugees, placing military checkpoints at camp entrances, and
humiliating Palestinians as they passed in and out. The abduction,
torture, and disappearance of Palestinian refugees during this
period still constitutes an important part of the collective trauma
of this community today. Moreover, under the banner of ridding the
Palestinian community of “Arafatists,” Amal and other Syrian-backed
groups – including some Palestinian factions – besieged and
indiscriminately attacked several refugee camps. The resulting “war
of the camps” (more accurately, war on the camps) claimed the lives
of 9,094 Palestinians, and wounded 1,722. Almost fifty-thousand
Palestinians were displaced in the violence that also destroyed 96%
of Shatila camp, 65% of Burj el-Barajneh camp and 25% of Rashidiyeh
camp.
Mass waves of displacement were the direct consequence of the war
of the camps as people, particularly youth, fled fearing murder,
harassment, and detention. The displacement reached its peak
between 1987 and 1989 when the violence expanded to the rest of the
camps in Beirut and southern Lebanon.
Discriminatory Laws Following the PLO
Withdrawal.
Within a few months of the withdrawal by the Palestinian resistance
from Lebanon, the Lebanese Labor and Social Affairs Minister issued
Decree number 1/289 (18 December 1982), in which foreigners were
prohibited from working in approximately 72 professions. The main
group of “foreigners” in the country were, of course, Palestinian
refugees. This step came in tandem with the arbitrary arrests that
targeted thousands of Palestinian men and youth in Beirut. In
addition, the Security General that was headed by Zahi Elbustani, a
pro-Phalangist member, applied new regulations for the issuance of
travel documents to Palestinians. As a result of these measures,
and according to unofficial information, around 17,000-20,000
Palestinians were de-registered by 1992, becoming non-ID residents
of the country.[7] The implementation
of the decrees started in the era of President Amin Gemayel, head
of the right-wing Phalangist Party. Such discriminatory policies
were also a major factor in the displacement of Palestinians from
Lebanon.
Conclusion
The above-mentioned factors contributed extensively in re-shaping the demographic distribution of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. A 1989 UNRWA survey revealed that 4,122 families (23,080 people) had experienced forced displacement, accounting for 11.36% of the total number of UN registered refugees at that time in Lebanon.[8] A follow-up survey, conducted by UNRWA in 1992, showed that the displacement affected 5,963 Palestinian families in the 1971-1991 period. This survey was limited to those families that were still not settled in houses of their own, and thus excluded the families who fled from the demolished camps within or beyond the borders of Lebanon.
In this regard, Mohamed Kamel Doraï in a paper entitled
“Palestinian Emigration from Lebanon to Northern Europe: Refugees,
Networks and Transnational Practices” states that since the 1980s,
about 100,000 Palestinians have emigrated from Lebanon to the Gulf
countries and northern Europe, mainly Germany, Sweden, and
Denmark.
Although it is difficult to know the exact number of refugees from
Lebanon who were granted asylum status in Europe, some researchers
such as Ralph Gadban have estimated that 80% of the 80,000
Palestinian refugees in Germany arrived from
Lebanon.[9] Maged Elzeir noted in his
thesis, The Palestinian Community in Britain: Features of Exile and
Attitudes toward the Right of Return, that the number of
Palestinians in the UK became apparent from the late 1970s onwards.
According to Elzeir, this influx was a direct consequence of the
civil war in Lebanon, as well as the Israeli invasion and
occupation of Lebanon in 1978 and 1982 respectively. Other
information reveals that a majority of the approximately 19,000
Palestinians living in Denmark today came to Denmark during the
civil war in Lebanon, most of them coming from Wavel camp.
It is also of interest to note some of the other changes in the
distribution of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. For instance, Mar
Elias camp has transformed from a majority Christian camp into a
majority Muslim camp. Most of the the Palestinian Christians who
used to live in the camp moved to Dbayeh camp or to other areas of
West and East Beirut, while others have fled abroad. Now, more than
95% of the camp's inhabitants are those who were displaced from the
destroyed camps such as Tal el-Zaatar. Half of the residents of
today's Dbayyeh camp, the only camp in East Beirut that was not
completely destroyed, is composed of Lebanese families. Shatila
camp is now considered a “cosmopolitan,” rather than a Palestinian,
camp, as the low housing prices have attracted poor and working-
class migrant workers. This same phenomenon can be seen in Ein
el-Hilweh and Baddawi camps. Another form of demographic change is
the expansion of the Palestinian presence in the Beqaa Valley, in
Saadnayel, Bar Elias, Taalabaya, and Chtoura. It is worth noting
that Palestinians established their own communities after some
built homes and settled in Beqaa. In addition, there has been the
foundation of new gatherings along the camp's boundaries, such as
Al-Baraksat, Hamshari hospital, the railway, the Jewish orchard
near Ein el-Hilweh, the immigrant's quarters on the outskirts of
Baddawi and Nahr El-Bared camps, the Gaza hospital in Beirut's
Sabra neighborhood, and others.
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[1] UNRWAPR, Statistical Bulletin
Lebanon , May 1950- June 1951, p: 14A, 14A-B
[2] Idem.Ibid , p: 13
[3] زراقط مهى ، المخيمات الفلسطينية في لبنان ، في المخيمات الفلسطينية في لبنان ، واقع بائس يبحث عن حلول ، بطاقة تعريف ، مركز عصام فارس للشؤون اللبنانية ، ايلول 2009 .ص:28 .
[4] أحمد محمود، معين، الفلسطينيون في
لبنان:الواقع الاجتماعي، دار إبن خلدون، بيروت، 1973 ص:32.
[5] العلي محمود ، الواقع الاجتماعي للاجئين الفلسطينيين في لبنان ،
التدامج والتمايز، 1948 -2005."بيروت ، مركز باحث للدراسات، 2009 ،
ص:38.
[6] Hudson, Michael, Palestinian & Lebanon the Common Story, Journal of Refugee Studies, No: 3. May 1988. p: 245
[7] عبدالله، رضوان، اللاجئون الفلسطينيون، أوضاعهم، معاناتهم، حقوقهم، مطبعة خيزران، لبنان، ط1/2002، ص:20.
[8] الأنروا- بيروت ، وضاع المهجرين الفلسطينيين في لبنان _ورشة عمل /صيدا في 22 آذار 1990 ،ص:27 .
[9] Ralp Gadban , in Palestinian Refugees in Europe and Challenges of adaptation and identity : summary report of workshop on Palestinian refugees', communities in Europe .St Antony college university of Oxford.