Palestinian clashes in Lebanese refugee camps

Lebanese acting Prime Minister Najib Mikati has threatened to send the army into the largest Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon, in south Lebanon, if the battles between the Palestinian factions did not end. He has appealed to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to end the factional battle. In the latest eruption, 13 people, including Al Fatah military general Abu Asharf al-Armoushi, have been killed in the fight between Al Fatah on the one hand, and Jund al-Sham and Shabab al-Muslim on the other.

The battles have occurred in the Ein el-Hilweh, which houses 50,000 of the 250,000 Palestinian refugees who fled their homes in 1948. Mikati called the factional battles “violation of Lebanese sovereignty” and also said it was unacceptable to “terrorise the Lebanese, especially the people of the south who have embraced the Palestinians for many years.” Dorothee Klaus, director of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said that 600 people fled the camp and they are staying in two of the agency’s schools. 

It has been the unfortunate aspect of the Palestinian political factions that they are involved in internecine battles as much as they are pitted against Israel. It is these internal battles for supremacy that drives the ordinary Palestinians to despair, and it gives an upper hand to Israeli governments to deal with Palestinian resistance. What the political wing of the Palestinian struggle should be doing is to project the plight of the Palestinians outside Palestine and in the truncated Palestinian territories instead of fighting among themselves.

It is inevitable that there would be differences among the different Palestinian groups as to the strategy of fighting Israeli domination, but they would need to settle their differences and frame a common programme for struggle for self-determination of the Palestinians. Even Hezbollah, Lebanon’s Shia group, which supports the Palestinian cause, has been forced to issue a statement to end the fighting. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a television statement, “This fighting must not continue because its repercussions are bad for the camp’s residents, for the dear Palestinian people, for the south, for all of Lebanon.”

It can be seen that the same divisions plague Palestinians in their territories in the West Bank and Gaza, with Fatah dominating the West Bank and Hamas ruling in Gaza present a divided Palestine. Many attempts have been made to bring the two sides together but the divisions persist. And it hurts the cause of Palestine and also the governance in the territories. Internal democracy is a good thing and it seemed to prevail in the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), which had many groupings, and Al-Fatah was the dominant among them. But political compulsions were such that those who disagreed with Fatah were marginalised in the power struggle.

There is then a great need for Palestinians to make compromises among their different groupings and present a united front. Resorting to armed battles will only make them vulnerable and it will become easier for their opponents to keep them divided. The divisions inside Palestine getting reflected in the Palestinian refugee camps is an unfortunate development. What is needed is the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza to extend help to the Palestinian refugees because it is not possible for Fatah and Hamas to bring them home as yet. Or allow for the Palestinian refugees in the camps to send money home and create a sense of unity in the Palestinian diaspora.

It is the UN agency that is looking after the needs of the Palestinians in the refugee camps in Lebanon, and they are cash-strapped. It would be better if the Palestinians in Lebanon despite restrictions join the Lebanese workforce and contribute to the growth of the Lebanese economy.