Looking back in anger

Fifty-three years after being forcibly expelled from their homes and thrown off their land, Palestinians turn out in force to mark the anniversary of their dispossession. May Farah reports from Beirut
Lebanon is home to the greatest number of Palestinian refugees outside the West Bank and Gaza. Mass demonstrations were held there on Sunday at a number of refugee camps, two days ahead of May 15, the anniversary of the mass exodus and subsequent founding of the state of Israel in 1948. There are 360,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, scattered among 12 camps across the country.
The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine was one of the groups that held a rally on Sunday, attracting members of parliament and political and economic figures to the Cultural Centre in Zahle, in the Bekaa. The deputy speaker of the Lebanese parliament, Elie Ferzli, was among those present to mark the Nakba and support the Palestinians.
On Tuesday, the actual anniversary, refugee camps were shut down entirely, schools were closed and more demonstrations took place. But this time they were "marches of anger," as a demonstrator explained. According to 27-year-old Walid this year's rallies and demonstrations are particularly meaningful. They aim to convey an unmistakable show of support for the Intifada. "Israel is an occupying force, controlling us by oppressive means, so it's amazing that the world still can and does run to the Jewish state's defence," he said angrily. "If any other country was doing what the Jews do everyday to the Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, the world would have condemned it. But since it's Israel, and since they have American support, they get away with murder." A car mechanic since the age of 14, Walid has spent his life in Ain Al-Hilweh, Lebanon's largest refugee camp, near Sidon. It was at Ain Al-Hilweh that the largest demonstrations took place, with thousands of Palestinians and their supporters marching to protest the Nakba.
Among them were hundreds of supporters of the radical Palestinian group Hamas. About 50 Hamas followers covered their heads with white masks and carried fake explosives to represent suicide bombers. Others mimed the launch of mortar bombs. To many of the demonstrators, bombs and mortar are the only two means to their freedom, to their dream of returning home. "Jihad and explosives are the only way we will be liberated," said Bilal Mitaa. Bilal is just ten years old.
But Bilal, like Walid and other Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, is daily fed on a diet of horrific images broadcast from "home" and the political rhetoric accompanying them. The atrocities committed by Israel against the Palestinians are broadcast and reported endlessly by virtually every local television station, as well as CNN and the BBC. They include air raids on peoples' homes, road blockades, restrictions on movement, Palestinians murdered without trial by security forces, and the withholding of money owed to the Palestinian Authority leading thereby to economic catastrophe.
"Everybody in the West blames Arafat for the failed peace talks saying Israel was making more effort," said Walid. "But they don't realise that the so-called concessions Israel made were our rights already, like rights to land and to self-rule, which Israel was abusing."
Walid listens intently as Khaled Meshal, the Hamas politburo chief, addresses demonstrators by phone from Damascus, stressing his full support for their efforts. Meshal calls on all Arabs to militarily, financially and politically back the Intifada, which has now entered its eighth month and claimed the lives of close to 500 people, most of them Palestinian. Meshal also urges the Palestinian Authority to cancel any meetings with Israeli officials and to maintain its support for the uprising.
Despite his profound feelings, Walid admits to being unsure whether the uprising is the solution for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, and a means to guarantee the right of return for the refugees. "But, what else can we do?" he asks. "Even during the peace talks, the situation was worse than before. Thousands of new illegal settlements were built on Palestinian land. Homes and orchards were destroyed, travel restrictions increased, people lost their jobs. A revolt is the only way to show the world that oppression is unacceptable." Like countless others, Walid clearly feels frustrated about being unable to do more, and that the world has done little to help the Intifada.
Rabee Sahyoun, another demonstrator, agrees that Lebanon and the Arab world could do more to show a united stand. Having returned to live in Lebanon from the US about eight months ago, Sahyoun, who works with the Lebanese Centre for Policy Studies, remains a committed political and human rights activist. He has been involved with Al-Awda (the return), a Palestinian coalition aimed at persuading the international community to fulfil its legal and moral obligations to the Palestinian people. "There are strong feelings of sympathy in Lebanon with the suffering of the Palestinian people," he said.
That may be true, but the Lebanese government has remained unbending about finding a "solution" for the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Despite increasing unofficial talk of finally granting Lebanese citizenship to the refugees in Lebanon as a partial solution to the stalemate concerning the right of return, a high-ranking source denies this possibility.
"No," said the official, who requested anonymity, when asked whether the rumours were true. "Giving the refugees Lebanese nationality is not a solution, nor will it be considered. The solution will have to come from elsewhere," he said.
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