Ahmednejad Galvanize Lebanon's Palestinians: Lacking
unified leadership Of Their Own
07 November 2010By Franklin Lamb
In the days since Iran's president Ahmadinejad
completed his visit to Lebanon, and given the
continuing lively discussion across the local and
international political spectrum evaluating the impact
of his historic appearance, one thing appears fairly
clear.
US State Department official Jeffrey Feltman who came
to Beirut quick from Saudi Arabia on orders from the
White House to "do something!" to offset the Iranians
unprecedented reception, may have been a bit
Jeffrey Feltman - US diplomat
wide of the mark in his evaluation. Feltman repeated
this past weekend the March 14 pro-US and Saudi
prediction that: " I don't think Ahmadinejad's" visit
will have a lasting effect. It's not something
extraordinary. Its impact will remain for a couple
days and that's it."
One largely unnoticed achievement of the Iranian
President's visit remains among the Palestinian
refugee community in Lebanon. Close to a quarter
million of whom are " living in cages" to borrow
President Carter's description during his meeting this
week with Hamas leader Khaled Mashall in Damascus, to
describe how their sisters and brothers are forced to
exist in Gaza.
Apart from the Shia community, the largest number of
the approximately 750,000 who, waited at various
events to greet and hear Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, were
Palestinian refugees. It is the Lebanese Shia, living
in south Lebanon, the Bekaa and in Dahiyeh, who are
the primary beneficiaries of the more than one billion
dollars in recent reconstruction aid from Iran.
This infusion of funding contributed to Hezbollah's
increase in political power and its ability to achieve
public services in its neighborhoods which were
previously ignored by the state. The massive
rebuilding projects created pockets of thriving
construction economies, mainly in the Hezbollah areas
of Ghouberi Municipality, Bir Abed and Haret Hreik,
near the Palestinian refugee camps of Burj al
Barajeneh, Mar Elias and Shatila. This area saw, since
the 2006 war, the rebuilding of 235 multi unit
apartment buildings (80% completed as of 10/19/10 in
probably the most efficient building project of its
kind in history according to the Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development.
The Iranian largess has quietly benefited thousands of
Palestinians in these areas even though they are
forbidden by law to travel to south Lebanon to visit
or work and must remain north of the Litani river on
penalty of arrest and imprisonment.
During a 10/18/10 morning tour of nearly completed
Waad (promise) residential buildings, bombed into
smoldering mountains of rubble during the 2006 war,
this observer interviewed several Palestinian laborers
and craftsmen working side by side with equally
skilled and hard working Syrian workers.
What was learned is what Hezbollah officials have
revealed, regarding Waad (Promise) and Jihad al Bina
(struggle construction company) both now firmly on US
Terrorism lists solely for political reasons. Both
organizations have discretely hired, in addition to
laborers, hundreds of Palestinian engineers,
craftsmen, architects, and "syndicate professionals."
These job offerings go to Palestinian refugees despite
being forbidden to them by Lebanese laws enacted by a
government that does not even pretend to comply with
internationally mandated civil rights for refugees.
Nearly a week now since Ahmadinejads departure, the 12
Palestinian camps and two `gatherings', especially
among the young people, are still abuzz with often
excited discussions of his visit.
This reaction, despite much that is being erroneously
reported these days about the current "lost"
generation of Palestinians in Lebanon resulting, so it
is said, from the devastation that beset this
community following the August 1982 departure of the
Palestine Liberation Organization. These are
legitimate concerns with sociological studies on the
subject often presenting shocking indices of social
decline, ennui, passivity, and hopelessness. It is
well known that Lebanon's camps have deteriorated and
that the quality of life continues to disintegrate.
But the young people still appear resolved to follow
the spirit of their elders who founded the Palestinian
Liberation Organization.
Discussions among many in the camps here inevitably
turn to questions of "what went wrong?" and "how can
we fulfill our parents dreams and take up the mantle
of Liberation and Return that we heard from our
elders", "how can we unite Hamas and Fatah", and "how
to confront the expanding apartheid regime in
Palestine"?
What President Ahmadinejad brought to the under 30
generation in the Palestinian camps is more hope,
energy and self confidence.
Lacking unified leadership of their own, many
Palestinians in Lebanon have been looking to Hezbollah
and Iran as a model to revive the Palestinian
liberation movement. The veteran American journalist
Jonathan Randel, in Lebanon this week finishing a book
on Palestinians in Lebanon suggests that Hezbollah's
1985 removal of Israeli occupation forces from
one-third of Lebanon's southern villages was likely
one of the factors that gave those under occupation in
Palestine confidence to achieve the first
intifada,1987-93.
Iran's President easily connects with young people and
is unquestionably committed to the full right of
refugees return to their country. In a side meeting
with representatives of the refugees camps community
and some of their allies, Iran's President could not
have been more emphatic and clear about this.
Included in his counsel to young Palestinians during
his visit were the following:
• "Stay in school and help care for all members
of your family. It is you who will join the villagers
of south Lebanon and liberate Palestine. People like
you make revolutions";
• Do not become discouraged by what might appear to be
a bleak period in occupied Palestine and in Lebanon's
camps. Ignore those who say the Palestinian revolution
belongs to the past.
• Palestine will be liberated. It is a scientific
certainly that this criminal occupation will end and
that all Palestinian refugees in Lebanon will be able
to go back to their ancestral lands
• The splintering of the Palestinian body politic has
been caused largely from external forces but
increasingly with internal dimensions that must be
resisted;
• It is the duty of the international community to
help you secure basic rights in Lebanon until your
certain return to Palestine. Iran is prepared to
fulfill its duty in this regard;
• "Lebanon is the focus point of the resistance and
standing against occupiers and oppressors and is
playing an excellent role";
• "Your return to Palestine may happen sooner than you
think and is only a matter of time and perhaps the
coming war will achieve this";
Mohammad, a young Palestinian dentist allowed only to
practice inside Shatila Camp due to Lebanon's
discriminatory labor laws explained: "President
Ahmadinejad has been a hero to many of us here in the
camps since he first became President of Iran. Unlike
most Arab leaders, he is committed to the liberation
of Palestine as if he were himself a Palestinian. He
encourages us and speaks like our leaders used to
speak before they seem to have given up our national
struggle. If fact, he is more Palestinian than many
Palestinians I know. We trust him and feel we have
someone to support and protect us. Like Hassan
Nassrallah he has bolstered our confidence to struggle
to return to Palestine. Both of these great men are
like uncles to the Palestinian generation now becoming
adults.
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EsinIslam.Com
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