Nothing expected from Arab states, Palestinian refugee: "Since …Palestine they have always betrayed us"

Nothing expected from Arab states
Palestinian refugee: "Since ...Palestine they have always betrayed us"
Source: AFP, 21-6-2007
BEDDAWI, North Lebanon: In the Beddawi refugee camp in North Lebanon, many of the Palestinians who fled their homes in the neighboring Nahr al-Bared camp dream only of returning to their battered houses and rebuilding their lives. For the past month the army has been besieging the Islamist fighters of Fatah al-Islam in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp near the port city of Tripoli, pounding the camp with shells in a bid to root out the militants.
As is usually the case in such a conflict, the civilians suffer greatly. Of the camp`s estimated 31,000 inhabitants before the conflict erupted on May 20, only about 3,000 have stayed put.
Most of those who fled during a lull in the early stages of the battle now find themselves in Beddawi, another of Lebanon`s 12 refugee camps housing about half of Lebanon`s estimated 400,000 Palestinians.
The Nahr al-Bared refugees now in Beddawi, packed into every available space in schools and mosques, insist they will return, even though their homes may have been reduced to piles of rubble.
Ahmad al-Hajj, a stonemason lying on a foam mattress at a school run by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) at Beddawi, told AFP he had received news about his house at Nahr al-Bared from a neighbor.
"The top floor has caved in - that`s where one of my sons lived with his family - and the rest of the place is damaged," said the 57-year-old father of 10. "It`s not too bad. We can fix it. We Palestinians are like ants - we build all the time, we work without end. Our homes don`t cost much. Mine was about $200 a floor."
"It`s because we know they could be destroyed, by nature in an earthquake or by man. The 12 of us will live on the ground floor, in one room if we have to," the white-bearded Hajj added.
"We`ll see what we can do to fix the rest, bit by bit," he said. "Maybe relatives abroad will send money. Rebuilding three floors, if we have the materials, should take six weeks. Another two months to finish it off.
"I think it will cost me about $2,000 to rebuild. I just need the first dollar." Pledges of funds to aid in reconstruction - from Germany, the US and two oil-rich Gulf Arab states - do not impress those refugees who spoke to AFP.
"If the Arab states send money, half of it will disappear as usual to buy Range Rovers for government ministers," said 45-year-old Amal Ibrahim, the mother of eight children.
"All our men are builders in one way or another. They can rebuild for very little money," she added. "We`ll go back home, no matter what. We`ll sleep on the beach if everything is destroyed. It would be better than here, packed like chickens inside this school with nothing but rice to eat for a month."
The Nahr al-Bared refugees in Beddawi all point to the example of Hizbullah, which handed out envelopes containing $10,000 to each family whose home was destroyed in last year`s summer war with "Israel".
"The Shiites in the South got aid from [Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan] Nasrallah" but "nothing from the government," said driver Ahmad Mohammad Hussein, 41. "They had Hizbullah. What do we have? UNRWA. We had to flee in such a hurry that all we`ve got now is the clothes we [are wearing]. My whole working life was in the house I left behind."
Hajj, who was born in eastern Lebanon`s Bekaa Valley, said he expects nothing from the Arab states. "Since we were chased out of Palestine they have always betrayed us," he said. "The only people who help are the Europeans, especially France.
"For us Palestinians the most important thing is to educate our children. If the UNRWA schools reopen in September, it`ll be fine."