Palestinians in Lebanon

Disarming the Camps—Palestinian Factions and the Limits of Lebanese Sovereignty

As Lebanon moves to disarm Palestinian camps under intense geopolitical pressure, long-standing factional rivalries, unresolved refugee rights and Israel’s continued military presence expose the limits of state sovereignty.

Erling Lorentzen Sogge • 13 min read

MER Article

'Dream, My Grandchild'—An Interview with Sara Abu Ghazal

[su_dropcap style="simple" size="4"]I[/su_dropcap]n September of 2023, Roba AlSalibi interviewed Sara Abu Ghazal, a Palestinian writer and feminist activist about her Arabic short story collection, Dream, My Grandchild. The book uses multiple voices to chronicle the story of the Abu

Roba AlSalibi, Sara Abu Ghazal • 7 min read

Current Analysis

Palestinian Refugee First Responders Rush to Aid Beirut

The Palestinian Civil Defense was praised for its efforts after the explosion in Beirut. This is the story of how a group of stateless refugees built an organization that saved lives when everything came tumbling down.

Erling Lorentzen Sogge • 10 min read

MER Article

UNRWA Financial Crisis

President Donald Trump’s decision to reduce the United States’ contribution to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to only $60 million in 2018—compared to a total of $364 million in 2017 [1]—has been widely denounced as a brutal form of collecti

Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh • 9 min read

MER Article

Managing Security Webs in the Palestinian Refugee Camp of Ain al-Hilweh

On May 31, 2017, Fatah commander Col. Bassam al-Saad was juggling three telephones—two mobile phones and one landline—at his office in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, Ain al-Hilweh. As the commander of the Joint Palestinian Security Force (JPSF), the defacto military police of the self-governed camp, the

Erling Lorentzen Sogge • 9 min read

Current Analysis

Refugee 101

Crossing the border at Masna‘, al-‘Abboudiyya or Mashari‘ al-Qa‘a, Syrian refugees entering Lebanon face an immediate choice: Stay in the tented settlements in the north and the Bekaa Valley or make their way to coastal cities such as Beirut and Sidon. Their experiences will vary greatly depending o

Sarah Parkinson • 8 min read

Current Analysis

Shooting Film and Crying

Waltz with Bashir (2008) opens with a strange and powerful image: a pack of ferocious dogs running headlong through the streets of Tel Aviv, overturning tables and terrifying pedestrians, converging beneath a building’s window to growl at a man standing there. It turns out that this man, Boaz, is an

Ursula Lindsey • 12 min read

MER Article

Khalili, Heroes and Martyrs of Palestine

Laleh Khalili, Heroes and Martyrs of Palestine: The Politics of National Commemoration (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).

Rosemary Sayigh • 4 min read

Current Analysis

The Collateral Damage of Lebanese Sovereignty

Residents of Lebanon might be forgiven for wanting to forget the last 12 months. The month-long Israeli onslaught in the summer of 2006, economic stasis, sectarian street violence, political deadlock and assassinations—most recently that of Future Movement deputy Walid ‘Idu, who perished along with

Jim Quilty • 16 min read

MER Article

A Landscape of Uncertainty

The events following the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri and Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon have not discernibly changed the situation of Palestinians in Lebanon. While a surprising government edict has made it easier for Palestinians to get clerical and manual jobs, calls for disarming them and pe

Laleh Khalili • 14 min read

MER Article

Shatila Dispatch

"Before the intifada children used to mock me when I mentioned Palestine. They would say that Palestine was lost, that I was dreaming, that Arafat forgot about us," remarks Rabi' Zaaroura, 15. "Now they have become interested in politics." In the Palestinian refugee camp of Shatila in Beirut, the re

Mayssun Sukarieh • 4 min read

Current Analysis

Lebanon's Most Dangerous Summer

Lebanon is where Palestinians were most loved and most hated, said Shafiq al-Hout, a former PLO Executive Committee member and now the top PLO official in Lebanon, at the 1983 PNC Algiers meeting. Listeners could not have missed the reference to the cold-blooded massacre of about 2,000 Palestinian refugees

Ghassan Bishara • 6 min read