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GUEST: Dr. Marcy Newman, Co-founder of the Nahr el Bared Relief Campaign and a Professor of English at Boise State University

This week marks three months since fighting began, fueled by U.S.-made weapons, at the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in Northern Lebanon. Lebanon houses the largest number of Palestinian refugees as they make up over 10 percent of the population. Palestinians have called on the Lebanese government to lift restrictions and improve their quality of life. Their demands include the improvement of conditions in camps such as Nahr el-Bared, and the right to work and participate in more than 70 trades and professions. Complicating the situation is the worsening political crisis in the camps as the Lebanese Army continues to bomb the Fatah al-Islam militants inside Nahr el Bared. When the fighting first began, 13,000 of the 31, 000 camp residents fled to nearby camp Bedawwi leaving fighters, their wives and children trapped inside. Last Monday, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora met with the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Lebanon representative Abbas Zaki to discuss the conditions of Nahr al-Bared refugees.

For more information visit, www.electronicintifada.net/lebanon/ andwww.nahrelbaredcampaign.org//

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Thenmozhi Soundararajan: Our guest, Dr. Marcy Newman, will tell us about her own meeting with Fouad Siniora. She met with him recently and was able to address her concerns in the context of her own humanitarian efforts at Nahr el Bared. She is Co-founder of the Nahr el Bared Relief Campaign and a Professor of English at Boise State University. Good morning Dr. Newman.

Marcy Newman: Good morning, thanks for having me.

Thenmozhi Soundararajan: Now, I know you just recently returned to the States. Can you share with us your impressions from your meeting with the Prime Minister, and what are your concerns about the camps?

Marcy Newman: My meeting with Siniora was a few months ago when the conflict first began, and some of my main concerns at that particular meeting were his ideas about how he wanted to rebuild the camp, meaning he wanted the Lebanese government to control the camp, which is something they don’t have a right to do within their own laws or within international law. The camps are controlled by Palestinians and administered by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. And the other issue was sort of trying to push him to think about the roots of this problem, and in particular the roots of this problem for me, of course, are always about UN Resolution 194 and the Palestinians’ right to return to Palestine. But, before that can happen, or until that happens, what we need is equal rights for Palestinians in Lebanon. And like you said, there are 72 jobs that they are not allowed to work in legally, they are not allowed to just simply build on their own property and there are serious complications to the tensions in Lebanon right now with respect to Palestinian human rights, just even walking down the streets. There have been many cases of Palestinians asked for their ID card because they look darker, for instance, and when they see that it’s a Palestinian ID they are beaten up, arrested, detained, some have been tortured and there are some Palestinians who have no ID, because there is that particular class of population in Lebanon, and these people can be detained indefinitely. And there is an increased number of these people, because many people from Nahr el Bared lost their IDs in their collapsed houses when the bombing began.

Thenmozhi Soundararajan: Just to give our listeners some context. It seems incredible to me that you have 10% of the population of Lebanon living in these camps, and they are completely separate in terms of both their economic status, in terms of their civil rights status, and it just seems like it’s a powder keg for a lot of intense emotions, but also intense political conflict. And in the time that you visited, have you seen refugees being able to deal with their isolation?

Marcy Newman: I mean, the truth is that Lebanon’s civil war has not ended that long ago. Israel pulled out in 2000, but still occupied 2 villages in the South, so the occupation is not entirely over and the conflict is still very much in people’s minds. And a lot of that conflict was between various factions within Lebanon and Palestinians in the refugee camps. And in fact, Nahr el Bared, at the moment, is completely destroyed. It’s gone. I’ve seen it. I’ve been very close to it. It’s completely unlivable. But this is not the first time that Lebanese militias, or now the army, have destroyed camps there. In the past, there have been two camps, Nabatieh in the South and Beddawi in sort of the middle of the country, that were destroyed during the civil war, and some of those people from Beddawi actually moved to Nahr el Bared. But aside from those conflicts, Nahr el Bared for instance, as a camp, has been very long integrated into the Lebanese villages around it, economically, socially, and even there are many families in that area who have intermarried among Palestinians and Lebanese. So it’s not so simple as they are separate or whatever. And that’s one of the things that really disturb the Palestinians who are under attack, because in fact it is the army against Fatah al-Islam treating Palestinians as, you know, human shields at some points of this conflict and sort of doing a kind of George Bush ‘you are either with us or you are against us’-mentality. And this has created a third-party militia group that we have heard some stories about; people from Saad Hariri’s Mustaqbal, or Future Movement, who have also attacked Palestinians. So it’s not just the army or the internal security forces, but there are also other attacks on Palestinians in Lebanon in an area that has for a long time been very much about cohabitation between these people.

Thenmozhi Soundararajan: One thing that you were also sharing with me when we were preparing for this segment is that the militants of the Fatah al-Islam are not all Palestinian either.

Marcy Newman: Maybe 0.5 percent.

Thenmozhi Soundararajan: Maybe. And where are they coming from and, really, what is the impetus in terms of this escalating scale of violence?

Marcy Newman: I mean, most of the people are Saudi, Lebanese, Bangladeshi, and Yemeni. Some of the families I know from Nahr el Bared were talking about how they couldn’t understand the language that they were speaking. Some of these people don’t even speak Arabic. But these people came into the country; some by land, some by plane. They first went to Ein el Hilweh refugee camp in Saida in South Lebanon, they then went to Bedawwi refugee camp, which is about 10 kilometers south of Nahr el Bared, and then to Nahr el Bared. And these people moved around with their weapons freely, some of them coming into the country at points were Lebanese government officials, army, internal security forces, controlled these entry points. Even two Palestinian refugees camps in Lebanon, Ein el Hilweh and Nahr el Bared are the two camps where you must receive permission from the army before you are allowed to enter if you do not live there; especially if you are a foreigner. So these are people who got into these camps with the permission and assistance of the Lebanese government.

Thenmozhi Soundararajan: Can I ask also, in terms of what you have seen since you just returned. I know that many of the residents of Nahr el Bared have now been displaced into the other camps. What are the conditions and what are the stories of some of the people that people are talking about in trying to survive through this particularly intense politically moment?

Marcy Newman: Well, the situation in terms of the living conditions is really dire. It is the poor taking care of the poorer. We are talking people living in refugee camp houses that have two rooms for large families. For some reason, people from Nahr el Bared tend to have larger families than other camps; on average between 8 and 11 children per family. And we are talking 30 people living in a two-room house, sharing mattresses on the floor. Most people are living in private houses, although 25 percent of the people are living in United Nations schools. This is going to become a problem shortly, because school is beginning, we are not entirely sure, there have been discussions about whether school should be delayed until after Ramadan. But, in any case the schools have to be prepared for the fall semester and there are also some Palestinians in Lebanese government schools as well, so these are going to complicate the problem. But, it is a very dense population, especially in Badawwi refugee camp, where most of the people are residing. There have been some sort of solutions and temporary housing and what not, but the people from Nahr el Bared are very upset with these. They are trying to build these temporary shelters and these houses are made out of a kind of plywood and they are very small, and they are flammable. And the people want to go back to their camp. You have to remember we just came out of a war with Israel in the South, and everyone knows the model of what happened last summer, which is as soon as the fighting was over, despite the fact that there were many cluster bombs all over the place, people took the risk and they took their land back. And Palestinians want to be able to do the same thing. The Lebanese government is threatening to seal off the camp for 72 hours to a month and not allow anyone inside to see what happened to their buildings, to see what happened to their personal effects. People want to do the same thing people in the South did, go put a tent up, despite the unexploded weapons and remake their lives, but the government is controlling this and United Nations is not really stepping in and doing what they should be doing, which is advocating for the people they represent.

Thenmozhi Soundararajan: And I guess before we get to the ways people can support your relief efforts, one thing I wanted to ask is, has there been any accountability at all in terms of the US’s role in terms of this situation and the fact that fighting is happening with US-made weapons?

Marcy Newman: Well, it’s interesting because I have heard different kinds of stories. Initially, when they first sent over their weapons, I heard for instance that they sent body armor that was used and had blood on it. This is what I heard from soldiers. So there have been complaints about it and even in Lebanese newspapers last week, they were complaining that they weren’t given enough weapons. And certainly I’m sure that the US sort of watered down whatever it might normally give someone, because they know Lebanon could possibly use it against their enemy to the South, so they definitely didn’t give them very much. But, definitely, what they are fighting with in this camp and Palestinians who have been killed and whose houses have been destroyed two and three times over, that has been done with American weapons. But, on top of that, what really disturbs me is the way in which, almost instantly when these weapons came in, was this increasing American rhetoric of ‘Support our troops.’ I mean, within the span of a couple of months, we have this intense patriotism that is ‘you are with us or you are against us; you are with the Lebanese government or you are with Fatah al-Islam,’ which puts Palestinians in a really difficult position. Of course Palestinians do not want these groups and they kicked them out of Ein el Hilweh camp and they kicked them out of Bedawwi camp. It’s the government who pushed them from camp to camp because they were training them to fight Hisbollah, that’s why they were put in Lebanon to begin with, but the Palestinians are the ones who are bearing the brunt of this. But we see, for instance, Support Our Troops flags, Support Our Troops bumper stickers, Support Our Troops credit cards; it’s this whole commodification of this. We have all of this stuff emerging in Lebanese society, in a society that never had items like this before.

Thenmozhi Soundararajan: And is there any recognition by the government that they funded this problem?

Marcy Newman: Absolutely not.

Thenmozhi Soundararajan: So it is like the same amnesia that the US has in terms of CIA blowback?

Marcy Newman: Yes. I mean, I see this so much similar to the US and Osama bin Laden; training him to do a particular task, and then it backfires and then trying to fight him and can’t find him and, you know it’s the same thing with this. And this is, we are talking a very small space. This is not the mountains of Afghanistan. This is a very, very small, densely populated place, and yet they are still fighting there and there are still around 45 women and children inside the camp, as well, Fatah al-Islam wives and children, but, nonetheless they are civilians. And Save the Children and lots of groups, Human Rights Watch have been trying to work at getting them out and there was talk yesterday that perhaps the army is going to let them out, but we have been fighting for that for a few weeks now.

Thenmozhi Soundararajan: And I guess one of the things I think that is really important is that, in the coverage of what I have seen, almost all the mainstream American coverage has focused on Lebanese continuing to party in the face of war. There was this, like, funny article about Ukrainian models brought in to help people return to normalcy. Obviously the country is not in a normal state and I am just curious, there is very few articles about the relief work that you are doing, and I am wondering if you can share the way listeners could support your work and what exactly are your humanitarian efforts that you are leading?

Marcy Newman: Sure. I mean, first of all, I want to say that this is one of the most unfortunate stereotypes about Lebanon. I mean, certainly, it’s resilient given what it goes through and has been through, but it’s, the West loves to show, you know, women dancing on tables and things like this.

Thenmozhi Soundararajan: Yeah, it’s incredible.

Marcy Newman: I mean, of course there are nightclubs. They are everywhere. But this is not the whole of Lebanese society by any stretch. But, basically, what we have been doing is, we have been, every week we give out food and hygiene kits in various camps, not just in Beddawi. We have operations in Shatila refugee camp and Mar Elias refugee camp and Bourj al Barajneh refugee camp; all of those are in Beirut. We do children’s activities, we are going to be starting some educational activities in the fall with tutoring and with some of the college students in the area. We are going to start some livelihood-building projects to get people creating some sort of economic means for their families. We have also been working with a clinic in Beddawi refugee camp, getting them medicine, and we also have a fresh fruits and vegetables program, where we create vouchers for families so they can pick their own food and have it be more healthy. Because most of the parcels that we and other people give are dry foods …

Thenmozhi Soundararajan: … or processed foods.

Marcy Newman: Yeah.

Thenmozhi Soundararajan: Yeah, what you can have in terms of wartime rations. Well, I know that listeners will definitely want to get involved and we are going to have to wrap up this segment. But I’m wondering, where can people go to support or read more about the work you are doing?

Marcy Newman: Well, people can always go to Electronic Intifada (www.electronicintifada.net) or Electronic Lebanon (www.electronicintifada.net/lebanon/) to read what’s happening, but our website is www.nahrelbaredcampaign.org and there is information about donating money. All our money goes to the American University of Beirut. It’s a tax deduction. There are 3 different ways people can donate if they would like to help.

Special thanks to Claudia Greyeyes for transcribing this interview.