Reconstructing Nahr el Bared
UNRWA estimated the costs to rebuild Nahr el Bared, and 15 villages around it, at 445 million US dollars. Almost half of this amount will be put forward by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. The rest will be covered by Western and European countries.
The Palestinians need a place to stay, and from a human rights perspective they have a meager existence in Lebanon’s overcrowded, dirty camps.
On one hand, a solution had to be found for the refugees. On the other hand, why rebuild from scratch, if there is no intention whatsoever, to resettle the Palestinians in Lebanon? Which, by the way, would be one of the worst ideas the Western community, in complicity with the Arab one, could come up with. Some never learn from [recent] past mistakes.
Hanibaal has more on the subject.
So one wonders why are the Europeans so eager to keep those foreign refugees in Lebanon? The reasons are, in fact, beyond humanitarian. They have to do with helping Israel dump the refugee problem onto Lebanon. The Palestinian refugees belong to Israel-Palestine and that is where they should be re-settled, not in Lebanon. Why doesn’t the EU, for instance, use its influence and its 28 million Euros to help the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank re-settle these refugees back in THEIR OWN COUNTRY of Palestine??? Am I missing something? Isn’t the point of refugee assistance first and foremost to help the refugees go back to their country?
The international community should understand that the Palestinian refugees are temporary guests in Lebanon. They will never be accepted as full fledged citizens by the Lebanese. The goal should be their return to Palestine, not their settlement in Lebanon. There are dozens of UN resolutions that call for their return to their country of Palestine, and ongoing peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority are intended to resolve outstanding issues such as the refugees.
June 24th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Well said but a bit soft.
The problem was (is) created by the UN from the start.
They need to get off their bumps and DO SOMETHING, instead of just talk about it.
If the UN were more active in efforts, some things could get done.
June 25th, 2008 at 12:27 am
The UN can’t do much without government’s OK. They could, if the Security Council puts Lebanon under Chapter VII. Till [if] that happens, UN is toothless, when it comes to Palestinian camps, Hizballah’s arms, other militias arms.