CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VIII (1) ContemporaryEurasia81 | Page 13

LILIT HARUTUNYAN
in governing the Nahr al-Bared camp 32 , and another activist reported staying
away from his home in the Nahr al-Bared camp for more than three months
because he was afraid of being arrested by the LAF.
Militarized camp governance is based on two principles: nominal
inclusion of the camp under Lebanese sovereignty, with simultaneous
geographic exclusion. The inclusion is institutionalized by discrimination,
especially through the 2010 law on “the right to work” for Palestinian
refugees and the 2001 ruling that limited their access to “property
ownership”. The material outcome of separation and its twin pillars of legal
persecution and enclaved geography create a deep sense of spatial exclusion
and disorientation for both the Lebanese and Palestinians.
The inclusion and the separation of the camps both presuppose the
exclusion of their residents from the pale of law and the normalization of a
“state of exception”, in which the Palestinians collectively, as well as
individually, are subject to arbitrary violence and coercive regulation of their
daily lives. In some cases, Nahr al-Bared in effect becomes an experimental
“laboratory” for control and surveillance by the LAF and ISF.
According to a PHRO report, minor offences against property and
individuals represent a very small part of the violence in the camps (only
nine out of 74 offences during the first five months of 2011). 33 In 2007, a
local NGO undertook a study of domestic violence based on data from
counselling centers that worked with 209 female victims, the majority of
them single women (52%). Some 89% of this violence was of a
psychological nature. Young girls between 15 and 19 years are the main
sufferers of domestic violence (38% of the victims). 34 This illustrates the
problem of gender-based violence in Palestinian society inside the camps.
Some of the above-mentioned violent incidents are localized familial
disputes which escalate into problems between political factions. An
example from the Ayn al-Hilweh refugee camp began as a quarrel between
two youths over the outcome of a game of pinball, which sparked a clash
between Fatah and a local Islamist group. 35 We should also take note that
vandalism targeting schools reveals communitarian tension and a
problematic relationship between this camp and its non-Palestinian
neighbors. In mid-July 2010, a Christian school in the Burj al-Shemali camp
near Tyre was vandalized by graffiti praising Imam Ali. The culprits were a
group of young men from adjoining neighborhoods.
On September 14, 2010, a clash erupted between armed men in a
street in the Ayn al-Hilweh camp, wounding one bystander. Reports
attributed the scuffle to a crack-down on drug dealing after the head of the
32
See Lebanon’s Palestinian Dilemma: The struggle over Nahr al-Bared, International Crisis
group, Middle East Report No 117- March 1, 2012.
33
Palestinian Human Rights Organisation, Report on Violence, January -May 2011.
34
Association Najdeh, Domestic Violence Program Annual Report January-December 2007.
35
See Palestinian Human Rights Organisation, Report on Violence, January -May 2011.
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