CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VIII (1) ContemporaryEurasia81 | Page 14

PALESTINIAN REFUGEE CAMPS IN LEBANON: GOVERNANCE AND VIOLENCE
PLO's armed militia had promised that drugs would be eradicated from the
camp and drug dealers handed over to the Lebanese judiciary. 36
Violence between Palestinian factions
In 2009, about 700 homicides were reported in Lebanon (most of them
politically motivated), but only a few of them took place in refugee camps. 37
Thus refugee camps are not the major sites of violence in the country, nor
are refugees the only agents of violence. Still, factional in-fighting remains a
major source of violence inside the camps. 38 However, political factions can
be sources of disorder in the camp. In recent years, political violence in the
refugee camps has increased because of heightened tensions of violence
between different factions. The only camp where there has been no such
increase is Ayn al-Hilweh. This is due to a certain political rapprochement
between the political factions and the establishment of a “follow-up
committee” composed of all political factions, including the Islamists.
According to International Information survey 39 in 2009, some 89 % of the
camp residents found that the security situation was bad or very bad”. The
deteriorating security situation came as the second most pressing problem
(37.4 % of the respondents), followed by the lack of jobs and the terrible
economic situation. The Pursue survey, conducted in 2010 in the Ayn al-
Hilweh camp, showed a significant reduction in the camp’s security
situation. 40
When there are clashes in the Ayn al-Hilweh refugee camp,
employees stay away from work and checkpoints, schools and shops are
closed and medical services are disrupted. 41 The following examples
illustrate the nature of violent encounters, particularly concerning “strategic”
areas (such as mosques) inside the camps. In September 2010, three people
were wounded in the al-Buss refugee camp near Tyre, after a dispute
between clerics loyal to either Fatah or Hamas resulted in armed clashes.
The clerics disagreed on who would lead prayers at the camp’s mosque. 42
36
See “Ayn al-Hilweh Killing Raises Fears of Deteriorating Security in Camp”, The Daily
Star, September 15, 2010.
37
Jawad Adra; “The Oppressive, The Marginalized and The Missing Third”, Information
International Monthly, No. 98, September 2010.
38
Marie Kortam, Jeune et violence dans le camp de Baddawi et le banlieu parisien, Omn.
Univ. Europ, Paris, 2011, 362.
39
International Information Survey of Media and Communication Channels, Actors and
Messages in Palestinian Camps.
40
Interview with Edward Kattaura, a political consultant affiliated with Pursue Ltd., Beirut,
April 2012. See Palestinian Human Rights Organisation, Report on Violence, January -May
2011.
41
Zhang and Tiltnes, The Socio-economic Assessment of Ein Al-Hilweh refugee camp, Vol.
II, Summary of Survey statistics, 2012.
42
The dispute started after an argument between Sheikh Hussein Qassem Maghreb (the imam
of the mosque), who is loyal to Farah, and members of the mosque committee, who are loyal
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