CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VIII (1) ContemporaryEurasia81 | Page 5

LILIT HARUTUNYAN
TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST
LILIT HARUTYUNYAN
PALESTINIAN REFUGEE CAMPS IN LEBANON:
GOVERNANCE AND VIOLENCE
Abstract: The paper focuses on the violence affecting Palestinian refugee
camps in Lebanon. It investigates leadership failures which make them
objects of state governance and subjects of interpersonal violence. It
contends that the violence is not only the result of an Islamist militant
ideology for a specific political or social cause, but also of horrible living
conditions. The lack of legitimate governance structures in the refugee
camps has prevented any improvement in living conditions. This has
generated types of violence that compromise the security of Lebanese and
Palestinians living in Lebanon, especially in the neighborhood of refugee
camps. Long-term deprivation and marginalization are mainly the results of
state policies towards refugees that have generated unique forms of
violence in the refugee camps.
Keywords: Palestinians, Lebanon, camps, violence, governance, refugees,
Islamic movements, Hizballah
Introduction
Post-Taif 1 Lebanon is a country with a confessional political system in
which the Palestinians constitute a minority. However, they do not have a
recognized place in the confessional system of the country. This makes
them politically, economically and socially marginalized. However, the main
problem for this group of refugees is that they are mostly “enclaved”. The
right-wing Lebanese political party leaders and Lebanese security and
military agencies enclave undesirable groups and confine them in what
(following Giorgio Agamben) can be called “spaces of exception”. 2 This
applies not only to refugee camps, but also to violence-prone, well-known
quarters such as Bab al-Tabaneh and Jabal Mohsen in Tripoli. It is
considered a necessary measure for ensuring Lebanon’s security.
1
The Taif accord (National Reconciliation Charter) is the document adopted by the Lebanese
parliament at their session in Taif (Saudi Arabia), in October, 1989 to resolve the issues at the
core of the Lebanese second civil war (1975-1990). See Dilip Hiro, The Essential Middle
East, “National Reconciliation Charter”, (New York, 2003), 364-365.
2
Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer. Sovereign Power and Bare Life, (Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 1998); Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, (San Diego:
Harcourt Brace & Co., 1985). See also Sari Hanafi and Taylor Long, “Governance,
Governmentalities, and the State of Exception in the Palestinian Refugee Camps of Lebanon”,
Journal of Refugee Studies, Vol. 23, no. 2, (2010), 34-60.
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