Abstract
Nahr al-Bared is a Palestinian refugee camp in Northern Lebanon that was destroyed in 2007 during a fierce battle between the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and Fatah al-Islam, a Salafi Jihadi group. Through action research in the camp, the author was able to study how the Lebanese state sanctioned the prominent role of the military in stewarding the reconstruction of this camp, as well as in Palestinian camps more generally. The increased militarization of camp spaces was hence opposed by camp residents, who sought to get the army’s emergency measures lifted. Against this background the article discusses how Palestinian refugee initiatives asserted their demands for rebuilding and reclaiming their camp. It also illustrates the problematic consequences of juxtaposing increased military intervention within the urban spaces of marginalized communities in Lebanon.
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Notes
- 1.
This concerns the speed in which the military took the decision to engage in battle, and not the length of the battle itself – which lasted for 106 days.
- 2.
The concept of latent civil war was the subject of a symposium in Brussels titled; ‘Beirut, paradigm of a universally latent civil war’ in March 2011; it brought together a range of Lebanese and Belgian intellectuals and urbanists.
- 3.
Estimated at over 5 million refugees worldwide, with 1.5 million living in Palestinian camps (UNRWA communications division, 2014)
- 4.
From that perspective, it is preferable to discuss Palestinian camps in the context of protracted encampment, i.e., refugee camps whose extraordinary status has been prolonged in relation to the protracted conflicts that created them in the first place.
- 5.
The weakening of the PLO started with the withdrawal from Lebanon in 1982, but was later reinforced with the signing of the Oslo Accords with Israel in the 1990s. Several splits were later to emerge within the PLO. Other factions opposed to these accords (typically aligned with the Syrian regime) and new Islamist factions such as Hamas and the Islamic Jihad emerged as new actors in Palestinian camps, not part of the PLO platform.
- 6.
A.K, interview, September 2007, Baddawi Camp.
- 7.
Interview with Major General François al-Hajj (Military Magazine, 2007)
- 8.
Prior to the battle, Fatah al-Islam members had lived ‘adjacent’ to the official camp, renting flats apartments in the area. Due to the weakness of the Palestinian factions, some neighbourhoods of the closely knit camp had actively prevented Fatah al-Islam members from walking through their alleys and sometimes posted guards during the night.
- 9.
It was also in reference to the PLO’s renaming of the refugees as ‘returnees’ (Ai’doun).
- 10.
UN Security Council Resolution 1559 called upon Lebanon to establish its sovereignty over all of its land and called upon ‘foreign forces’ to withdraw from Lebanon and to cease intervening in the internal politics of Lebanon. The resolution also called on all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias to disband, and declared support for a free and fair electoral process.
- 11.
Government official, interview, Beirut, November 2014.
- 12.
In a televised speech, Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary General of Hizbollah, announced that attacking the army and the Palestinian camps were red lines not to be crossed. At the time, this was considered an important show of support for the Palestinians. However, it later became evident that it did not go beyond verbal solidarity – MPs and government ministers aligned with Hizbollah did not act or lobby for halting military intervention in the camp (see Knudsen, 2011).
- 13.
Tensions between Fateh and Hamas were high due to armed conflict in Gaza between the two.
- 14.
Palestinian fighters (Fateh), interview, summer 2007, Baddawi camp.
- 15.
General al-Hajj was filmed after the victory while talking to soldiers in Nahr el-Bared. The statement does not necessarily reflect the army’s official stance, but demonstrates how the camp had become a symbol of renegade territory that needed to be conquered (New TV, 2009). General al-Hajj was assassinated by a car bomb on 12 December 2007 and the attack was put in connection with his role in the Nahr el-Bared siege.
- 16.
This a highly sensitive issue in Lebanon, with every new government typically declaring its opposition to the settlement of Palestinians (tawteen).
- 17.
Government official, intervie w, Beirut, November 2014
- 18.
Published (24 January 2008) in Lebanese newspapers: al-Safir and al-Akhbar.
- 19.
The map is a collaboration between the Nahr el-Bared Commission and Lebanese activists. It seeks to inform the broader Lebanese public about the scale of the militarization of the camp manifested through fences, checkpoints and planned military bases.
- 20.
A coalition of Palestinian NGOs in the Nahr el-Bared and Baddawi camps.
- 21.
The army also released those arrested and allowed camp residents to ‘return’ to neighbourhoods that had been closed off since the 2007 siege.
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Sheikh Hassan, I. (2017). Palestinian Camp–Military Relations in Lebanon: The Case of Nahr al-Bared. In: Knudsen, A., Gade, T. (eds) Civil-Military Relations in Lebanon. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55167-8_6
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