In the Shatila Refugee Camp, Palestinians Have Little Hope
Since 1949, the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut has been home to thousands of Palestinians. Visiting the camp last week, Jacobin found its population in dire conditions, with the cutting of Western aid to UNRWA further aggravating its bleak poverty.
Palestinian flags hang above pedestrians walking along an alley at the Shatila camp in the southern suburb of Beirut on November 7, 2023. (Ahmad Al-Rubaye / AFP via Getty Images)
Last Monday evening, thousands of Palestinian refugees of all ages gathered in protest across Lebanon. They were joining the global condemnation of the massacre in Rafah the previous night, when Israeli air strikes burned alive dozens of civilians who had sought a meager refuge in tents.
On this mournful occasion, protesters also huddled in the alleys of Shatila. This Palestinian refugee camp is tragically famous as the center of the brutal massacre in 1982, when the Lebanese Phalangist militia, supported by the Israeli army, killed thousands of Palestinian camp residents in cold blood. Just like the victims in Gaza about whom we today read all too often, these were unarmed children and elderly people, women and men.
Kazem Hassan, deputy leader of Fatah in the Shatila camp, addressed the crowds at the protest, demanding justice for their brothers and sisters in Gaza. As he eloquently put it: “Palestinian blood is one, and we are all bleeding together” (الدّم الفاسطيني واحد، واحنا بننزف مع بعض ).
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