It's a picturesque landscape seen from atop one of the partially destroyed homes on the edge of the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in north Lebanon. Look down and you can see the Mediterranean Sea, its small waves lightly crashing against the shore. Turn around and the beautiful snow-capped mountains of northern Lebanon near the border with Syria. Between the sea and the mountains is endless green. The thick rolling clouds cover every inch of the sky. It's a landscape not very different from...
more »It's a picturesque landscape seen from atop one of the partially destroyed homes on the edge of the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in north Lebanon. Look down and you can see the Mediterranean Sea, its small waves lightly crashing against the shore. Turn around and the beautiful snow-capped mountains of northern Lebanon near the border with Syria. Between the sea and the mountains is endless green. The thick rolling clouds cover every inch of the sky. It's a landscape not very different from cities like Nazareth, Acre, Haifa, Safad, where most of the refugees in Nahr al-Bared fled from in 1948.
As you enjoy the scenery it's hard to force your gaze just slightly to the massive destruction that sits quietly next to you. Too surreal to describe in words, it's the remains of the camp after it was destroyed in the summer 2007 battle between the Lebanese army and extremists from Fatah al-Islam. Some of the skeletons of the buildings and homes where people lived are still standing; concrete connected to the foundation's wiring hangs from roofs and sides. The interiors are exposed and littered with bullet holes or blackened from the fires set after the fighting ended. These decrepit structures, transformed into one mass, stand out in the life that surrounds them.
What started as mere tents six decades ago had become multiple story buildings. Homes, schools, businesses, medical clinics and other facilities provided the infrastructure for the tight community of 30,000 in Nahr al-Bared to sustain itself with little support from its host country or the outside world. For much of the older generation, this was not the first time they had to flee their homes. Like most of the 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, they have endured generations of war that has forced them from one place to another. Like any refugee, they have only one right to which they cling -- the right to return home.
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