Empowering Palestinian Refugee Initiatives and NGOs:

No doubt, the challenges facing progressive and democratic Palestinian forces aiming to launch a new initiative for the defense of Palestinian refugee rights are tremendous. All steps set so far represent no more than a humble beginning. As the traditional political leadership represented in the PLO - including both supporters of the Oslo Accords and their opponents - remains hopelessly divided, new and much weaker Palestinian social and political forces - unions, NGOs, grass-roots organizations and researchers - are confronted with the difficult task of starting to build amid the ruins of Oslo:


Networks of social and economic support must be re-established to fight the deteriorating living conditions of Palestinian refugees, especially in Lebanon where UNRWA service cuts are accompanied by Lebanese government policies which deny social and civil rights (right to employment, health and education) to the Palestinian refugee community.

New and democratic structures of community organization and representation must be developed. Only then will refugees be able to pressure the Palestinian leadership to allow for broad public participation in the shaping of refugee community development and the design of a future political solution.
New mechanisms of exchange and cooperation between the scattered refugee communities in the Middle East and outside must be developed in order to counter division and isolation deriving from the forces of regional realpolitik in the post-Oslo era.

New generations of Palestinian refugees, growing up in the camps in exile and deprived of a formal education in Palestinian history and culture, must be brought up and educated in the spirit of consciousness and awareness of their history and cultural heritage.

New and more effective strategies for raising refugee rights on the international level must be developed in order to pressure for the implementation of the existing UN resolutions (especially UN Resolution 194) and international law.

Extensive research and documentation efforts are required in order to provide a pool of information and data for sound planning of coordinated action. New information technologies provide an avenue for communication and coordination among refugee community organizations in the region and in the western diaspora, a potential we have only begun to exploit. Much remains to be done also on the level of research and documentation. While aspects of refugee life, legal issues, and strategic debates have been partially covered in the case of Palestine and Lebanon, refugee needs in Jordan and Syria remain poorly researched. Many vital and more comprehensive research projects (e.g. data banks on oral history, demography, lost property) are too large in scope to be undertaken by dedicated but small community organizations and NGOs with limited resources.

All Palestinian refugee organizations and NGOs suffer from budget insecurity and dependence on donor agencies whose policies are not fully understood, and which exert a disproportionate influence because of the scarcity of alternative sources. Given this framework, it is difficult for them to create an overall development strategy, expand their programs, re-target their services or democratize their structures.

Despite the difficult circumstances, however, there are signs of the continuing vitality and social concern among the Palestinian refugee community. Palestinians living in the territory of the Israeli state have formed organizations advocating the right of the some 200,000 internally displaced to their homes and property (Association of the Forty, National Committee of the Internally Displaced in Israel) and working for the protection of Palestinian heritage.

In 1967 occupied Palestine, where NGO involvement in the refugee community is poor, refugee grass-roots organizations as well as former UNRWA operated camp institutions abandoned by the Agency in the course of its budget cuts have taken the lead. These organizations, among them the Union of Youth Activities Centres, Union of Women Activities Centres, Committee for the Defense of Refugee Rights, are engaged in an effort at building an independent refugee movement able to pressure and lobby against the concession of the right of return by the Palestinian Authority in the Oslo negotiations, against de facto refugee integration in the territories controlled by the PA, and for the improvement of living conditions in the refugee camps.

In Lebanon, where NGOs are closer to the communities they serve, the number of NGOs providing services to the refugee community has grown rapidly, despite restrictive Lebanese registration laws and the lack of support by international donors. The fact that there were only five such NGOs operating in the days when the PLO provided an embryonic 'welfare state' in Lebanon (1970 - 1982), while today there are more than 17, is a clear evidence of the public need for these organizations. In 1994, a Coordinating Forum composed of the major Palestinian NGOs in Lebanon was formed, which meets regularly and coordinates with Lebanese and Arab NGOs. Their main areas of action are: pre-school education; technical and commercial training; health; rehabilitation of the handicapped; social aid and care of orphans; and cultural heritage. [Note: refugee initiatives in Jordan and Syria are not mentioned here, because BADIL has not yet been able gather updated information.]

International Agenda\Refugee Empowerment

An international solidarity movement must support Palestinian refugee organizations and NGOs in their struggle against deteriorating living conditions, social and political marginalization, and isolation from each other in the respective countries of exile. Support of this kind can include:

i. Financial/material support of refugee community organizations and NGOs,
with priority to those working in Lebanon;
ii. Awareness raising and advocacy for refugee needs and demands among
the broad international public and policy makers;
iii. Facilitation of more frequent and intensive exchange, both on professional and political/strategic affairs, among Palestinian refugee organizations and NGOs in the Middle East. (Regional meetings, workshops, and dissemination of print materials is difficult to organize by the refugee grass-roots organizations alone due to the heavy restrictions on movement, travel, and postal service in the Middle East. Logistic support by international partners is needed);
iv. Professional training of refugee community activists;
v. Professional assistance in data gathering and research projects vital for the development of community based work for refugee rights.