Greg Ross in Lebanon

"We are not against the peace; the peace is against us", an eleven year old boy in my Bethlehem (West Bank) English class announced. Since July 2007, I've been living and working with Palestinian refugees on the West Bank and in north Lebanon, and this boy's somewhat hackneyed phrase just about sums up the situation of the Palestinian people in this region, especially that of the refugees, as I've seen it over the last seven months. Of course, the "problem" is far to vexed to be captured in a catchphrase, and seven months is a very short time from which to draw any kind of conclusions about a crisis spanning 60 years. But it's enough to say that the image of the relentless Palestinian fighter engaged in a fierce struggle against Israel doesn't really match up to the reality on the ground now, if it ever did.

The refugees I've been working with in north Lebanon, in my job with Developmental Action Without Borders/Naba'a, have been doubly displaced from their homes: the first time from Palestine in 1948, and then from their homes in Nahr al Bared refugee camp in May of 2007. Some in Lebanon were also displaced in the interim period, during the 30 year civil war which ended in 1991. Most are now left with nothing, again. In May, the Lebanese government decided to shut down the terrorist group Fatah al Islam – variously thought to be under radical Islamist/Syrian/Lebanese government or political party control – operating in Nahr al Bared refugee camp, and a war began in the north which only ended in September 2007, a couple of weeks after I arrived in the area. The entire native population of the camp (Fatah al Islam members were not from Nahr al Bared, but were Lebanese, Syrian, even Russian, as well as Palestinian), around 35,000 persons, were displaced to camps, cities and towns across the country, the majority settling temporarily in the nearby Baddawi refugee camp, causing the emergency in which I've been working for the last five months.

Most families left with no possessions and are living in schools (7 families per classroom), public centres and host houses around Baddawi camp in very difficult conditions. Baddawi's usual population is 16,000; the arrival of a further 28,000 refugees from Nahr al Bared stretched the camp's resources beyond capacity, creating a situation which has given rise to serious problems of overcrowding, violence, poor hygiene / health, lack of privacy, halting of education, and increasing economic, political and psychological tension among all residents. My NGO (Naba'a) has been spearheading distributions of non-food items and running a shelter program over the last 8 months, but we specialize in child rights and protection. Naba'a has launched a big program of psychosocial activities for children: they were exposed to massive violence during the war and explain that their main fears are shells, tanks, bombs, shrapnel, snipers, cluster bombs, the sound of explosions and the dead; clearly almost all were traumatized by their experiences.

My work has been monitoring and reporting violations of child rights; making project proposals and evaluating current projects; planning, coordinating and documenting needs assessments; and liaising with local / international NGOs and UN agencies (mainly UNRWA and UNICEF) to plan interventions. In the last three months a minority of families have been allowed to return to their homes in sections of their camp not completely flattened during the three month continual bombardment. These lucky few found their houses completely or partially destroyed, or systematically burnt out and looted (not by Fatah al Islam) with anti-Palestinian graffiti and excrement smeared on the walls. There is still a problem with unexploded ordinances in homes and on streets. I've been spending around half my time in Nahr al Bared with the returnees, as my NGO (whose workforce in the north are almost all themselves displaced people) has started work on the new emergency created by the return. The situation of those displaced by the conflict has been made even more difficult by the deepening political crisis in the Lebanon, which remains without a president and in a state of high tension.

My time here has pushed me to learn a lot, but I'm not sure about this kind of work as a career. At the moment I plan to stay in Lebanon until March; then I'll come home for a break and work out what to do next.

Greg Ross