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Refugees
Misery Beyond the War Zone: Life for Syrian Refugees and Displaced Populations in Lebanon
![[Image by Michael Goldfarb via doctorswithoutborders.org]](/content_images/3/sm_dwb021713web.jpg "[Image by Michael Goldfarb via doctorswithoutborders.org]")
[The following report was issued by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on 6 February 2013.] Misery Beyond the War Zone: Life for Syrian Refugees and Displaced Populations in Lebanon Executive Summary The ongoing crisis in Syria is forcing ever more Syrians to flee their homeland in search of safety. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) reported in late January that more than 165,000 refugees had officially been registered in Lebanon alone, and that almost 77,000 more were in the process of being registered. An estimated 50,000 additional refugees are believed to be in the country but have not attempted to register formally as ...
Keep Reading »Fun, Football, and Palestinian Nationalism
![[Al-Wihdat fans. Image by Jihad Nijem]](/content_images/3/sm_football_image1.png "[Al-Wihdat fans. Image by Jihad Nijem]")
Some of the most enduring memories of fieldwork in al-Wihdat refugee camp are the several evenings I spent watching football matches in the company of my friends. Al-Wihdat is a Palestinian refugee camp established in 1955 on the outskirts of Amman, the capital of Jordan. The camp today is fully incorporated into the city through urban expansion. When I began my fieldwork in 2009, I expected Palestinian refugee camps to be highly politicized. Setting out to document the significance of Palestinian nationalism in the everyday life of refugees, I was puzzled to observe an ostensible absence of politics–an absence all the more striking as my fieldwork coincided with ...
Keep Reading »Toronto Event: Photo Auction: Once I Was Here: Benefit for Syrian Refugees (31 January 2013)
Once I Was Here: Benefit for Syrian Refugees 31 January 2013 A silent auction of photographs in aid of Syrian refugees featuring the works of world-renowned frontline photojournalists. Click h
Keep Reading »Migrants' Rights & International Solidarity: Interview with Catherine Tactaquin
![[International Migrants Day rally organized by the Northern California Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride. Image by Brooke Anderson.]](/content_images/3/sm_772917323_b82f4bdfd0_z.jpg "[International Migrants Day rally organized by the Northern California Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride. Image by Brooke Anderson.]")
December 18th is International Migrants Day, when in 1990 the U.N. General Assembly signed the Migrant Workers Convention, an agreement that establishes the rights of one of the most vulnerable global populations within a framework of human rights. The problem is the only countries that have actually ratified the convention are mostly countries in Global South, countries of origin for many migrants that experience the negative consequences of mass migration. Neither the United States, nor China, nor a single EU member have signed. The work of migrant rights activists has been cut out for them. War Times marked this past International Migrants’ Day with an interview ...
Keep Reading »Syrian Refugees: Reliance on Camps Creates Few Good Options
![[Syrian refugees at Reyhanli refugee camp in Antakya, Turkey. Image by Syria Freedom via Flickr]](/content_images/3/sm_syriarefugees121812web.jpg "[Syrian refugees at Reyhanli refugee camp in Antakya, Turkey. Image by Syria Freedom via Flickr]")
[The following report was issued by Refugees International on 5 December 2012.] Syrian Refugees: Reliance on Camps Creates Few Good Options Summary The civil war in Syria has forced large numbers of Syrians from their homes, and in many cases from the country entirely. Refugees continue to flee in record numbers, and there are currently almost 400,000 registered or waiting for registration in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey combined. The United Nations has said it expects this number could reach 700,000 by December 31, 2012. About half of all the registered Syrians are living in camps, but the other half remain in ...
Keep Reading »Colonial Planning of My Grandfather’s Hilltop
![[The Hilltop. Image by the author.]](/content_images/3/sm_hilltopkellan.jpeg.jpg "[The Hilltop. Image by the author.]")
Today, I walked onto an Israeli settlement for the first time in my life, one where most of the land it stands on once belonged to my grandfather. I needed the settlers’ permission to walk onto this soil. As I walked down the sidewalk, I felt alienation and contentment all at once. The first for the utter disconnect between this land and I. The second for finally being able to set foot in a place that is rightfully mine. "You see this hilltop? It all belongs to your grandfather.” This phrase was a recurring one on our family drives from Abu Dis to Jericho. I heard it from the first moment that I could comprehend words. I cannot even remember who said it ...
Keep Reading »Safe Haven: Christians in Qaraqosh, Iraq
![[A child is baptized in al Tahira church in Qaraqosh. Photo by Andy Spyra.]](/content_images/3/sm_Spyra_Qaraqosh.jpg "[A child is baptized in al Tahira church in Qaraqosh. Photo by Andy Spyra.]")
Photographs taken in early 2012 by Andy Spyra. Text essay by Sinan Antoon. The plight of Christians in the Arab world attracts disproportionate attention in the “West” mostly to score political and “civilizational” points. Nevertheless, it is a serious problem that deserves genuine concern. An understanding of the genealogy and complexity of this plight is best sought beyond Islamophobia and other similarly reductive perspectives. Instead of narratives that imagine and situate the origins of consistent oppression in the distant past, a more careful look at the last few decades is far more productive. Iraq is a prime example. Until a few decades ago, its non-Assyrian ...
Keep Reading »Human Trafficking in the Sinai: Refugees Between Life and Death
![[Protesters outside the Eritrean embassy in Tel Aviv in March 2011. Image by Physicians for Human Rights via Flickr]](/content_images/3/sm_eritreatorturecampprotestweb.jpg "[Protesters outside the Eritrean embassy in Tel Aviv in March 2011. Image by Physicians for Human Rights via Flickr]")
[The following report was published by Tilburg University and Europe External Policy Advisors on 26 September 2012.] Human Trafficking in the Sinai: Refugees Between Life and Death Summary This report describes the horrific situation of trafficking of refugees in the Sinai Desert, a crisis that started in 2009. The refugees include men, women, children, and accompanying infants fleeing from already desperate circumstances in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Sudan. An estimated ninety-five percent of the refugees held as hostages in the Sinai (also referred to as hostages) are Eritreans. Smuggled across borders by middlemen or kidnapped from refugee ...
Keep Reading »The Struggle of Twice-Displaced Refugees: Palestinians Fleeing Syria to Lebanon
![[Entrance to Shatila refugee camp in Lebanon. Image by l'Ifpo via Flickr]](/content_images/3/sm_4054435677_cda517a69c.jpg "[Entrance to Shatila refugee camp in Lebanon. Image by l'Ifpo via Flickr]")
Meesar Lahan’s personal story represents thousands of Palestinian refugees filtering into the Shatila refugee camp of Lebanon from war-stricken Syria. Their move to Lebanon represents a second displacement (the first being from Palestine), and many of these refugees are giving up hope, some even considering a return with their families back to Syria. The labyrinth of discrimination and segregation specific to the already existing Palestinian refugee population of Lebanon has made many of the new arrivals feel that Syria, despite the violence, offers more dignity and a greater ability to live within their economic means. Between Violence and Discrimination In the narrow ...
Keep Reading »Gatekeepers and Evictions: Somalia's Displaced Population at Risk
![[Video of displaced persons camp in Mogadishu by Refugees International. Screenshot from youtube.com]](/content_images/3/sm_refugeessomaliacampweb.jpg "[Video of displaced persons camp in Mogadishu by Refugees International. Screenshot from youtube.com]")
[The following report was issued by Refugees International on 1 November 2012.] Gatekeepers and Evictions: Somalia's Displaced Population at Risk There are currently 1.36 million Somalis displaced within their own country. These internally displaced persons (IDPs) face major protection challenges, including abuse and aid diversion by camp gatekeepers, as well as the threat of forced evictions. These vulnerabilities are not new to Somalia’s displaced population, but the context is changing. Refugees International recently conducted assessments of IDP settlements in Mogadishu and Hargeisa, Somaliland. In Mogadishu, security and stability is improving, and the ...
Keep Reading »HRW Calls on Turkey and Iraq to Open Borders to Syrian Refugees
![[Human Rights Watch logo. Image from hrw.org]](/content_images/3/sm_hrwlogoweb.jpg "[Human Rights Watch logo. Image from hrw.org]")
[The following statement was issued by Human Rights Watch on 14 October 2012.] The Iraqi and Turkish authorities should immediately re-open border crossings where more than 10,000 Syrians have been stranded for weeks and allow all those wishing to seek asylum to cross without delay, Human Rights Watch said today. Tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing recent fighting – including in Syria’s Aleppo, Idlib, and Deir el Zor provinces – are attempting to use the crossings to reach Iraq and Turkey quickly and safely. Since the second half of August 2012, Iraq and Turkey have unlawfully prevented thousands of Syrians from entering their countries through these crossing ...
Keep Reading »Text of Abbas' Speech to the UN General Assembly, 2012
![[Mahmoud Abbas meeting Austrian Politicians Michael Spindelegger and Heinz Fischer at the UN General Assembly on 25 September, 2012. Image by Dragan TATIC.]](/content_images/3/sm_abbasunschmelz.jpg "[Mahmoud Abbas meeting Austrian Politicians Michael Spindelegger and Heinz Fischer at the UN General Assembly on 25 September, 2012. Image by Dragan TATIC.]")
[The following statement was made by President and Chairman Mahmoud Abbas at the U.N. General Assemby on 27 September, 2012. It was published by Information Clearing House.] I wish to begin by extending congratulations to the President of the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly, H.E. Mr. Vuk Jeremic, wishing him all success. I express appreciation as well to H.E. Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz A1-Nasser for his leadership of the previous General Assembly session, and also to the United Nations Secretary-General, H.E. Mr. Ban Ki- moon, for his tireless efforts at the helm of this organization. Also, from the outset, I wish to affirm our appreciation to all ...
Keep Reading »Statement from Global Palestinian Right to Return Coalition
[The following statement was issued by the Global Palestinian Right to Return Coalition on 5 February 2013.] To the children of our heroic Palestinian people, To those who safeguard the unity of our people, our representation, and our cause, As the Palestinian people await the meeting of various sectors of Palestinian leadership on the eighth of February in Cairo, and as we anticipate further development of steps towards turning the page on painful Palestinian divisions, the Global Palestinian Right ...
Keep Reading »Palestinian Refugees in Jordan and the Revocation of Citizenship: An Interview with Anis F. Kassim
[Anis F. Kassim is an international law expert and practicing lawyer in Jordan. He was a member of the Palestinian legal defense team before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the 2004 landmark case on Israel’s separation wall, and that led to the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The following interview was originally published by BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee ...
Keep Reading »BADIL Proudly Announces the Release of its Report on Palestinian National Identity
BADIL Proudly Announces the Release of its Research Project: One People United: A Deterritorialized Palestinian Identity -- BADIL Survey of Palestinian Youth on Identity and Social Ties-2012 The violent establishment of Israel in 1948 constituted a catastrophe, or Nakba, for Palestinian aspirations for self-determination. More significantly, the Nakba resulted in the mass forced displacement of the majority of the Palestinian people from their homeland, thereby undermining the social cohesion ...
Keep Reading »An Open Letter to Lebanese MP Nayla Tueni
Dear MP Nayla Tueni: In your article, العبء الفلسطيني مجدداَ (al-Nahar, 31 December 2012), you put aside all journalistic integrity and regurgitated a xenophobic Lebanese discourse that tirelessly uses Palestinians to cover up the failings of a sectarian political system in Lebanon. Had your article been written by an American or French journalist about Lebanese immigrants abroad, she would have surely been asked to resign in order to save the newspaper from accusations of racism and even lawsuits. ...
Keep Reading »Bedouin Resolution: Standing Firm in the Jerusalem Periphery
[Photos by Tanya Habjouqa. Text by Francesca Albanese.] On 2 December 2012, in a cynically prompt move the day after Palestine’s successful bid for upgraded non-member observer state of the United Nations, Israel announced its plans to spearhead settlement expansion in the E1 area in the Jerusalem periphery. By constructing approximately 3500 new settler housing units in this area, Israel would fulfill the long harbored plan to connect the illegal settlements east of Jerusalem with Jerusalem itself, ...
Keep Reading »A Nation of Pain and Suffering: Syria (Part 1)
Our enemies did not cross our borders They crept through our weakness like ants. -- Nizar Qabbani, “Footnotes to the Book of Setback” (Hawamesh ‘ala Daftar al-Naksah), ...
Keep Reading »Palestine at the United Nations?
The significance of the United Nations General Assembly vote to recognize Palestine as a non-member observer state has been exaggerated by opponents and proponents alike. It has no consequences for the status of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, nor does it undermine the rights of Palestinian refugees living in exile, the occupied territories, or indeed Israel as codified in international law and particularly UNGA Resolution 194 ...
Keep Reading »The Swallows of Syria
[Note: The views and testimonies herein are the refugees’ own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the author or of Jadaliyya.] Somaya left Homs, Syria after finding the corpse of her tortured son in a sewage ditch. Zaynab escaped with her family when she discovered that Syrian soldiers kidnapped, raped, and killed three of her schoolmates. Aziza fled after snipers killed both her husband and sister-in-law. Reports indicate that refugees and residents have also been subjected to abuse and ...
Keep Reading »National Students for Justice in Palestine Conference Opposes “Normalizing” Israeli Human Rights Abuses
Over three hundred student organizers from across the United States converged at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor over the weekend for the second annual National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) Conference. In addition to reaffirming the call for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against the State of Israel for its ongoing human rights violations against the Palestinian people, the student organizers passed a number of resolutions making way for effective national structures to assist in ...
Keep Reading »The Syrian Refugee Crisis Intensifies
Over three hundred thousand refugees have fled across Syria’s borders to Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon, according to the latest UNHCR statistics. This number accounts for only those who have registered with the UN or are waiting to register. The UN also estimates that one to one and a half million people are internally displaced within Syria. If correct, then nearly ten percent of the population of the country (twenty-two million) no longer lives in their homes. Inside Syria as of mid-September, ...
Keep Reading »On the 2012 National Students for Justice in Palestine Conference
A little over a year ago today, hundreds of students from dozens of colleges and universities arrived at Columbia University to participate in the 2011 National Students for Justice in Palestine Conference. The purpose of the conference was to reinvigorate a national student Palestine solidarity movement by providing a space for student activists to coordinate, organize, and develop politically. The energy at the conference was palpable. Students that had been working together for months over the ...
Keep Reading »UNHCR Releases New Guidelines for Detention of Asylum-Seekers
[The following press release and guidelines were issued by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees on 21 September 2012.] Press Release The UN refugee agency on Friday issued new guidelines on the detention of asylum-seekers and said UNHCR was concerned at its growing use in a number of countries. "The guidelines represent UNHCR policy and are intended as advice for governments and other bodies making decisions on detaining people," spokesman Adrian Edwards told journalists in Geneva ...
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