Living Sabra and Shatila...

2 pm…

Sweltering heat…

Sabra and Shatila.

We swapped Beirut’s Corniche into an other face of the Lebanese capital: the refugees’ camps.

As our bus drop us out at the entrance of the Camp, I was surprised to see a happy crowd waiting for us, braving the blistering heat and gathering all around the Ghobeiry Municipality modest square, erected in memory of the victims of Sabra and Shatila’s massacres.

Nothing fancy…No names engraved in marble, no benches, no rose-bushes…just a few fluffs of shriveled up grass, 3 posters with horrible pictures of the massacres and a date…1982…

The Palestinian refugees living in Sabra and Shatila seemed extremely happy to see us: men with Keffiehs (Palestinian traditional white and black scarves), women with lovely black and red embroidered dresses (typical from Palestine too) and hundreds of kids togged up in their nicest outfits, running all around us, offering flowers and laughing in a frenetic concert of “Where are you from?”

When asked the same question back, they all had the same answer: “Palestine!” and could name their home villages and even sometimes the neighborhoods, which I found quite interesting. Those kids were born in Lebanon, they belong to the 3rd or 4th generation of descendants of 1948 Palestinian refugees and they have never seen Palestine.
And yet…they still call it home and proudly claim that they shall definitely come back “mahma tala azzaman” (no matter how long it takes)

Touching…

Especially knowing that in all Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, the question of Palestinian refugees’ legitimate right to return has always been a bone of contention, as soon after 1948, Israel passed a law forbidding Palestinians’ return, and assigning all their land holdings to a custodian of absentee property (!!!!!!!!!)

I have discussed several times this issue with Israeli friends and found myself often confronted to 2 types of reactions:

- Either a strong denial, claiming that this would be the end of the Jewish state. In fact, the large numbers of refugees (1948 refugees’ descendants number around 5 million today), together with the much higher birth-rate of the Arab population as opposed to Jews, would soon create an Arab majority in Israel and the country would loose its “Jewish specificity”.

- or a more moderate speech, recognizing the tragedy of 700 000 Palestinian women, men an children expelled from their lands in 1948 but considering other solutions to the problem, such as an official recognition of Israel’s exactions in 1948 with public excuses and possibly financial compensations for land dispossession.

But Palestinians’ aspirations to go back keep growing, and their hopes never fade away, as this poem of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish tells…

“I come from there. I render the sky unto her mother
When the sky weeps for her mother.
And I weep to make myself known
To a returning cloud.
I learnt all the words worthy of the court of blood
So that I could break the rule.
I learnt all the words and broke them up
To make a single word: Homeland.....”

I asked one of the teenagers who was proudly lifting a Palestinian flag and making a “V” sign with his fore and middle fingers: “What makes you sure that you will come back?”
He seemed surprised by my question.
Despite their terrible living conditions in Sabra and Shatila, there is no room for doubts or discouragement.

"Like the day always succeeds to the night,he said,the return always succeeds to the exile"

And he added, with a sad smile:

“At the moment, Palestine lives in us, until we get to live in it again, someday…”

Time to leave.

I didn't want to leave.

Sabra and Shatila are often described as "places you don't want to see".
But for some reason,many of us wanted to see more...to hear more...and to let those have-nots of History feel that there are people who still care about their fate.

Our bus team had lost all his enthusiasm on the way back to the hotel.
No socializing, no singing, no gossiping...Everyone was quiet and pensive.

I couldn't stop thinking about the kids' smiles and unwavering confidence in their return to Palestine someday.

Someday...Like the day succeeds to the night...