The UN Palestinian relief organisation, UNRWA, has expressed optimism over initial donor pledges after an appeal for US$55 million to fund the first year of rehabilitation and emergency aid to Palestinians displaced from the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon.
“The reaction has been very positive from donors, some of whom have made immediate pledges. We are very happy with the outcome,” UNRWA spokeswoman Hoda al-Turk told IRIN.
Launching the appeal on 10 September with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, the commissioner-general of UNRWA, Karen AbuZayd, appealed to Lebanese communities to work together to ensure the rebuilding of the camp.
“The return to Nahr al-Bared camp affords an opportunity for the Lebanese communities to come together and realise they have been adversely affected by this conflict and must support each other in the healing process,” said AbuZayed.
Some local leaders of villages and towns around Nahr al-Bared have said they do not wish to see the camp rebuilt, and have threatened a campaign of civil disobedience.
Much of Nahr al-Bared’s infrastructure has been “put out of action”, according to UNRWA estimates, by a 15-week army campaign of bombardment and firefights as they battled the Islamist militants of Fatah al-Islam holed up inside the camp.
The fighting displaced the camp’s more than 31,000 officially registered residents. Local Palestinian estimates had put the figure at over 40,000 - or 6,200 families, the majority of whom moved into the already overcrowded neighbouring camp of Beddawi.
Karen AbuZayed said the appeal included “provisions for temporary shelter via rental assistance, construction of temporary shelters and support to host families, infrastructure, including water and sanitation, temporary employment, as well as basic services including humanitarian assistance, health care and education for the coming year.”
The government’s initial estimate for rebuilding Nahr al-Bared is $350m, according to UNRWA, but the organisation is waiting for a green light from the army, which is clearing booby-trapped buildings and unexploded ordnance, before it enters the camp to make an initial assessment of damage to buildings and infrastructure.
“The stakes are very high”
Prime Minister Siniora told the gathered representatives of international organisations in Beirut that his government’s pledge to rebuild Nahr al-Bared “cannot be another broken promise to the Palestinians”.
“The stakes are very high. Failure to rebuild could have catastrophic consequences in terms of chaos and violence in the 11 other camps,” said Siniora, urging the international community to share the financial burden, which he said Lebanon could not meet on its own.
 Failure to rebuild could have catastrophic consequences in terms of chaos and violence in the 11 other camps. |
Siniora also appealed for the international community to shoulder responsibility for what he called “five decades of failure to deal justly with Palestinian refugees”.
Abbas Zaki, head of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) in Lebanon, said 47 Palestinian civilians had been killed during the fighting in the camp, while 317 had been wounded. Zaki urged the international community to fund emergency cash donations of $5,000 to each displaced family.
UNRWA’s Al-Turk said 900 displaced families had so far accepted payment of $600 as support for three months rent, while she expected the figure to rise to 2,500.
UNRWA intends to develop a comprehensive reconstruction plan for Nahr al-Bared in cooperation with the Lebanese government, the World Bank, UN agencies, the PLO, non-governmental organisations and the Palestinian community.
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