The homes of Palestinians in Lebanese "refugee camps" are literally falling apart.
The Union of Palestinian Right of Return Committees in Lebanon issued a statement this week holding the UNRWA Administration and the Engineering Department responsible for the collapse of houses on its residents in the Palestinian camps.
The real problem is that Lebanon severely restricts building materials into the camps, which are overcrowded and getting worse. Apparently the committee doesn't want to upset the Lebanese authorities so they prefer to blame UNRWA.
A report by a Palestinian human rights group in Lebanon last December says that hundreds of Palestinian families have seen their ceilings collapse. The report prepared by the Palestinian Association for Human Rights noted the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon still live in camps that cannot be expanded despite being there for seven decades. They note the imposition of strict restrictions by the Lebanese authorities on the entry of building materials in the camps.
There was another recent Arabic article about the number of dilapidated houses in various Lebanese camps.
Outside of one French media outlet, I could not find any mention of this in English.
Now, imagine this was happening in Gaza. There would be numerous stories about this, all of them blaming Israel (not UNRWA as most of these articles do.) In fact, UNRWA would convene an emergency international donor gathering, and nations around the world would pledge to fix these buildings. we woul see charities asking for money to help the Palestinians - all with an undercurrent of blaming Israel.
Is it because they care about Palestinians, or because they love to find excuses to paint Israel in a bad light? What we see in Lebanon proves that it is most definitely the latter.
