Letter from Manal

Manal is one of my best friends. She lives in Rashedie, the southernmost Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, just south of the city Tyre (called Soor in Arabic) and only kilometres away from the Israeli border. The camp is surrounded by orange trees, green fields and a beautiful beach - a stark contrast to the ugly reality of the 20.000 people living there, who is stripped of virutally every right you can think of, ranging from the right to citizenship, to the right of fixing a leaking roof, to being allowed to work as a taxi driver, not to mention a doctor or a lawyer. Fleeing Palestine during the war of 1947-1949, the Palestinians in Lebanon believed they would be able to return to their homes after some days, or some weeks at most. 58 years have passed, and they are still there, with the key to their houses in hand and with their future lying shattered around. Most of them living in one of 12 official refugee camps in Lebanon, they now number about 400.000, that is 10% of the population.

As Norwegians and other privileged western citizens are being evacuated from Lebanon on a large scale and unfortunate Lebanese inhabitants are desperately trying to flee the country, the Palestinians in Lebanon are already refugees with nowhere to go. They know their situation all too well; they have seen it before. With no passports and nowhere to go they are stuck in their camps, and they can only hope and pray that Israel will not destroy them completely, that they will be allowed access to enough food and water to survive and that the bombs will not hit their families.

Manal on her roof in Rashedie, where we used to sit and talk and laugh for hours on end, eat bizr (small seeds of different kinds) and drink arabic coffee. Manal is a true friend. Her name means Hope, and I do believe that it's people like her who represent the hope of this world. Stay strong Manal! I think of you, and I pray that this madness will come to an end. I wish I could do more than pray, but maybe by writing these lines one or two more will care, and maybe if one or two more cared each day then we would eventually gather enough power to end this injustice and the cruel cycle of violence it creates.

The following is an excerpt from an email I got from her yesterday.

it's really so bad situation here every where isreall is attack by planes and everything, last day no one slept here on Raschediah, all village next to us attacked by israel and the kids and old people afriad and sick it's really so hard we saw the planes (...)

people searching about food and safe place (even if isreall said that there is no safe place every thing maybe will happened every place)

iam not worry about my self but there is really people cann't stay like this to along time we cann't go outside camp and visiting each other and the bad thngs to me that my 2 brothers sherif and osama is on place next to saida and they cann't camp, we all worry they call us yesterday and the are good ........... till know

the dead people all of them from old peaple , womens .kids

(...)

i have to go know
it's not good to dead far of you house
plz pray to us
and say hi to all your family
sorry for my bad dictation the planse know above rachdeih it attak tyre (soor)
don't forget me

manal