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Waiting To
Go
Di Tatham
This program
from the City Life series is set in Lebanon,
where (according to the UN) there are three
hundred seventy-five thousand Palestinian
refugees. Palestinians are unwanted in Israel,
but in war-torn, sectarian Lebanon, among
fellow Arabs, they hardly fare better, and
most live in poverty. Barred from working,
they also have limited access to medical
care and higher education. Many have been
in Lebanon for over fifty years.
A Palestinian
doctor working in the PLO-funded Haifa hospital
in Burj el Barajneh refugee camp, Beirut,
earns US $200 month, and is glad of the
work: she's forbidden in any Lebanese hospital.
Elsewhere young Palestinians do not value
education because they see their parents
in menial, part-time jobs regardless of
their qualifications. For refugees living
in South Lebanon, a degree qualifies a person
to pick oranges, at a salary of US $6.30
a day. South Lebanon's refugees are even
prohibited from rebuilding their houses.
Those who
can get out of Lebanon go to Europe, Canada,
USA -- but they never give up hope of returning
to their villages in Palestine. Adding insult
to injury, a recent law enacted in Lebanon
prohibits Palestinians from owning property
-- though people from any other recognized
state have that right. But Palestinians
do not have a state: they are officially
stateless.
Related Links
Extensive
resources collected by the producer of this
program
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