Nahr al-Bared
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| An Nahr al-Bared النهر البارد |
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| Country | Lebanon |
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| Population | |
| - Total | approx. 30,000 |
Nahr al-Bared (Arabic: نهر البارد, literally: Cold River) is a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, 16 km from the city of Tripoli. Some 30,000 displaced Palestinians and their descendents live in and around the camp, which was named after the river that runs south of the camp. The Lebanese Army is banned from entering all Palestinian camps under the 1969 Cairo Agreement.
The camp was established in December 1949 by the League of Red Cross Societies in order to accommodate the Palestinian refugees suffering from the difficult winter conditions in the Beqaa Valley and the suburbs of Tripoli. The camp was established outside any major Lebanese towns or settlements, which left Nahr al-Bared Camp (NBC) more isolated from the Lebanese society than many of the other camps in Lebanon.
Despite this, due to its position on the main road to Syria and its proximity to the Syrian border, NBC grew to be a central commercial hub for the local Lebanese of the Akkar region.
After nearly 60 years of living side by side, the people of NBC and the local Lebanese inter-married, built social and economic relations and would visit each other regularly. However, there are some problems between the Palestinian refugees and the Lebanese. The Palestinian refugees are frustrated because of restrictions imposed on them, and the Lebanese are suspicious of the unstable conditions in camp.
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[edit] Layout of the camp
Nahr al-Bared is located directly on the Mediterranean. It is made up of the "official" or "old" camp and the "unofficial" or "new" camp. The "old" camp is roughly 2 km² and is under the responsibility of UNRWA. The "new" camp extends mainly to the north of the old camp, but also to lesser degrees to the east and south. It is more spacious and many of the wealthier families have built their homes there in the past 2 years.
The camp is oblong shaped with the main road running straight through it (South to North), and the Souq running east to west. The different sectors of the camp are named after areas of what is now the northern Israeli Galilee region : Safourieh, Sasa, Safad, etc. Other sectors are more commonly known by the origins of the families living there: e.g. the "Maghrebi" area where families originally from Algeria, Tunisia or Morocco who had moved to Palestine in the 1930s now live.
[edit] 2007 conflict
Late in the night of Saturday May 19th, 2007, a building was surrounded by Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF) in which a group of Fatah al-Islam militants accused of taking part in a bank robbery earlier that day were hiding. The ISF attacked the building early on Sunday May 20th 2007, unleashing a day long battle between the ISF and Fatah al-Islam militants on 200 Street, Tripoli. As a response, members of Fatah al-Islam in Nahr al-Bared Camp (16 km from Tripoli) attacked an army checkpoint, killing several soldiers in their sleep. The army immediately responded by shelling the camp.
The camp became the centre of the fighting between the Lebanese Army and Fatah al-Islam. It sustained heavy shelling while under siege. Most of the inhabitants fled to the nearby Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp (doubling that camps population)or further south to Tripoli, Beirut and Saida. The last civilians (25 women and 38 children, the families of Fatah al-Islam members) were evacuated from the camp on Friday August 24th, 2007.
The conflict between the Lebanese Army and Fatah al-Islam ended on Sunday September 2nd, 2007 with the Lebanese Army taking full control of the camp after eliminating the remaining terrorist pockets [1].
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, charged with the care of the Palestinians, struggled to contain the unprecedented humanitarian crisis. In the meantime, most of the displaced refugees waited in improvised shelters in Beddawi camp and elsewhere for a sustainable solution to arrive (http://www.pulitzercenter.org/openitem.cfm?id=814).
Nahr al-Bared was also home to the largest market in northern Lebanon. many Lebanese relied on the tax-free goods and black market prices to keep the cost of living down in a country with current inflation at 5.6%. The demise of Nahr al-Bared was a devastating blow to the local economy (http://www.pulitzercenter.org/openitem.cfm?id=835)
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- UNRWA official refugee camp profile
- UNRWA map, showing location of Nahr el-Bared
- Nahr Al Bared Pictures
- Nahr Al Bared Camp Official Site
- Nahr al-Bared: Refuge in Ruin, a reporting project from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
- In Video: Palestinian Refugees return to Nahr al-Bared, Don Duncan and Andrea de Marco, the Christian Science Monitor, March 4 2008
- In Pictures: Palestinians return to ruined Lebanese camp
- Fall of Nahr al-Bared devastates surrounding economy: Marketplace radio segment by Don Duncan, April 11, 2008
- Refugees Return to Camp, Don Duncan, The Washington Times, March 25, 2008
- Lebanese struggle with broken economy, Don Duncan, The San Francisco Chronicle, March 23, 2008
- As Rebuilding Begins at Lebanon's Nahr al-Bared, Displaced Refugees Eager to Return, William Wheeler and Don Duncan, World Politics review, 11 Mar 2008
- Palestinians' bittersweet homecoming in Lebanon, by William Wheeler and Don Duncan, The Christian Science Monitor, March 5, 2008
| Palestinian exodus · Palestinian refugees1 · UNRWA | ||||||||||
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| 1The UNRWA definition of a "Palestinian refugee" is a person "whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict." "UNRWA's definition of a refugee also covers the descendants of persons who became refugees in 1948." (UNRWA) |
