by Marie Devine

Created on: March 30, 2008

There is a solution to the Palestinian issue in Lebanon. Refugee issues are similar in many countries and can be dealt with in similar ways. Focusing on the basic needs helps to solve the issues of health services, jobs, education and equality that must be considered.

The United Nations numbered 215,890 Palestinian refugees registered in the remaining 12 official refugee camps according to their December 2006 report. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) numbers 409,714 Palestinians registered in all of Lebanon, about 10% of the population.

The refugees live with an expectancy of returning home, and being a temporary resident comes with its own restrictions. These refugees do not have the social services that the "legal residents" have. Schools, health and relief services are limited. The United Nations agency UNRWA is the sole provider of education, health, relief and social services. As "foreigners," they are forbidden by law from working in about 70 trades and professions, leading to a very high rate of unemployment.

There is a solution. The nation of Lebanon has great soil fertility and water availability, yet they do not have a large agricultural workforce. Agriculture is the least popular economic sector with the highly skilled workforce of Lebanon, making this a great opportunity for Lebanon to solve the Palestinian refugee issue.

The refugees are living in abject poverty now and would find the opportunity to set up tents on other people's land and grow their fruits and vegetables to be a luxury. It would be seen as a way to keep their families together, a healthy way to live and ease the stress of being overcrowded in refugee camps, and a way to be useful and provide for other needs for their families. This works best using small plots of land for small gardens and fruit trees, not orchards or farms.

This is not to enslave the people to work on farms for others, but to have their freedom in a country that is not their own. When the locals give or lend sheep, goats and chickens to each extended family, the animals will reproduce and be shared so that each family can have their own milk animal and chickens.

If this were done along the border with Israel, it would serve as a buffer zone, a sort of insurance that would discourage violence or incursion into the neighboring nation. In Lebanon, perhaps the areas that were severely damaged in the recent war could be cleaned and made useful by allowing the Palestinian refugees to salvage anything useful

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>