August/September 2005

http://alawda.newjerseysolidarity.org

NYCDP Presents Teach-In on Lebanon

The New York Committee to Defend Palestine held an educational on August 2, 2005, at ABC NO RIO on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, to discuss the history and current situation for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Focusing on Rosemary Sayigh’s work, Too Many Enemies, presenters and committee members Polly Sylvia and Samia Halaby addressed the history of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, focusing on the period of the early Lebanese Civil War and the rise of the PLO and Palestinian self-government within the refugee camps. The presenters discussed both the lack of civil and human rights accorded to Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, and the control exercised over their activities, and the eventual upsurge of the revolutionary movement within the camps, and how that movement related to the Lebanese Left forces. Bringing the discussion to the present day, the presenters and audience discussed the continuing violations of Palestinians’ rights in Lebanon, as well as U.S. interference in Lebanese affairs. Participants also discussed the creativity and numerous independent institutions of the organized Palestinian community, through the PLO, of the time, and the vacuum caused by the lack of such coherent institutions today. Participants also discussed the struggle for the right to return to Palestine, a struggle that remains the core demand of the Palestinian cause, for Palestinians everywhere in the world.