24 hours Inside the refugee camp: How Palestinians were expelled from their homes / Life in shadow

24 hours Inside the refugee camp: How Palestinians were expelled from their homes / Life in shadow

We’re in Lebanon outside of Tripoli our reporter Alex pki is making his way through the narrow streets into one of the largest camps for Palestinian refugees where reporters are usually not allowed they are routinely turned away the car is passing a dumpster and a car stripped for parts you can see lots of

Flags on buildings the Palestinian flag and some others there are lots of flags here and I don’t know the meaning of all of them yet but I will find out what they represent we are outside of Tripoli and about to enter the Palestinian refugee camp where

I won’t be able to shoot openly at least at the start you have to have permission for pretty much anything around here obtained from the local authorities that are mostly autonomous from the Lebanese government due to the ongoing armed conflict between the neighboring state of Israel and the Gaza Strip the

Situation is even more complicated tensions inside the camp have increased causing unrest from time to time last August August an armed conflict broke out in one of such camps leaving over a dozen people dead Alex is accompanied by a local his name is Abed they are joined

By yet another guy who is a resident of the camp and can introduce our crew to the camp authorities hello I’m Alex what’s your name Bal Bal Bal okay nice to meet you Bal will help us clear all the checkpoints where no filming is allowed we have just cleared one small

Checkpoint at the entrance to the camp I was asked to put away my camera so I can’t film anything openly for now finally the guys are taken to the office of the local authorities who call the shots here they don’t report to the country’s authorities and sometimes even

Fight against them so it’s totally unclear yet how they will receive Alex and what will happen next no no no uh what’s happened how far is the hospital my name is Alex py and I’m a roaming reporter right now I’m in Lebanon making a special report for the people Channel

Today I’m in the city of Tripoli I’ve come here to show you how people live in a refugee camp in camps like this there are Palestinians syrians and even locals from Lebanon today we’ll see what life is like for people who have lost their homes to war let’s go

Are you subscribed to our Channel not yet the sad thing is that Anton can’t go on his next adventure until you do so pretty please subscribe now that’s right go ahead click subscribe well done and thank you we can continue now you see Lebanon is a small country that borders

On Israel and Syria and has a population of roughly 5 million people but of these at least 2 million people are refugees and displaced persons that’s practically every third person in the country we are here to see how people live in one of the camps housing all these refugees and

Displaced individuals this Camp is located close to lebanon’s second largest city Tripoli the country’s capital Beirut is located roughly 50 Mi to the South we’ve been taken to this small office I can see lots of photos of martial arts athletes and TR on the wall which makes it look like a PE classroom

Rather than an office of a local figure of authority do you have any like uh sure just a moment I have my press card on me issued by the people channel it’s basically a piece of paper and plastic the local boss asked to see

It and after he saw it he told me to always wear it on my chest and and he even gave me this red rope this badge rope so everyone could see that I’m not some stranger who somehow got here but a reporter I was actually wrong this guy

Wasn’t the boss I went through a few checks and that guy who I thought was the boss looked through all my papers and only after that he said I could see the boss I was told that all these checks are for security reasons including my own security Since the

Situation is now tense and so I got to meet the local figure of authority who is also in charge of the local Healthcare committee Abu Allah the camp was created in 1948 this was just a wasteland where some tents were put up but we don’t plan to stay here

Forever this camp like all others is considered to be a temporary shelter until people can return to Palestine the camp does not answer to the government of Lebanon they have their own authority with people like abua in char charge of all important aspects of life such as Healthcare education and naturally security it’s

More like a state within a state Palestinians have been living in this camp for several decades but everyone here says they’re ready to pack up and leave for home any moment we got them the Camp’s key problem today is overpopulation we can provide electricity Healthcare infrastructure and satisfy all other needs of 20,000

People at most while today we have 50 ,000 people residing here wait a second why don’t we try to see why Lebanon got to have camps for Palestinian refugees in the first place time for a short history lesson until 1948 Palestine was ruled by Britain under the Mandate for

Palestine and trans Jordan and there were lots of Jews living on its territory once Britain’s mandate in the Middle East was declared expired the League of Nations took over on May 14th 1948 establishment of the state of Israel was proclaimed within the borders that claimed part of Palestinian territories the Palestinians were

Extremely displeased and declared war on Israel on May 15th they were supported by several Arab States including Syria Iraq Jordan and Lebanon Israel won that war and claimed more territories while Palestinians were forced to flee to other countries to Syria Jordan but above all to Lebanon because back then it was fairly quiet

Peaceful there so you may be wondering where the camp actually is right one would expect to see tents lots of bags and suitcases and people sleeping on makeshift beds we are now out for a walk around the Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli I’m accompanied by my fixer Abed

A camp resident belal and one more armed guy assigned to our group for security while we’re here this refugee camp looks like a full full scale functioning Town they’ve got shops of all kinds and one can find here absolutely anything from sneakers to water pipes and of course they’ve got

Fresh produ veggies fish and lots of local sweets so if you need to buy anything all you have to do is go out and take your pick all these shops and kiosks are mostly run by the Camp’s residents they either own them or work in them for high

This place looks like a laundry business I can see some big plastic drums and this guy here is filling them with some green from a bottle see they’ve got bags with washing powder on the shelves in fact this is a shop and these guys sell all kinds of detergents they make themselves right Here look at this it’s a local thing around here people who live on top floors in these blocks of Flats have developed a system to avoid walking up and down the stairs every time they need something they can simply ask for something by shouting from the balcony or out of the

Window the vendors put their orders in a basket like this and they pull it up saves a lot of Time Another interesting fact all these people around don’t look much like refugees look at this guy he obviously took care to select matching clothes and accessories for his look this guy here is obviously just chilling out enjoying his shisha there are lots of kids outside with many boys on bicycles

People are very friendly and sometimes even beyond all expectations you see when I hear refugee camp I usually think of a bunch of tents in some Wasteland where people struggling but this Camp has been around for decades if I’m not mistaken for seven decades now the time when people lived in tents

Are long gone a few generations of Camp residents have been born since then that’s right people get born here grow up and continue to live here which is the reason this Camp no longer looks like a bunch of tents but a normal fullscale town are you hello I’m fine

Thanks do you speak Russian yes where did you learn Russian in Dubai okay thank you so much come where to I’ll take you home we’re working thanks so much nice to meet You to be honest it’s been quite a challenge to shoot here because you know I talk on camera telling things about what I see and people around stop me try to talk to me and take me somewhere to talk every step of the way I mean it’s certainly most amazing that people are

So open and friendly here but it takes a bit of getting used to we turned the corner and found what looked like a playground for children look the kids have laid out some dishes cups and spoons pretty much like all kids do in a sandbox but if you look carefully you’ll

See that these are gravestones they’ve got a cemetery on spot between the residential buildings and the local kids play here all the time we are being accompanied by an armed guy in green military fatigues as they said for our security but suddenly a fight breaks out in the street and he

Moves to stand right in front of the camera no no no uh What’s happen uh fight between they don’t want things like this on camera the guys practically forced me into toid Street not to have me get any closer to the fight and then walked me

Into some shop to wait it all out there this looks like an ordinary shop but not if you look closer because as you can see they have all sorts of antique guns on the walls they must be over a 100 years old these muskets and this rifle over here

It does look like they were used by people more than a century ago there are also some daggers and Axe and some swords I bought these a long time ago from the people I hosted for some time and I decided to put them here to give

The place a historical touch this is Ali he owns all these antique guns and works in this shop he used to reside in a different refugee camp until 2007 when he moved here do you know why because lebanon’s Army targeted that camp with cannon fire back when that camp was

Established by the UN the UN had a deal with the Lebanese government you don’t touch them and they live as they see fits under our supervision but them terrorist cells started to emerge and grow inside the camp and they began attacking Lebanese territories on a regular basis in 2007 a group of

Palestinian militants robbed a bank in Tripoli and then took cover inside that camp when the police arrived the robbers opened fire and all hell broke Loose the Camp’s security Force gave support to the robbers and the attempted arrest turned into a real war that lasted for months over 600 people were killed and many civilians simply fled to other camps because they were not allowed to stay in Tripoli I life here is very hard because the

Economy is getting worse and many people are struggling but the situation in other camps is worse than in this one the unemployment rate there is higher and there are many travel restrictions that apply I am renting this shop out in total there are 12 Palestinian refugee camps like this in Lebanon the official

Statistics say that they’re providing shelter to a total of 500,000 people people here emphasize the fact that this Camp is not their permanent place of residence but a temporary one and I’m told that all the Palestinians who live here are waiting for that day when Palestine becomes free again and they can return

Home when it happens they will abandon this Camp move out and go back to Palestine this is one of their most important slogans and it’s written here on this war the land that the Palestinian refugee camps have been built on is in the Camp’s use under a lease agreement that extends for 99

Years the lease was signed by the government of Lebanon and the United Nations relief and works Agency for Palestinian refugees in the near East or unrwa the image on this wall is that of a holy Shrine that is revered by both Palestinians and all Muslims in

General it is a mosque that is located in East Jerusalem people painted on the walls here and there in this Camp because it is a very important holy site for the camp residents one of the locals has pointed out another local graffiti to me that of

A soldier with no shoes and an AK rifle and the meaning of this symbol is yes we are tired but we will keep on fighting Mentioned earlier there are lots of different flags in this camp and the one that is everywhere naturally is the Palestinian flag the other flag you can see here next to it is the flag of Hamas people I’m sure you’ve heard there is a war underway between the army of Israel

And Hamas in the Gaza Strip you might wonder however what’s Hamas got to do with Lebanon let’s take a look at the map of Israel and Palestine this is the Gaza Strip where power was seized by Hamas in 2007 the other portion of Palestine known as the West Bank that is separated

From the Gaza Strip by the Israeli territory is however still governed by F both Hamas and Fatar are large political movements that want freedom for Palestine but despite the fact that they share one goal they don’t agree on pretty much everything else vatar believes in negotiations with Israel

Whereas Hamas has a lot more radical views on the methods to use we all know about the deadly escalation their views have led to by the end of 2023 however in Lebanon Batar and Hamas have found a way to coexist peacefully they have made a deal and now Patrol the streets of

Refugee camps together and so the local streets are full of both F and Hamas flags and slogans alike for example this is just a barber shop and look at all the flags on their walls of course I have no trouble identify the Palestinian flag here it is at the very top this red

Flag is that of the local Authority that is in charge here I guess I could call it the local Administration now what are these the Black Flag here is of the Islamic Jihad movement and the green flag is the flag of Hamas guys if you like my video and if

You like what we’re doing I would really appreciate if you support us on patreon on Pioneer or on PayPal and we try to make even more great films from a new dangerous places for you thank you all the links are in the description please donate places where men go to discuss

News and politics are coffee shops like this one they have plastic sheet for walls and inside they usually have a few chairs and a couple of coffee warmers coffee warmers like these are very typical for many countries in the Middle East each one has a hollow tube ins

That is filled with burning Cs and these Cals keep the coffee warm people usually make coffee at home and bring it here in bottles like this one it cools down on the way and then they warm it up in these warmers it actually gets quite hot and

People like it with a lot of sugar here while we were drinking coffee the security guard assigned to us told us a lot of interesting things including how F and Hamas managed to to actually collaborate here until the joint security force was established the situation in the camp

Was very tense there were many parties and movements here not only Hamas and F there were Democrats and others and all their followers were roughly divided into two opposing camps and there were lots of conflicts between them but roughly four or five years ago both sides decided to join forces and

Maintain peace and order in the camp together the situation is considerably improved since then believe it or not both the Lebanese police and the Lebanese Army have no legal access to the Camp’s territory this is due to the agreement The Joint security force made with the government

Of Lebanon in case any Crim is committed inside the camp The Joint Force would catch the perpetrators and hand them over to the police ahed serves in The Joint Force his father is from hia hia is now a city in Israel but until 1948 it was Palestinian that’s when ahed’s

Father who was then only 15 came to stay in a refugee camp I consider Hyer my home my home in Palestine and I want to go there of course I’d like to see Jerusalem and Gaza too but the one thing I want most is to leave this camp and go and live in

Hia Palestinians together with refugees from other countries have next to no legal rights in Lebanon their employment opportunities are very limited in fact they can only work on the Camp’s territory and since the camp has no production or manufacturing businesses there are very few jobs available Palestinian woman becomes entitled to

Lebanese citizenship if she marries a citizen of Lebanon however this doesn’t work the other way round Palestinian man who marries a Lebanese citizen will never become a citizen here and neither will their children refugees are not allowed to build houses all the housing in the camps is provided by the

UN in order to interview a widowed woman called Marina we had to go through several stages of negotiation when we first arrived at the camp we went to see the local authorities to get their permission to shoot around since normally reporters are not allowed on site here and no one

Is allowed to film anything or anyone we received both their permission and their promise to help us visit a local family for an interview then something went wrong and all our appointments got cancelled so in the end we appr the local security Force through our fixer with the same request

Because their Authority in the camp is higher than that of the local Administration dealing with the security Force wasn’t easy either we weren’t allowed to shoot them not only because they carry arms but mainly because this is in essence at odds with the local la the law in Lebanon doesn’t allow them

To buy arms or carry arms and yet they do and thus they function here illegally as they maintain order in the camp more than that our fixer told me that some of these guys are in fact wanted by the Lebanese police which is yet another reason why we weren’t

Allowed to shoot anything involving them but at the end of the day they came through and arranged for us an interview with this woman who was very kind to let us see her home and told us about her life here Marina’s family consists of seven people who live in three rooms so

It’s pretty crowded the rooms are very modest to say the least this is for example one of them you can see bare walls very little Furniture a bed and a TV the paint is very old and cracking and they have no lampshade during the tour of the apartment Marina tells us

That the toilet is leaking but she has no money to have it fixed For Bina has four children her youngest two a boy and a girl are now at school the education is provided by the UN program free of charge her eldest son keeps trying to make some money When we asked how they manage without a source of income Marina said that in addition to a small payment her family receives from the unrwa she gets help from relatives friends and even neighbors this is what people do around here and yet it’s not enough to get by

Ever since they had lost the bread winner of the family Marina’s Husband hospitals for refugees are located on the Camp’s territory there are also hospitals in Tripoli but they are very expensive this is a local Outpatient Clinic for the refugees of this Camp to be honest I’m impressed it’s pretty nice I mean back at home in Russia where

I live not all our patient clinics are nearly as nice here they have a waiting area with some chairs for people over there is the reception desk what catches the eye in this Clinic is how clean it is everything’s in order and no crowds of people the one thing we never

Expected to see here is a doctor who’d speak Russian to us how are you very well thank you so much do you speak Russian or just a little I speak Russian fluently Alan Assa is a Palestinian he’s a trauma surgeon he learned Russian when he was

Studying in Russia back in 2005 where in Russia did he study in the south in dagistan in makatala wow and how did you find dagistan dagistan is like a home to me it’s really like a second home to me my wife is from dagistan I have three

Sons and one of them is studying in Russia in vulgarr alanar works here as a trauma surgeon and his patients pay him whatever they can if you can imagine that the doctors here don’t get any salary no there is no funding from the UN here we just have doctors here and they get

Paid for the work they do for the consults and procedures and that’s it there’s no other support or funding the only money we get is from the patients who come here for medical help seeing a doctor like Alan Assa here costs $5 that’s about $5 for comparison seeing a

Doctor of the same level of expertise in Tripoli will cost from 20 to $30 the main problem here is that this Clinic doesn’t have all kinds of doctors so to get some specialized help people need to go to tripy while not many can afford it I heard that there are big problems with

Electricity in Lebanon in this Clinic they have panels that generate electricity solar panels and the electricity is stored in batteries there is also a backup electricity generator for emergencies the generator here is hardly ever used it’s strictly for emergencies the solar panels generate enough electricity to power the entire Clinic

Only in Winter they close 1 hour earlier when the Sun goes down all the rooms are well equipped and they’ve got a bed on Wheels plenty of clean sheets an x-ray film viewer a medicine cabinet and even an AC unit on the wall nothing in the camp is funded or

Belongs to the government of Lebanon this Clinic is run by the alifa foundation it’s a Palestinian organization that covers all of Lebanon there are 10 clinics like this in the camp and they are all funded by Palestinian organizations Under the Umbrella of the unrwa the chief doctor

Of this Clinic says they can treat pretty much anything here but they’ve got their problems too the funding is not enough to cover the needs of all the Camp’s residents some meds are unavailable medical companies Supply meds only to pharmacies and this also is a problem this is a donation box because

Because the clinic is in need of funds as both the chief and the other doctors told us so people are encouraged to make a donation here they’ve got slots for bills and for coins which is pretty standard for donation boxes you can donate to help disable people to help buy more

Medications and to help emergency patients those live in a refugee camp have to comply with lots of rules and restrictions and most accept them because they believe they have no choice but there are those who want a different life this is Ahmed he is a teacher of English he was born in the

Gaza Strip and decided to leave in 2007 and a STP all time you you feel worry you cannot live there without any problem all time problem without there is no no money no job that’s it my family in the middle of Gaza and at T I love I love them so

Much my mother my brother my sister there my uncle aunt everyone only here my wife and my uh my son in the end ahed managed to find a job as a teacher of English and not in the camp but in triplet on a local scene it’s considered a tremendous achievement Lebanese people

Looks uh they look to to the people inside the camp uh by different way and they forbid the people and Palestina people here in the camp from man they think I’m not looks like the people in the camp I’m B I’m foreign Palestinian of outside being a foreigner in Lebanon

Has both pros and cons people will treat you better than refugees from the camp yet they will never accept you as their own feel some different uh about my place uh the language the accent of people they think that U I’m foreign here uh I feel that I’m a

Stranger although I’m I’m Arabian man this is an Arabian country in spite of I’m Arabian and they are araban I feel I’m a stranger refugees account for half the population of Lebanon aside from Palestinians there are a few million Iraqis and syrians in the country the

Situation in the country is very bad the economy has been in crisis since 2019 and all the migrants only increase the economic burden which is why the people in Lebanon are pretty tired of the refuges to put it mildly we were not ready for this number of uh uh people

People uh to uh thrive in Lebanon I mean speaking of the infrastructure at the at at the at the beginning we have between 6 million to 9 million syrians in Lebanon 6 to 9 million the registered amount is only 2 million so uh why they’re saying it’s 6 to9 million

Because they are they lost count I mean they lost count of the huge number of all so uh births of children uh Syrian children are filling the streets uh trying to like I mean sell things or beg for money there are beggar everywhere they are old syrians and uh

So uh it is uh it is a situation that cannot last and uh we are trying by several ways to have them to have those who are not real refugees to return to that country my dream to be in a safe place me and my family and to go home

Freedom I want to go back to Palestine is what probably every person we have talked to in this refugee camp said to us people keep saying it even though it feels like they don’t really believe it’s possible two generations of Palestinians have grown up in this Camp

Since 194 8 they don’t know a better life than this this temporary Camp is their permanent home although it’s not supposed to be it’s really hard to rap one’s mind around it what’s your dream I want to be a dentist I want to be a construction engineer I want to be a

Doctor one more kid we met here is Jud he is the son of Marina who had kindly invited just to her home his dream is to play football professionally but he has no proper shoes to train the family can’t afford a pair of sneakers could you ask him if he likes

These shoes or if he’d likes some others we came to a sports shoe store with Marina and her son Jud he has already picked the shoes that he likes he really didn’t want to come because he’s a bit shy and didn’t want to go on camera but I promised him pair of

Sneakers as a gift and he already has them on and they only cost $15 he’s saying thank you okay thank You

People, today we’re in Lebanon. We are outside of Tripoli and about to enter the Palestinian refugee camp where our reporter Alex Pototsky won’t be able to shoot openly, at least at the start.
Alex is making his way through the narrow streets into one of the largest camps for Palestinian refugees where reporters are usually not allowed. They are routinely turned away. You have to have a permission for pretty much anything around here, obtained from the local authorities that are mostly autonomous from the Lebanese government. Due to the ongoing armed conflict between the neighboring state of Israel and the Gaza Strip, the situation is even more complicated. Tensions inside the camp have increased causing unrest from time to time.
Alex has come there to show you how people live in a refugee camp. In camps like this, there are Palestinians, Syrians and even locals from Lebanon. Today, we’ll see what life is like for people who have lost their homes to war.
This is Lyadov and “The People” project from Tripoli, Lebanon.

This is not just a travel channel. This is a collection of documentaries about the lives of people in different parts of our planet. Here you will not see beautiful staged images. This channel is about something else. About reality, honest and sometimes frightening.

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