Monday, June 4, 2007

"Lebanese" Refugee Camps

I am interested by a couple things regarding the recent violence in Lebanese Palestinian refugee camps:

(1) Where are all the Palestinian-American protests against the Lebanese government? Many of the same factors--like that Palestinians are under attack, like that Fatah is involved--that are in Gaza and the West Bank can be seen in Lebanon but I have yet to see cries of injustice leveled against the Lebanese. What's with the inconsistency on the part of Palestinian advocates? As far as I can tell the Lebanese government attacked the camps with little provocation and many lives have been lost, yet there has been less outcry than when the Israeli Army conducts any operation in one of the territories.

(2) Why are they called "Lebanese" Refugee Camps and not "Palestinian" ones? What if Gaza and the West Bank were called "Israeli" Refugee Camps?

I'm not trying to hint at any kind of media conspiracy, I'm trying to highlight some intriguing non-parallels between what appears to be two similar ongoing confrontations between Palestinian refugees and their host country's government/military.