Support Our People in Lebanon in the Face of the COVID-19 Global Pandemic 

Originally Circulated on April 21, 2020

This global pandemic caused by COVID-19 poses a detrimental threat to our people in refugee camps globally, specifically in Lebanon. Palestinian refugees in Lebanon endure institutionalized discrimination, overcrowding, and mass unemployment. The refugee strikes in the camps of Lebanon in the year prior, which sparked country-wide protests, were a response to these conditions. 

Lacking infrastructure and widespread economic crisis experienced in the camps cannot withstand a public health calamity. With the camps shutting down and many losing their jobs, Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are facing increasing economic hardship. Today, their demands to live in dignity echo from the camps and ever more loudly, now while on the brink of a public health crisis.

We know very well that these conditions are an outgrowth of decades of dispossession and exile caused by the settler-colonial Zionist project, and that the only resolve is to guarantee the Right of Return and self-determination in our homeland. We must support the steadfastness of the Palestinian refugees, whose rights are a core issue of our national struggle, as they face Zionist attempts to liquidate our struggle and inaction by the international community. We can most effectively accomplish this by supporting the popular groups and organizations that exist in the refugee camps and that are working tirelessly there to meet the needs of the people.

As Palestinians in exile globally, we carry the responsibility to act and leverage resources in defense of our people, wherever they live. We call on you to help send food packages to our people in Lebanon. A donation of $50 will sustain one family for one month. Our goal is to support 1,000 families in the Beddawi, Burj Al-Barajneh, and Mar Elias refugee camps.

Please donate what you can today and share our fundraiser: bit.ly/refugeesupportcovid!

We invite you to join us, Al-Awda:The Palestine Right of Return Coalition, Al-Naqab Center in Burj Al-Barajneh Refugee Camp, and the Palestinian Cultural Club in Al-Baddawi and Mar Elias Refugee Camps in supporting the refugee camps of Lebanon.

Until Return and Liberation,

The Palestinian Youth Movement