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29 March 2024

Palestinians in Lebanon battle for education

Pic: Nadim Kawach

Published
By Nadim Kawach

Palestinian university student Saeed Hassan Ahmed put the hookah’s pipe in his mouth and took a deep puff before he leaned back on his bed and stretched his legs.

It was Tuesday and the university was open. But 22-year-old Ahmed did not go to class and he looked so upset that he felt he would not go for a long time.

“My father is unable to pay fees for this semester because he can’t afford it…I think I will not go to university for a few weeks if not months,” he said.

Pic: Nadim Kawach

“He wanted to borrow again but I told him not to do so…the fees are too high for him as he relies on a small shop and we are a family of six…we had regular financial aid for my university from relatives but they stopped it this semester for some reason.”

Ahmed is one of thousands of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon struggling to get education amidst spiraling tuition fees and cost of living.

A resident of the tiny Mieh Mieh refugee camp in South Lebanon, Ahmed is in the second year of an engineering degree, for which he has to pay nearly $8,000 annually for five years when his father’s income does not exceed $6,000 a year.

Relatives supported him in the first year and the first two semesters in the second year before stopping the aid for unknown reasons. Ahmed’s father was told the aid would resume later but he is much worried that his son would miss a whole semester.

Pic: Nadim Kawach

Palestinian students in Lebanon are also helped by the “President’s Fund”, created by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to partly pay for university students from Palestine. The Fund, which relies entirely on donations from Palestinian businessmen and dignitaries, pays less than 50 per cent of the fees to Palestinian university students.

Despite the help, many of the secondary class graduates still cannot go to university for lack of funds, opting instead to join low-paid jobs to support their families.

School education for the Palestinians is free at UN schools until the secondary level but only a handful of them can join government universities because of prevailing curbs on foreigners. As a result, many of them opt for private universities but only those who manage to pay or are lucky enough to get aid can complete studies.

“I am struggling to pay university fees for my daughter Hiba but I also rely heavily on aid from relatives, who have set up a small fund to support university students within the family,” said Mohammed Hameed, another Palestinian refugee in Lebanon.

“Now the fund has run out of money and I was told to wait…I cannot pay all the fees for this semester to my daughter so she might miss it.”

Palestinians in Lebanon, estimated at nearly 450,000, view education as their only weapon for survival for lack of land, identity and fixed sources of income.

As a result, Palestinians have the best literacy rate in the Arab world and one of the region’s highest ratios of university students to the young population.

Besides financial constraints, the Palestinian university graduates in Lebanon face difficulties in getting a job due to restrictions on foreigners’ work in the public sector.

Private establishments also give priority to Lebanese graduates, pushing most Palestinian graduates to either accept low-paid jobs irrelevant to their field of studies or search for opportunities in the oil-rich Gulf and other countries.

The high education fees have allied with low income to put pressure on the already low Palestinian living standards.

Palestinians, who flocked to Lebanon to flee Israel’s 1948 invasion of their homeland, are not allowed to own flats and other property in the country.

“How do you expect me to support my six children, pay power and water bills and pay university fees when this shop is the only source of income for us,” said Ahmed Rabah, a shopkeeper in Ain Al Helweh Palestinian refugee camp just near Mieh Mieh.

“I have two sons in the university and the fees for engineering are very high here plus the fact that the cost of living is constantly rising…I have received help from the President’s Fund but it is not enough….one of my sons is thinking of quitting the university and travelling abroad to work to help us.”

According to the UN, more than two thirds of the Palestinians living in Lebanon are under the poverty line.

The situation is no better in Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, where Israel’s repressive policies have wrecked the economy and aggravated unemployment and poverty among the nearly five million Palestinians there. A recent UN report showed joblessness among Gaza’s youth was as high as 65 per cent in 2012.

“We are facing a bleak future here,” said Mahmoud Shehadi, a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon. “At least those in the West Bank and Gaza are included in the peace negotiations with Israel…but what about us and where are we going…no one knows.”