Update on Nahr Al-Barid. A person who knows the Palestinian refugee camp situation in Lebanon better than anybody sent me this:

"Yesterday I had Khaled... over the phone: he told me the situation in Baddaoui is so hard imagine a camp of 17,000 inhabitants is now accomodating an additional 27,000 from Al-Bared. Fatah (Yasser Araft branch) is now called Fateh-Al-Mustaqbal). Hariri gangs are distributing food as a charity deed ("sadaka"expecting people to read Al fatiha on Rafik Hariri shoul) so people are eating and cursing Rafik Hariri because he was the worse with the Palestinian (he was the one who issued the law prohibiting the Palestinian to own property and the other one that requested refugees from Lebanon to have a visa in 1995-this was cancelled later by Selim El-Hoss). Two days ago it seems that Hariri gangs were trying to convince the displaced from Bared to move to Lebanese schools in Lebanese villages: this created fear and rebellion among the Bared and Baddaoui refugees, who in spite of all their sufferings due to crowded places and streets in Baddaoui (Khaled told me that the situtation in Baddaoui reminded him of "El-Hajj" -pilgrinage in Saudi Arabi, as people have to cross the arms in order to avoid in bumping into each others!!). They refused of course to leave the camps. Only 2 to 3% dare to leave the camp to go to their work outside the camp (in Tripoli for instance) as the Army is really harrassing the Palestinians: if they go they do not have any guarantee that they will not be arrested simply because they are Palestinian. As for the Bared sitation, there are whole neighborhoods totally destroyed as if there were earthquakes (literaly). 2 Bulldozers (caterpillar) started yesterday to remove rubbles, and now there is large vacuum in the camp with all this destruction. Caterpilar reminded the population of what happened in Israel after Jennin massacres...It is so sad..."