Daily Star - Hariri Vows To Raise Funds For Nahr Al Bared

By Michael Bluhm
Daily Star staff

Interview

BEIRUT: Prime Minister Saad Hariri promised to help raise money for rebuilding the war-ravaged Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp by using his connections with wealthy Gulf donors, said United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Commissioner General Filippo Grandi after meeting Hariri on Wednesday.
“He said he would use his influence and his contacts to help us raise this money,” Grandi told The Daily Star. “I found his commitment very spontaneous, unprompted by me.
“I was very much encouraged by how determined, precise and concrete the prime minister was.”
UNRWA needs to collect $328 million for rebuilding the original grounds of the camp, which later expanded into adjacent areas before much of Nahr al-Bared was destroyed in three months of fighting in 2007 between the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and Fatah al-Islam extremists. The Lebanese state is managing the $116-million reconstruction of the camp’s newer areas and nearby Lebanese communities.
Hariri spent much of his youth in Saudi Arabia, where his family has billions of dollars in business interests and his father, slain former Premier Rafik Hariri, built strong political ties.
The premier also expressed a strong commitment to finishing the reconstruction, Grandi added, despite persistent doubts voiced by Palestinians that the state would never allow the camp to be rebuilt
“I am more optimistic now than in the last few years on the issue of progress because I feel there is more goodwill and openness,” said Grandi, who later on Wednesday toured the Burj al-Barajneh camp in Beirut, another of Lebanon’s 12 camps.
UNRWA has gathered about $100 million in pledges, which will cover the reconstruction of two of the camp’s eight sectors and part of the third, Grandi said. Raising the remaining approximately $230 million presents a serious challenge, partly because of other UNRWA drives such as for the besieged Gaza Strip, and partly because of other disasters – such as the recent, devastating earthquake in Haiti – also competing for donor funding limited by the economic crisis, Grandi added.
“It’s tough to raise this money,” he said. “It is a very big amount of money to raise, especially because we are raising money for other things.”
Finding the financing and finishing the reconstruction also serves Lebanon’s security interests, because prolonging or failing to complete the rebuilding would only exacerbate the friction between the refugees and the Lebanese population, especially in north Lebanon, Grandi said.
“Any hesitation or delay in the reconstruction of Nahr al-Bared increases tensions in the north of Lebanon,” he added. “It is a matter for the stability and security of Lebanon.”
UNRWA is putting up the first buildings in the first sector, with some 250 million cubic meters of concrete poured, said Charles Higgins, UNRWA’s project director for Nahr al-Bared. Workers have progressed to the first floors of some structures, he added. The rebuilding is taking place in phases, so UNRWA is still continuing to backfill other parts of the first sector, Higgins said.
The lack of funding means that UNRWA cannot take bids for reconstruction of the third sector, because the agency does not have enough money to cover the entire rebuilding, he said.
The displaced residents of Nahr al-Bared also worry about the shortage of reconstruction money, Higgins said. Any delay in securing funding will raise the project’s costs, because it is more expensive to have the displaced outside the camp than back in their rebuilt homes – UNRWA spends more than $500,000 monthly on rent subsidies for the evacuees, Higgins added.
“The longer the project goes on, the more expensive it is,” said the projct director.
Camp inhabitants are also concerned about the speed of the reconstruction, and they also say they are constantly harassed by LAF officers manning the entrances to the camp, Higgins said.
Also Wednesday, Hariri and Grandi discussed broadening the access of Palestinians to the labor market in Lebanon, Grandi said. Palestinians are prohibited from pursuing careers in many qualified fields such as medicine and engineering, while recent legislation allowed them to get work permits for a wider range of professions.
“I found [Hariri] open-minded in terms of pursuing the discussion, at least,” Grandi added. “I’m relatively confident that we can make progress.”
UNRWA is backing cooperation between the International Labor Organization and the Labor Ministry to simplify the process for Palestinians to enter the employment market, Grandi said. UNRWA is also working to make it easier for Palestinians to acquire work permits, he added.
“There are so many complications for the Palestinians seeking to gain lawful employment,” he said.