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CNN WORLD REPORT
Palestinian Refugees Keep in Touch Through the Web
Aired August 26, 2001 - 14:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANAND NAIDOO, CNN ANCHOR: In the Middle East, 53 years after Palestinians were expelled from the homeland, their population has increased, and so has their suffering. In Lebanon, Palestinians living in refugee camps are faced with deplorable conditions. They live in poverty and lack basic necessities like decent education systems and proper house services.
Future TV's Mohalhel Fakih visited one of the refugee cams. He explains how as Palestinian refugees await a resolution to their problem, some have managed to stay in touch with their cause.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MOHALHEL FAKIH, FUTURE TV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Omar is a Palestinian refugee, and this is how he keeps up with what is happening in the land he has never seen but calls home.
OMAR, PALESTINIAN REFUGEE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) just to have conversation about the politics, situation there and the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) situation.
FAKIH: More Palestinians like Omar have been surfing the Net to get the latest on the uprising.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I chatted with a Palestinian guy who told me all the problems he encounters when he goes to college, and how the occupation has affected his studies.
FAKIH: Omar and Dwaih (ph) live in the Bouj Barajni (ph) refugee camp south of Beirut. Like most Palestinians in Lebanon, they he are confined to poverty and more devastated shanty towns. They hope to return home to what has largely become Israel.
(on camera): When conflicts erupted back home in the past, refugees here used to worry about their loved ones and relatives for months before they could receive news from them. But things have changed. Since the intifida erupted in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, refugees have been resorting to the Internet and other means of communication.
(voice-over): Grassroots and NGO has made contact among Palestinians easier. Dr. Tanjeh comes from an area close to Haifa in what has become Northern Israel. She's wired up, along with family and friends across the world. DR. JOUMANA TANJEH, GRASSROOTS INTERNATIONAL (through translator): We send each other mobile messages, or use the Internet for chatting. All of our friends in Bulgaria, Tulkarem here, Jericho and Jerusalem, they tell us the real picture.
FAKIH: Israeli-Palestinian fighting has rekindled national spirit. Almost everything in this camp reflects the conflict.
SAID NASR, GRASSROOTS INTERNATIONAL (through translator): We are using the Internet to create a bond between Palestinians. When there is fighting, people come here in droves.
FAKIH: The older crowd has settled for an abundance of Arab satellite news channels.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): In the morning, everyone gathers and exchanges information on everything they saw or heard about intifada.
FAKIH: Reaction to any development in the uprising has been swift --not only visual. Generations of refugees grew up here, living conditions remain miserable, but younger Palestinians may be luckier. Home is now a keystroke away.
Mohalhel Fakih, Future Television, Bouj Barajni (ph) camp, Lebanon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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