São Paulo – The embassy of Brazil in Beirut announced last week that the government of Brazil has donated US$ 500,000 to Palestinian refugee camp Nahr El-Bared, in northern Lebanon. The donation was made through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which offers assistance to over 4.5 million people.
“Brazil is glad to take part in the efforts of the international community to support UNRWA’s vital works for the much-needed recovery of Nahr el-Bared Camp. This contribution reaffirms our commitment to the Lebanese government’s call for assistance, as well as to the Palestinian cause," said the Brazilian ambassador to the Arab country, Paulo Roberto Tarrisse da Fontoura, in a UNRWA press statement.
The secretary general of the Foreign Ministry of Lebanon, William Habib, according to the press release, thanked Brazil for the donation and called the countries that support the Palestinian Cause to contribute to the UNRWA.
UNRWA figures show that in December 2008, Brazil made a donation of US$ 200,000 to the refugees at Nahr El-Bared, and another US$ 200,000 went to the UN’s general fund in February 2009.
Destruction of Nahr El-Bared during the conflict between Lebanon and Israel in 2007 and the removal of 27,000 Palestinian refugees from the place and surrounding areas, according to UNRWA, created a humanitarian crisis whose effects are still being felt, three years later. With the donations made since 2007, the UNRWA has managed to supply the most basic needs of the refugees removed from the camp.
The reconstruction of the camp began in November 2009. According to information disclosed by the UNRWA, two packages of works are in progress and three schools are being rebuilt, out of six.
According to researcher Roberto Khatlab, who has books published on ties of immigration between Brazil and Lebanon, Brazil has one of the most important Arab communities in the world, estimated at 12 million immigrants and descendants. It is estimated that the Palestinian community in Brazil totals around 60,000. The figure grew in 2007, with the arrival of refugees coming from the frontier between Iraq and Jordan.
“This Brazilian act shows that it is a receptive country and, despite its social and economic difficulties, does not stop supporting third parties in need," said Khatlab by e-mail.
The researcher also said that Brazil-Palestine relations have been present since the trip taken by Brazilian emperor Dom Pedro II to the Middle East, in 1876, visiting Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt, an opportunity in which he deposited a considerable sum of his own funds in the Ottoman Bank of Beirut, for education of Palestinian orphans.
*Translated by Mark Ament
