This report analyzes the political situation in the camps against the background of its historical genesis and in light of domestic and regional pressures and the changing organizational alliances of the various political factions involved. After looking at one camp, Ayn al-Hilwa, as a microcosm of the Palestinian scene in Lebanon, the author points out the differences in the other camps in other parts of the country.

Jaber Suleiman, a visiting research fellow at the Refugee Studies Programme at Oxford University in 1997-1998, is an independent researcher working in Lebanon.