Last week the oppressive permit system that restricted entry to the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp in Lebanon was abolished. The system had prevented people, including humanitarian workers and legal advocates, without permits from entering the camp since it was first introduced at the end of fighting in 2007

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has reported that Marwan Abdel-Al, a member of the PFLP Political Bureau addressed a ceremony to celebrate the cancellation of the permit system and congratulated the Palestinian and Lebanese forces who had ‘struggled to secure the rights of the people of the camp and all Palestinians in Lebanon.’

The decision by the Lebanese authorities to cancel the permit system is attributed to the sit-in staged by members of the camp, most of them young.

The sit-in by the camp’s youth began after a Palestinian youth on a motorcycle was stopped by soldiers outside the camp and had to flee after he was discovered to not have any papers.

Mostly driven by the camp’s youth the sit-in grew in size and strength as people were inspired by their actions. Nearby camps and villages sent messages of solidarity and offered to block roads in support of the sit-in.

Abdel-Al applauded the courage and bravery of the youth and declared them to be the heirs of the Palestinian Nationalist Movement adding that they will not tire until the reconstruction of the camp, which was badly damaged in fighting between Fatah al-Islam and the Lebanese military, has been completed.