World View: Theory is grey but the tree of life is green and, in that spirit, the present writer visited Lebanon in recent weeks to observe conditions in the Palestinian refugee camps. The existence of these camps is well-known as is the fact that there are Palestinians living in exile all over the Middle East as well as in other parts of the world, writes Deaglán de Bréadún
Little is known, however, about the actual conditions in the camps, although there is a vague feeling in international public opinion that life is not good there. Having visited a total of seven camps in Lebanon, I can confirm the accuracy of that perception. Poverty, hopelessness, cramped living-space, soaring population figures, lack of daylight in people's homes, the absence of playgrounds for the children, poor physical and emotional health, general stress and strain, and the ever-present threat of factional violence: all these are features of daily life for many refugees.
But worst of all perhaps is the longing for a homeland. We in Ireland and most other countries of the world take our homeland for granted. Much as we may disparage it - the politicians in charge, the class system and even the weather - at least we have a place of our own.
It wasn't always the case for many Irish people and, as I made my way from one miserable hovel to the next, an old emigrant song kept reverberating in my brain. The ballad If We Only Had Old Ireland Over Here is seen as a sentimental cliché nowadays but, in its time, it expressed the heartfelt longing of our exiles in Australia (where the song was composed) and in other parts of the world for a country they would quite literally never see again.
Happily, in our present era of unexpected prosperity, emigration is largely a voluntary option for the Irish. Cheap airfares and modern communications also mean it is no longer the equivalent of a death in the family. But the days of the "American wake" are not long gone and, in my own family history, I have heard stories of the terrible sadness and sense of deprivation when brothers and sisters had to leave for the emigrant ship and be gone, apparently forever.
No wonder, then, that the Irish diaspora had to conjure up the spirit of their homeland in dismal bars and squalid hostels overseas. Similarly, the Palestinians, languishing in exile for 58 long years, are dreaming of their homeland and the towns and villages from which their families originated.
While most Palestinians alive today have never seen the places their parents or grandparents came from, they have heard a great deal about them and the names and natural features of the surrounding area are drilled into them until they have them off by heart. Young or old, they hope to return some day, like the exile toast of the Irish who prayed for "bás in Éirinn" (death in Ireland).
That was a non-violent prayer but a few of the Palestinians, as the world knows to its cost, have taken the violent option, most dramatically with the horrific, indefensible and inexcusable tactic of suicide bombings.
While we may not care to admit it nowadays, some of the Irish were among the first to adopt terror as a political stratagem, on the basis that, as Capt John McCafferty, leader of the Invincibles, put it, "Terrorism is the lawful weapon of the weak against the strong."
But terrorism occludes the reality that it is meant to highlight. The issue becomes the innocent lives lost through the terrorist act, not the conditions which drove the bomber to his or her final act of desperation. Victimhood is a powerful political weapon and the irony of terrorism is that it obscures the issue and allows your opponent to seize the moral high ground.
Every Palestinian I asked about it said that he or she expected to return to their homeland or that, at least, their children would be able to do so. To a western observer such as myself, this seemed naive to say the least. Israel is well-entrenched and possesses powerful military defences, which reportedly include nuclear weapons.
I have to report that I did not hear any expression of racist sentiment towards Jews from the Palestinians. There were some far-fetched suggestions that: (a) Arabs and Jews had got on rather well in Palestine before the foundation of Israel; and (b) that modern development could ensure the two races or nations were able to live together in peace and harmony, even in a small land area. They are aware of western guilt over the Holocaust, a crime committed by Europeans who now support Israel as a form of atonement, but they make the point that they were not responsible.
All around them, the political context is shifting in unpredictable ways. Few would dispute that the Americans are in a tight corner in Iraq and that if, as seems likely, they are forced to withdraw, the whole Middle East equation will be altered. This will undoubtedly make Israel less secure. Unless the current stand-off between Hamas and the West can be resolved, there is a danger of pushing the Palestinians into the arms of Iranian-style fundamentalism.
This would be a tragedy because they are not fundamentalists by inclination. They are just ordinary people who lost their family homes and their land in a terrible catastrophe that many of them still do not fully comprehend.
The example of Ireland shows that it can take generations for such things to be put right and that many people never get back home in the end but that somehow, some day, your nation eventually finds its place in the sun.
The Irish Times website, www.ireland.com, features a gallery of photographs from the refugee camps by Frank Miller. Deaglán de Bréadún's and Frank Miller's visit was funded by the Development Education Unit of Irish Aid.