Mohammed Zaatari
Daily Star correspondent

Demonstrations of solidarity with the Palestinian people through organized protests have recently decreased in number
in Sidon’s Palestinian camps due to widespread feelings of frustration among refugees.
Whereas demonstrations and sit-ins were held on an almost daily basis at the Ain al-Hilweh and Mieh Mieh camps in April, no such protest has been reported for two weeks.
After the end of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s isolation by the Israeli Army last month, a compromise was reached between Israelis and Palestinians. The agreement provided for the imprisonment of militants accused by Israel of assassinating Israeli Tourism Minister Rechavam Zeevi.
While Israeli and US flags were regularly burned in anger at US bias toward the Jewish state, the streets are quiet as Palestinian refugees struggle to make ends meet.
The Daily Star asked a Hamas official at the Ain al-Hilweh camp, Abu Ahmad Fadl, about the lack of demonstrations despite the fact that Israel had not ended its assault on the Palestinian territories.
Fadl said: “We are still participating in all activities that support the intifada, but after all, people have to work, they cannot leave their work every day to demonstrate.”
He said people were frustrated lately due to the arrest and exile of militants at Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity.
“Look at the Arab world, it has been frustrated as well,” he added. “Where are the millions of people now who were demonstrating before?”

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