Friday, May 13, 2011

63 years of separation: Palestinians reach across divide

Israeli-Lebanese border
Israeli guards keep "Israeli Arabs" (left) and refugees apart
Hundreds of Palestinian refugees have been meeting family members from Israel for the first time in 52 years on the newly demilitarised border between Israel and Lebanon.

Palestinian refugees have come to exchange gifts and photographs through the barbed-wire with those who stayed behind, or just to shake hands or touch fingers.

Israeli-Lebanese border
Others have arranged a rendez-vous with relatives
There are 350,000 Palestinians living in Lebanon, mostly in miserable conditions in refugee camps.

The refugees are mainly from families which fled the northern towns and villages of Palestine - what is now Israel - during the 1948 war.

They have been coming to the border wire to exchange messages every day since Israel's occupation of south Lebanon ended on Tuesday night.

Read more-BBC News

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