General strike in Beddawi camp to protest UNRWA's refusal to meet residents' demands

Residents of the Palestinian refugee camp of Beddawi in northern Lebanon launched a general strike “until further notice” on Monday, with all institutions completely closed except for health service centers, according to the state-run National News Agency (NNA). The call was led by Palestinian student forces, the Palestinian Youth Gathering, and the camp's parents’ committees.

The reason? UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) refuses to meet several of their “demands,” according to a statement from the strikers, which listed several grievances cited by NNA. The strikers denounce “overcrowded classes” and are specifically calling for the reversal of a decision to raise the number of students per class to 50, while the “cap had previously been set at 43 by agreement with the Palestinian teachers’ union.” That limit is considered “excessive” given the “small size” of the classrooms. Additional demands include issues related to medical transfers for patients and social affairs as well.

The strikers added that the agency’s administration is passing “the unjust American and Zionist pressures placed on UNRWA” onto Palestinian refugees inside Lebanon, especially in the camps, rather than “finding concrete solutions and working to establish an alternative international network of support.” They cited various decisions related to education, such as the closure of several schools in the South, the elimination of IT classes, and the dissolution of all school committees, including the health committee. Thus, they announced an “open-ended general strike in UNRWA schools in the Beddawi camp, as well as in the social affairs office and the UNRWA director’s office for the camp, beginning today [Monday], which is expected to spread to other regions in due course,” the statement concluded.

It is not uncommon for Palestinian refugee camps to resort to strikes to voice their dissatisfaction with UNRWA’s decisions. In February, Palestinian refugees shut down centers, offices and UNRWA schools in various camps across Lebanon, including its main headquarters in Beirut, in response to what they described as the agency’s indifference to their demands regarding the “arbitrary” suspension of five teachers since October 2024.