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American Morning

Palestinian Refugees Dealing With Harsh Realities of Israeli Occupation

Aired March 27, 2002 - 07:26   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: At 26 minutes after the hour, we're going to turn our attention to the Middle East now. While Arab leaders meet in Beirut to discuss the proposed Saudi peace plan, Palestinian refugees are dealing with the harsh realities of Israeli occupation. In southern Lebanon, one family sees pictures of the home they left behind 50 years ago and confronts the reality of finally going home.

CNN's Brent Sadler has their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRENT SADLER, CNN BEIRUT BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Ahmed Elhaj (ph), a Palestinian refugee, drives through Lebanon's Ain-al-Hilweh (ph) camp two years ago. Like countless refugees, he longed to return to what they still call home in Israel. He displayed a pile of frayed documents that refer to once owned Palestinian land, Atsmuria (ph) in northern Israel, then being leveled to make way for a shopping center.

Two years ago, another refugee, Hussein Sala (ph), brought out his family's aging land documents. He said these treasured possessions help back his claim to property the family abandoned more than 50 years ago during Israel's war of independence here at Ahbara (ph), also in northern Israel. Derelict after decades of Palestinian absence.

It is two years since we last saw Hussein Sala and his family. And, for the first time since leaving Ahbara -- then age 21 -- we're showing Hussein and his family our pictures of their village roots. Hussein discovers what he most wants to see. "That's our house on the rock," he says. "That rock, the house is built on it." It is the closest they've got to Ahbara in half a century.

"Oh my God, my God," murmurs Hussein, bitterly. "May God deprive those who deprived us." We have also brought Hussein one of Ahbara's stones lying some 30 miles away south of the Lebanese border. "We will return only through the intifada" he says, "god willing."

This was Ahmed Elhaj, the other aging refugee, showing his land claims to Smarya (ph) two years ago. But much has changed since then. Israeli developers have completed their shopping center on land which Arabs call Smarya. While Israeli shoppers don't dispute Palestinian land claims, they are fearful that a refugee return would make matters even worse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If they come to here, they're four million (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Four million, that's a problem. I tell you it's a problem. It will be always problem in Israel, alays.

SADLER: In Ain-al-Hilweh, home of Ahmed Elhaj, there's a new custodian of his land records. Nethu Mahmud (ph) inherited the responsibility a year ago when his uncle died. The family takes us to the cemetery where Ahmed (ph) is buried. The graves here are filled with refugees. But hopes of a Palestinian return home somehow, sometime, are seemingly undimmed, even as time and life passes away.

Brent Sadler, CNN, Ain-al-Hilweh, South Lebanon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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