"Safe but Frozen Camps": Syrian and Palestinian Refugees around a Football Field in Beirut. Issue 2 (December 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Fogliata, Stefano
• Is Part Of: Review of Middle East studies. Volume 54:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: 234
• Page End: 251
• Publication Date: 2020-12
• Subjects: Refugees -- camps -- Palestinian -- Lebanon -- space -- football; Middle East -- Periodicals; Middle East -- Politics and government -- Periodicals; Middle East -- Civilisation -- Periodicals; 956.005
• DOI: 10.1017/rms.2021.26
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2151-3481

Abstract

Abstract: Palestinian camps in Lebanon have turned once more into "transitional zones of emplacement" for thousands of people recently fleeing the Syrian conflict. In this context, the plural subjectivities emerging within the camps highlight a further connection between spatial marginalization and precarious legal statuses. My research hinges on the interconnectivities evolving around the Palestinian Bourj el Barajneh camp and Hezbollah-controlled Beirut southern suburbs moving from an ethnographic insight of the Palestinian football society. Inside the "Refugee Football Leagues, " Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese players find a space in leagues whose matches are mostly disputed within the numerous refugee camps scattered throughout the national territory. Moving from newcomers' strategies for protection, the essay investigates how refugees living in camps experience different scales of mobility and develop a wide range of practices that extend beyond the camp's boundaries, exploring how imperceptible and hyper-mobile tactics of existence re-elaborate Palestinian refugee camps into meaningful places of elusive contestation.