The Israeli decision to "deport" 1
more than four hundred Palestinians to southern Lebanon in December 1992 has led to the formation of a unique Islamist society. The Israeli government assumed that the expellees would join the other two thousand leaders living in exile that it has deported since 1967. Yet in a move unanticipated by the Rabin government, most of the expellees chose not to enter Lebanon.
This collective decision paved the way for the formation of an Islamist society which continues to exist in Marj al-Zuhour. Their determination to return prompted the expellees to name their camp al-Awdah (the return). Since the decision to be forced into a no-man's-land was not their own, I will call the social structure that developed the "accidental society of al-Awdah camp."
Members of this society include doctors, skilled professionals and educators. Their occupations complement the predicament imposed upon them by Israeli authorities.
These skills, however, do not preclude the fact that the expellees are highly dependent on external sources for sustenance. Despite the hardships they endure, however, they have a rich social life. In this article I will show how the expellees organized themselves, how a leadership emerged and how they have coped with harsh living conditions.
