Holding the "Palestinian Refugees in Syria: Past, Present and Future" Meeting
On Monday, October 8, 2018, the Social Work Department at An-Najah National University in cooperation with the French Institute of the Near East held a meeting titled: "Palestinian Refugees in Syria: Past, Present and Future".
The meeting hosted Dr. Valentina Napolitano and took place at the library's conference room in the Old Campus.
The meeting was also attended by Ms. Flora John Seth, who organized the meeting in cooperation with Dr. Samah Saleh, Head of the Social Work Department, Mr. Matthew Asman, Director of the French Institute of the Near East, Dr. Njala' Nakhleh from the French Institute, Dr. Sameh Atout, Dean of the Faculty of Economy and Social Science and Ms. Alia Gilbrecht from the International Office as well as a number of social work teachers and students.
Dr. Atout welcomed the attendees and talked about the importance of conducting diagnostic research on Palestinian Refugees in Syria as they are important human resources for the country and should not be considered as a burden.
Dr. Napolitano presented here researches on Palestinian refugees in Syria. Her investigations are based on a fieldwork carried out in Yarmuk camp, between 2008 and 2011 but also on interviews conducted in Lebanon (2013) and France (2014) after the beginning of the conflict in Syria.
She talked about the main characteristics of this community before 2011, focusing more precisely on the evolution of their political mobilizations according to the Syrian context and the Palestinian national movement history. She also tackled the effects of the war on Palestinians in Syria from a political and social point of view.
Finally, she assessed the process of forced migration of Palestinians refugees toward neighboring countries and in Europe, discussing its impact on the issue of Palestinian refugees more in general.
At the end of the meeting, Dr. Napolitano answered the students' questions on the topic.
Notes:
Valentina Napolitano is a Researcher at the Institut Français du Proche-Orient (IFPO) in Amman, her research focus on forced migrations, political violence and social movement in the Middle East, especially in Syria. Her Ph.D. focuses on political commitments and mobilizations among Palestinian refugees in Syria. Here current researches deal with the dispersion and transformation of family in a context of war and forced migration, through a study of Syrian refugee’s in Jordan. Among here last publications: with Calabrese Chiara (ed.) Violence et militantisme. Parcours de militants dans le monde arabe, Paris, Editions CNRS/Alpha, 2017.
