There are always two sides to every story and different words to describe them. For Jews what happened 60 years ago in Palestine was a joyous occasion, a victory. For Palestinians and their descendants the same event is called al-Naqba, the Catastrophe.

There are many versions of what happened in 1948. Israel declared itself a state and according to the Israeli narrative the fledgling nation came under fierce attack from surrounding Arab states. In the ensuing conflict Palestinians fled and abandoned their land. The Palestinians remember it as a calculated campaign to expel them.

For Palestinians their word for those events has been borne out. The consequences of what happened have indeed been catastrophic for them – for those who remained and are now locked into a miserable existence in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as well as for those who fled and are trapped in a life of exile. There are more than four and a half million Palestinian refugees in the Arab world. Immediately after Israel was created in 1948 the majority of the Palestinian population fled into neighbouring Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon. Those with money subsequently moved on to Europe, Australia and the United States. But for those who remained behind fortunes were mixed.

Palestinians in Jordan for example, were given full citizenship rights, though they remain marginalized and impoverished. But those who fled to Lebanon have not had such a happy outcome. Lebanon is unusual in the region in that it has a sizeable Christian population. It also has large numbers of Sunni and Shia Muslims as well as an Orthodox community. To keep this tenuous religious mix together the political system allows for quotas in government. For example, the President is always a Maronite Christian, the Prime Minister a Sunni Muslim and the Speaker of the Assembly a Shia Muslim. Cabinet portfolios are allocated proportionate to the different religious groups’ representation in parliament.

This artificial arrangement leaves Lebanon in a fragile state. It has already gone through a devastating civil war from 1975 to 1991. Palestinians, mainly Shia Muslims, now number almost 400,000 and make up more than 10 percent of the population. If they were given citizenship it would upset the delicate balance. Because of their potentially disruptive presence the Palestinians are not welcome. According to Sybille Bikar from the EU Delegation in Lebanon, who is responsible for refugees, one common point among Lebanese is that the Palestinians should go home.

And so, for six decades, Palestinians have lived in Lebanon not only without citizenship but also, for the most part, without even the right to work. They are concentrated in refugee camps around the country. They no longer live in tents – permanent structures have been built but refugees are crammed into small dense neighbourhoods often lacking basic resources. They represent the poorest sector in Lebanese society and the poorest grouping of Palestinian refugees in any Arab country.

Jamil Hamad fled Gaza in 1948 when he was 12 years old. He has spent all of his life in Shatila refugee camp. Four of his seven children have emigrated to the United States, Canada and Germany. There is a haemorrhage of young people from the camps. There is little educational opportunity. Jamal’s daughter Nuhad works for a voluntary organisation in Shatila trying to provide basic primary schooling. She describes classrooms that have no heating or running water. There are so many children that the school has to operate two shifts a day – some children come in the morning, some in the afternoon.

There are few prospects for ‘careers’ among the young. Those who work either do so within the camps, for aid agencies, or outside the camps doing menial tasks. Because it is, with some exceptions, illegal to work outside the camp, those who do are exploited. There is no social security and little funding for refugees in Lebanon. The Lebanese government does not want to encourage them to stay and international funds go to the West Bank and to Gaza. A former government minister claims that Syria prevented the upgrading of Palestinian camps because the appalling conditions provide fodder for anti-Israeli propaganda.

Lebanon would certainly prefer the Palestinians to leave. Many refugees feel under siege. Memories of hardship and outright atrocity fester in the slums of the camps. The wholesale slaughter of more than 2,000 people in two camps in Beirut 26 years ago by a Christian militia are branded into the collective Palestinian conscience. However, the Palestinian leadership in the guise of the PLO have not been good house guests. They launched missiles and rockets from southern Lebanon into Israel causing Israel to invade.

There is distrust on both sides. The recent military conflict between the Lebanese army and an Islamic militant group in the north-west of the country escalated to the point where the camp’s 30,000 inhabitants had to flee. Many civilians were killed as the army bombed the Nahr al-Bared camp day after day. The Lebanese government is terrified that al-Qaeda will move into the territory and was determined to wipe out the Islamic group before they could take hold. But for many Palestinians it was clear proof of the Lebanese government’s determination to uproot them and force them to migrate.

Faheema Hassan Hamad, an elderly woman, is sharing two rooms in Shatila refugee camp in Beirut with 23 other people – her extended family and neighbours from the Nahr al-Bared camp. They fled to Beirut after the conflict earlier this year. She used to live in Shatila but fled in her nightclothes during the massacre in 1982. She knows she will never see Palestine again but now she just wants to feel safe.

The risk for Lebanon is that the Palestinian youth are becoming radicalised. Up until the recent conflict in Nahr al-Bared they had no interest in Islamic militancy. But finding themselves refugees from a refugee camp they are taking the view that ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend’. A young bright, articulate man in Shatila said to me, “You’re Irish. When the British were oppressing you did you think the IRA were terrorists or freedom fighters? You can only push a man so far.”

The problem for the Lebanese government as well as for the Palestinian refugees is that there is nowhere for them to go. While any peace deal between the Palestinians and Israel will include a nominal ‘right to return’, realistically the best Palestinian exiles can hope for is compensation for the land they lost 60 years ago. Even if they did insist on returning they would only get as far as whatever territory will make up any future Palestinian state. The West Bank and especially Gaza are chronically overcrowded. There is no room for 400,000 more people. Lebanon’s stateless Palestinians are destined to remain that way for many years to come.