LEBANON-CAMP MARKET Palestinian refugee camp hopes shopping festival will help ease security fears

Record ID: 347342

  • Title: LEBANON-CAMP MARKET Palestinian refugee camp hopes shopping festival will help ease security fears
  • Date: 26th March 2015
  • Summary: SIDON, LEBANON (MARCH 24, 2015) (REUTERS) ENTRANCE OF MARKET STREET IN AIN EL-HILWEH PALESTINIAN REFUGEE CAMP PEOPLE IN THE CAMP'S MARKET VARIOUS OF PALESTINIAN FLAG IN THE MARKET VARIOUS OF PEOPLE AND SHOPS IN THE MARKET (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PALESTINIAN REFUGEE LIVING IN AIN EL-HILWEH CAMP AND OWNER OF SHOPS AT THE CAMP'S MARKET, ABDALLAH ISMAIL, SAYING: "This month, we o
  • Embargoed: 10th April 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lebanon
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA8OR2FO01EU312OGIF93Q2VHDQ
  • Story Text: An ten-day shopping festival is in full swing in Sidon's Ain El-Hilweh, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.
    Streets are crowded with residents as visitors take advantage of low priced items on sale.
    The event, which started on March 21 - the day Lebanon marks Mother's Day - aims to revive the camp's market by attracting more visitors to an area often seen as a flashpoint for violence.
    Shootings and armed clashes are not uncommon in the camp, which houses about more than 50,000 refugees.
    Hostilities in the camp have increased over the past years as regional tensions rise, with violence spilling over from the civil war in neighbouring Syria.
    Those living in the camp say they want to show the other side of the story.
    "This month, we organised a shopping week from March 21, on the occasion of Mother's day, till March 30. The media lately gave an image about our camp hosting terrorists and causing a lot of problems, but we wanted to reflect another image to the people saying that we are not terrorists and we are living better than outside (the camp). Ain El-Hilweh (camp) is perhaps safer than other places outside," Abdallah Ismail, owner of three different shops in the camp, told Reuters TV.
    Abou Jihad Al-Nassr expressed similar views adding that the initiative from the merchants of Ain El-Hilweh comes in a time the financial situation is hard on everyone.
    "There are sales and offers because traders here can feel with the people, their suffering and the crisis. They (the shop owners) are sympathetic with the people and the shoppers, and we encourage (people) from outside the camp (to come). Ain El-Hilweh is a market with affordable prices for everyone," Al-Nassr said.
    Visitors were happy walking in between the shops, looking for bargains.
    One visitor, Taghrid, who lives in another Palestinian refugee camp nearby, said Ain El-Hilweh's market is usually cheaper, but she welcomes this festival where prices have gone down further.
    "Thank God, we come to the market and find very good prices. May God never deprive us from this market because it speaks for us as a Palestinian people, and if you tour anywhere around, they (everyone) do their shopping in this market. In Sidon, prices do not suit us while here, you find cheaper items. This time when I got here, I was surprised with even better prices, thank God, I hope they stay like this," she said.
    Everything is on sale in the camp's market: clothes, shoes, accessories and even vegetables, fruits and sweets.
    Mohammed Hajje, who joked about the many offers his sweets shop is offering, wished more Lebanese and foreigners visit the camp and shop in its markets.
    "We are doing a shopping festival for 10 days with low-priced goods. You get one free kilo of sweet with every five kilos you buy. All is going good, but checkpoints should be organised so people from outside the camp can visit more just like before," he said.
    Lebanese army checkpoints surround all entrances of Ain El-Hilweh camp to ensure its security.
    The shopping festival is scheduled to last until March 30.
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