A forgotten corner of the world’s oldest refugee crisis

Twelve Palestines

Twelve Palestines explores the unresolved question at the heart of every Israeli-Palestinian negotiation past, present and future: the fate of Palestinian refugees living in exile across the region.

Around 450,000 Palestinian refugees are registered in Lebanon, many living in the twelve official Palestinian camps. Denied the right to return to present-day Israel and prevented from fully integrating into Lebanese society, they remain suspended in a state of permanent temporariness.

Palestinian refugees in Lebanon face some of the harshest restrictions in the region. Over time, the camps have evolved into ‘states within a state’, each maintaining its own educational, political and security structures. Hence the title: Twelve Palestines.

The film follows the young residents of Lebanon’s two largest Palestinian camps: Nahr el-Bared, known for its commercial energy and relative prosperity, and Ain el-Hilweh, the country’s most militarised and volatile camp.