The poverty indexes show a particularly harsh economic situation within the camps, with over 10,000 a year unable to fund their basic needs. Since the state provides no services whatsoever, the refugees are completely dependent on UNRWA, whose budget, as mentioned above, does not increase commensurately with the growth of the population. According to estimates, half of the Palestinian youth drop out of school, with a lack of schools and classrooms being one of the leading causes113. The ability of a Palestinian refugee to receive an education has been further reduced, as since 2002 special financial levies are imposed upon Palestinians wishing to study at universities. Unlike the refugee camps in Jordan, the refugee camps in Lebanon are run to a large degree by the Palestinian political parties and movements. Although the military encloses the camps from without and hinders free movement, it interferes far less in affairs within the camps themselves, and many camps are divided into areas controlled by the various political groups114. Anthropological studies conducted on the refugee population in Lebanon indicate a change in political attitudes over across generations. The visibility and public nature of Palestinian politics in Lebanon enabled the researchers to follow the changes in the people's politics, in addition to the Palestinian leadership (which once resided in Lebanon).
113
Socio-Economic Survey of Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon, http://www.unrwa.org/userfiles/2011012074253.pdf (Accessed18.06.201402:11PM); ANERA (2012): Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon. Volume 3 http://www.anera.org/wpcontent/uploads/2013/03/LEBRefugeeReport.pdf ( Accessed: 18.06.2014 03:04PM) 114 From an interview held on October 1 2014 with Gudrun Kramer, Director of the Palestinian Refugee Development Plan on behalf of German governmental organization GIZ.
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