The new lens

“The Interior Ministry is going to build camps, even if they are not approved by all.” Nouhad Machnouk, interior minister and member of the Future Movement, September 27, 2014. “The cabinet … is against setting up camps. Imagine if we had 500 Ain el-Hilweh camps.” Elias Bou Saab, education minister and member of the Free Patriotic Movement, October 3, 2014. The minister of education and minister of interior’s comments may have only been five days apart, but they reveal just how wide the gulf is within the government over how to manage Lebanon’s swelling Syrian refugee population.  [pullquote]A very angry public backlash ensued as politicians from across the spectrum reassured citizens that they remained wholeheartedly against establishing camps[/pullquote] As the violence across the border morphed from a civilian led uprising to a full blown civil war and families began to flee the country en masse, NGOs and the United Nations