MAP aims to use this report as the basis from which to argue for fundamental improvements to the healthcare and living conditions of the Palestinian refugee population who havespent over 62 years in Lebanon.

MAP is in total agreement withthe Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Lebanon, Salvatore Lombardo, who described theprovision of Palestinian healthcare as a 'moral issue'.

The findings of this report reveal that Palestinian healthcare in Lebanon is underfunded and chronically unfit for the needsof the refugee population. Of particular concern are the overburdened and under-resourced United Nations clinics,an acute shortage of Palestinians training to become doctorsand an inadequate tertiary healthcare system that places unbearable stress upon patients.The dignity associated with access to adequate healthcareis both a matter of life and death as well as one ofinternational responsibility.

In Lebanon, Palestinian refugeescannot benefit from the state's social security healthcare.Instead, 95% of Palestinian refugees rely on assistance fromthe UNRWA, the Palestine Red Crescent Society, NGOs such as MAP, and a myriad of informal civil society networks, in order to access healthcare.

Today some 62% of the 260,000-280,000 Palestiniansestimated to be in Lebanon are dispersed across 12 refugee camps. There can be little doubt that the camp environments are linked to the multitude of physical and mental health problems they suffer from. Indeed there is a higher proportion of Palestinian UN hardship cases in Lebanon than anywhere else in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, despite a recent change in Lebanese legislation, Palestinians are still effectively barred from working in a substantial number of professions, including

medicine and engineering.

Palestinian refugees are also embroiled in the relentless politics of the region. The destruction of Nahr al-Bared camp in 2007, caused by in-fighting between the Lebanese Army and Fatah al-Islam, placed a massive burden on an already overstretched health infrastructure. Today there are still some 10,000 Palestinians who remain displaced from Nahral-Bared camp. Reconstruction of the camp, estimated to cost approximately $400 million, has been continually delayed,largely for political reasons.In 2010 the British Ambassador to Lebanon, Frances Guy, stated that "the situation for Palestinian refugees is very important,because the whole settlement of the Middle East will depend to some extent on what happens to [these] refugees".

MAP believes that until there is a peace settlement, the international community has a moral responsibility to ensure that Palestinian refugees live in dignity and in good health. This report servesas a timely wake up call on the perils of neglecting Palestinian refugee health.