Palestinian factions have united during recent protests to demand the right of return for refugees [EPA]Rooting their movement in the spirit of grassroots empowerment that has characterised the Arab Spring, Palestinians have chosen to focus on a single issue, which activists say is non-negotiable.
They demand the return to Palestine of the hundreds of thousands of people who were forced from their homeland in the ethnic cleansing that took place with the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.
The latest protests are an extension of a decades-long struggle to exercise that right, a right that has been backed by numerous United Nations resolutions.
What is different with the movement that began on May 15 is the level of co-ordination, and the resulting clarity of the protesters' message.
It is a rallying point that has achieved the exceptional feat of drawing support from across political and religious lines. Overwhelmingly, protesters were willing to caste aside their political alliances and unite under the Palestinian flag.
On May 15, people chanted, "The people want to return to Palestine," recalling the chant that rang on avenue Habib Bourguiba and in Tahrir Square earlier in the year, "The people want to overthrow the regime".
Palestinians living in the camps share a desire for al-Karama, or dignity, with protesters elsewhere in the Arab world, Abu Omar says, though the underlying causes of their disempowerment are starkly different.
The limbo which began for so many Palestinians when they were uprooted from their homeland with the creation of Israel has left them with few economic, social, political or civic rights, he says.
The Burj al-Barajneh camp in Beirut where the activist lives with his family offers a snapshot of these conditions: 20,000 people live in a single square kilometre of crumbling, overcrowded buildings, with scant opportunity of a better life.
"There are four generations here and the population is increasing. The right to Lebanese nationality or to own land is unattainable," he explains.
The inspiration for the May 15 march on the southern Lebanese border came directly from the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings, Abu Omar says.
Young Palestinians, invigorated by what they had seen of uprisings elsewhere, have thrown their support behind the movement.
"Tunisia and the other uprisings demonstrated that a people can demand their rights, peacefully," he says.
"The young, who were lost, are now asserting their right to return. We are working on an action plan until the return."
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