She also embodies some of the most controversial issues on the agenda of the intergovernmental conference, which begins Friday: Israel's allegedly racist treatment of Palestinians and Arabs and the assertion, by its critics, that Zionism is a form of racism.

Farrg was born in the Dheisheh Refugee Camp and is a member of a dance troupe that travels the world dramatising the story of life in the camps. Her father works for the Palestinian Authority.

She thrust herself into the spotlight this week by challenging Mary Robinson, the United Nations human rights commissioner, from the audience for not saying anything about Palestine during Robinson's speech to a youth summit. Robinson replied that the summit should address the suffering of Palestinian people but that this should be done in a way that "furthers the real purposes of this conference" without stooping to racist language.

Conflict in the Middle East has caused tension between delegates at the NGO forum and the youth summit. A session of the forum on anti-Semitism was disrupted on Wednesday when Palestinians clashed verbally with Jewish students. An Israeli delegation walked out of the youth summit on Monday after a Palestinian motion declaring Israel an occupying force was accepted. The 10-member Israeli delegation subsequently notified organisers that they would boycott the summit, which they described as a farce and a platform for anti-Zionism.

Salim Vally, of South Africa's National Consultative Forum for Palestine, said there was concern that Palestinian activists like Farrg could be targeted for Israeli reprisals when they return to their homes after the conference. "If anything happens to people who have come to the conference when they get back to Palestine, all the NGOs will be mobilised and we will launch a massive campaign," he warned.

Speaking about the refugee camps, Farrg said children there live in very harsh conditions. There is no place to play and most grow up without their fathers, who are serving time in jail. "I can tell you about my friend, when her father came to the house after jail, she was afraid of him because she didn't know him," she said.

Farrg, who is the eldest of four children, said that she has been to her home village twice and was taken aback the first time to find that much of it had been destroyed. She is determined to return. "I want to be the last generation to suffer," she said.

In the meantime, Farrg said she is determined to pass on her message to conference delegates. However, she said that she is fed up with governments internationally, saying they are concerned only about "talking and writing".

Another member of the Palestinian delegation, Zeiad Abbas, was born in the same refugee camp as Farrg but has lived there more than 50 years. He now works for a cultural centre in the camp that works among refugee children and youth. Abbas said that he is one of more than five million Palestinian refugees who have just become numbers to researchers and human rights activists.

Abbas said that his mother locked the door of their home in 1948 to hide in the mountains expecting to return later that same day. Instead, she was taken to the camp where she later died. "She gave the key (to the house) to me. It is a symbol of our right to return," Abbas said, adding that he is one of thousands of refugees who hold on to their house keys.

He said that the conditions in the Dheisheh camp are "very bad" with more than 11 000 people living in a space of about half a square kilometre. "There is no privacy and when we want to open a window you have the wall of the neighbour's house right there," he said. The camp lacks adequate water in the summer and often goes without electricity for days during the winter.

Abbas said that there were "no real partners standing with the Palestinian people" from governments throughout the world. "We have resolutions dealing with refugees and Palestine is referred to as an issue, but no country will put pressure on Israel to carry out the resolutions," he said.

Comparing the situation in Palestine to apartheid South Africa, Abbas said that South Africans could really understand racism. "We're living in an apartheid system, only it has been given a different name," he said.Halimeh Abu Soulb, a representative from a Palestinian women's centre, added that women were subjected to violence, oppression, and degradation. She said that due to roadblocks there are times when people cannot move from one village to another, even when they are trying to get to a hospital in an emergency. (END/IPS/AF/HD/CG/AA/01)