Thousands protest equal rights for Palestinians in Lebanon
Some 425,000 Palestinians live in Lebanon, many of whom live in squalid and over-crowded refugee camps.
By Reuters Tags: Israel news Lebanon PalestiniansSeveral thousand Palestinians and Lebanese civil activists converged on central Beirut on Sunday, demanding more rights for Palestinians, many of whom live in squalid and over-crowded refugee camps.
 |
Palestinian and Lebanese civil activists protest in Beirut, 27 June, 2010. |
| Photo by: Reuters |
Dozens of buses transported demonstrators waving Palestinian flags from refugee camps across the country -- from the southern city of Tyre as well as from the northern city of Tripoli.
"As Palestinians in Lebanon we have no rights. We just want to live with dignity," said Palestinian Imtithal Abu Samra, 29, who lives in the Beddawi refugee camp in northern Lebanon.
Some 425,000 Palestinians are registered as refugees in Lebanon by UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees. Many live in 12 camps across Lebanon in conditions the UN has described as deplorable and appalling.
Palestinians in Lebanon are barred from working in dozens of professions and are generally paid lower wages than their Lebanese counterparts when they do find jobs.
They are not allowed to benefit from public social or medical services.
Proposals for a draft law due to be debated in parliament in a few weeks would give Palestinians the right to own a residential apartment and would legalise work rights.
The protesters had planned to demonstrate in front of parliament but Lebanese soldiers prevented them from congregating there. Instead they gathered in front of UN headquarters, a few hundred metres away.
"Palestinians have been here for 62 years. Their (condition) is unacceptable," said Dalia, a Lebanese assistant researcher. "Civil rights should be given to anyone regardless of their religion, sect or nationality," she said.
Some 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes in the war that led to the founding of Israel in 1948.
About 4.5 million refugees and their descendents now live in squalid camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.
Most of Gaza's 1.5 million residents are either refugees or their descendants. Israel has recently said it would ease a blockade on the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave, which critics say is collective punishment for Palestinians living there.
The issue of granting Palestinian more rights has raised worries it would promote 'naturalization', which some politicians fear will upset Lebanon's delicate sectarian and demographic balance. Most Palestinians are Sunni Muslims.
The proposals have faced hurdles in parliament because of Christian lawmakers' fears that granting these rights would eventually lead to their permanent resettlement, an allegation refugees and civil rights activists say is not true.
"Lebanon has marginalized Palestinian refugees for too long," Human Rights Watch's Beirut director Nadim Houry said in a statement last week. "Parliament should seize this opportunity to turn the page and end discrimination against Palestinians."
Why Facebook Connect?
Comment on Haaretz.com articles with your Facebook login, and share your thoughts on your own wall.
- Latest
- Most Viewed
- Most Rated
- Open all
The long overdue introspection, condemnation, and correction of the festering situation in Palestinian camps within Arab lands occurred because of their unnatural, negative fixation on Israel who in stark contrast admirably absorbed several hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees fleeing persecution. Only in the West Bank and Gaza it seems did the Palestinians so blatantly squander their ill-gotten aid on futile attempts to fight Israel instead of building their society's infrastructure.
Lebanese hypocrites who have persecuted their Palestinian brothers since 60 years.
and i thought palestinians are israels victims. it happens that for 62 years they are pawns in in the hands of their arab brothers.
That's the real human rights crisis, the arab world let this problem fester in all their countries. It was on purpose that these refugees were never integrated, so that the problem is still Israel and not their unjust policies towards refugees. Israel integrated close to a million jewish refugees living for centuries in arab countries. It's time for rich Arab countries to do the same for their arab refugees. If they are all brothers, and so worried about their rights at the UN, it's the least they can do. The UN and the world has given enough funds to ensure that those refugees are taking care of for generations, but of course it only benefitted a few at the top.
One of the great mysteries of the "Palestinian Condition" is how the UN has supported the retention of the Palestinians in refugee camps for over 60 years. Without the political support of the UN the majority of these unfortunate refugees would be citizens in their country of birth and would be living as productive members of society and in dignity. Arguably the most blatant hypocrisy relating to the Palestinians is how their retention within refugee camps is exploited for political purposes. The Palestinians deserve better from both the UN and their leaders.