Lebanese Palestinians
Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Druse community in Lebanon, has introduced a bill into the Lebanese Parliament to extend basic human rights to Palestinians. What you ask, Palestinians in Lebanon do not have human rights? The answer is yes, they do not have the right to work, to own property or to vote, etc., which is certainly against the UN International Bill of Human Rights. The 360,000 Lebanese Palestinians, who are the descendents of the ca. 60,000 original refugees who entered Lebanon 62 years ago, have no rights in Lebanon, and only now is the revolutionary step being taken to extend basic human rights to them,
Lebanon is a jumble of distinct ethnic groups, including the Shi'ites in the south, the Christian (mainly Maronite) in the north, the Druse (a heretical Muslim sect) in the southern mountains, and the Sunni Muslims in the center. There used to be Christians in the south, but most of them were expelled during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990) when massacres took place and Churches and Mosques were burnt and ca. 200,000 people are estimated to have been killed. The Palestinians came into this fragile mix and were resented by all the other groups. Perhaps the main reason why the Lebanese have supported the Palestinian cause was to get rid of the unwanted Palestinians, who being Sunni Muslims upset the delicate balance.
When people write about how badly the Arabs are treated in Israel or on the West Bank and Gaza they conveniently ignore that the Palestinians who fled from the 1948 War of Independence into Lebanon and Syria were treated far worse. Not only were they denied basic human rights, but they were restricted to the so-called "refugee camps" where they have festered in poverty ever since. This was not Israel's doing, and one can see this by contrast with Jordan, which was the only Arab country that extended its citizenship to the refugees and gave them basic rights. Thus in Jordan, Palestinians are Jordanian citizens and have the right to vote (not that it is a purely democratic system) and other human rights. I once met a Palestinian-Jordanian biochemist, trained in the US, who was a Professor at Yarmuk University, who proclaimed himself satisfied by the way the Palestinians were treated in Jordan. In effect, there are no longer any Palestinian "refugees" in Jordan, they are all Jordanian citizens! Also, contrast this treatment of refugees with that of Israel that accepted nearly 1 million Jews from Arab lands after 1948 and successfully integrated them into the general population.
The question arises, why now? Why is Jumblatt taking this step now, after so many years in which the Palestinians were isolated from Lebanese society, even though they played a large role in the violence that led to the Civil War and played a large role in that. The answer may be that some leading Lebanese politicians and groups have finally succumbed to the realization that the Palestinians in their country are not going back. Not only will Israel not accept them, but the Palestine State that is supposed to result from peace negotiations would probably also not accept them. Where would they put them, how would they pay for them? Then again, this depends on a successful outcome of Israel-Palestinian negotiations, and even though Pres. Obama said 2 years to a successful conclusion and PM Netanyahu says 1 year to a peace treaty, forget it! The Lebanese are realists. Now that Lebanon has a somewhat stable government and Hizbollah is part of it, I suppose that some of the groups decided that the time is now right to clear up this blight on the Lebanese political landscape.
But, the outcome of this initiative is uncertain. There are groups that are strongly opposed to including the Palestinians in the Lebanese polity. For example, the Maronite Christians, whose Phalange party massacred the Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatilla camps in 1982, are against upsetting the balance and adding them to the anti-Christian camp. They call on Israel to accept the Palestinians, but they won't do so themselves, even though the Palestinians were born there and are suffering there without human rights,
Lebanon is a jumble of distinct ethnic groups, including the Shi'ites in the south, the Christian (mainly Maronite) in the north, the Druse (a heretical Muslim sect) in the southern mountains, and the Sunni Muslims in the center. There used to be Christians in the south, but most of them were expelled during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990) when massacres took place and Churches and Mosques were burnt and ca. 200,000 people are estimated to have been killed. The Palestinians came into this fragile mix and were resented by all the other groups. Perhaps the main reason why the Lebanese have supported the Palestinian cause was to get rid of the unwanted Palestinians, who being Sunni Muslims upset the delicate balance.
When people write about how badly the Arabs are treated in Israel or on the West Bank and Gaza they conveniently ignore that the Palestinians who fled from the 1948 War of Independence into Lebanon and Syria were treated far worse. Not only were they denied basic human rights, but they were restricted to the so-called "refugee camps" where they have festered in poverty ever since. This was not Israel's doing, and one can see this by contrast with Jordan, which was the only Arab country that extended its citizenship to the refugees and gave them basic rights. Thus in Jordan, Palestinians are Jordanian citizens and have the right to vote (not that it is a purely democratic system) and other human rights. I once met a Palestinian-Jordanian biochemist, trained in the US, who was a Professor at Yarmuk University, who proclaimed himself satisfied by the way the Palestinians were treated in Jordan. In effect, there are no longer any Palestinian "refugees" in Jordan, they are all Jordanian citizens! Also, contrast this treatment of refugees with that of Israel that accepted nearly 1 million Jews from Arab lands after 1948 and successfully integrated them into the general population.
The question arises, why now? Why is Jumblatt taking this step now, after so many years in which the Palestinians were isolated from Lebanese society, even though they played a large role in the violence that led to the Civil War and played a large role in that. The answer may be that some leading Lebanese politicians and groups have finally succumbed to the realization that the Palestinians in their country are not going back. Not only will Israel not accept them, but the Palestine State that is supposed to result from peace negotiations would probably also not accept them. Where would they put them, how would they pay for them? Then again, this depends on a successful outcome of Israel-Palestinian negotiations, and even though Pres. Obama said 2 years to a successful conclusion and PM Netanyahu says 1 year to a peace treaty, forget it! The Lebanese are realists. Now that Lebanon has a somewhat stable government and Hizbollah is part of it, I suppose that some of the groups decided that the time is now right to clear up this blight on the Lebanese political landscape.
But, the outcome of this initiative is uncertain. There are groups that are strongly opposed to including the Palestinians in the Lebanese polity. For example, the Maronite Christians, whose Phalange party massacred the Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatilla camps in 1982, are against upsetting the balance and adding them to the anti-Christian camp. They call on Israel to accept the Palestinians, but they won't do so themselves, even though the Palestinians were born there and are suffering there without human rights,
posted by Jack Cohen at 1:35 PM
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