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If Palestinians Are Granted The Right To Work Lebanon Wins

By Franklin Lamb

07 July, 2010
Mycatbirdseat.com

Part VI, Securing Palestinian Civil Rights in Lebanon

“These are humanitarian, social and ethical duties, and the Lebanese
state must assume the responsibility of providing them to our
Palestinian brothers and sisters. Lebanon will not dodge these duties,
which must be crystal-clear, and not be subject to any misinterpretation.
The international community has to bear also the responsibility that
our Palestinian guests will have the right to go back to their homeland:
Palestine, with Jerusalem as their capital.”

Prime Minister Saad Hariri during the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee (LPDC) meeting at the Grand Serail, June 29, 2010

Currently the vote to grant the right to work for Palestinian refugees
in Lebanon is too close to call as the most serious debate ever in Lebanon on
this subject builds momentum. If last week’s refugee camps hero was the
Druze MP Walid Jumblatt (please see Part V of this series) this week’s much
admired za’in is the Sunni Muslim Prime Minister, Saad Hariri. The political
sands in Parliament and the Cabinet continue to shift as regional powers
weigh in and current vote pledges may not be reliable.

Handicapping the parliamentary vote to grant civil rights to Palestinian
refugees, the MP votes needed to pass is 65 out of 128. As of July 2, 2010:

Firmly in favor: 13
Firmly opposed: 16
Leaning towards voting in favor: 41
Leaning towards voting against: 58

A main argument that continues to be made by Members of Parliament who
oppose granting civil rights to Lebanon’s Palestinians is that allowing them
“privileges” (quotes mine) would lead to their naturalization and settlement
(Tawtin). By this is meant that the refugees might get too comfortable in
Lebanon and not want to return to Palestine. It’s a false but potent shibboleth
as many academic and NGO studies and surveys have shown. Unfortunately
it continues to resonate given Lebanon’s current political atmosphere,
particularly in the more right wing Christian villages allied with the Lebanese
Forces of Samir Geaga, the Lebanese Social Democratic Party (the Kataeb or
Phalange movement) of the Gemayel family, the National Liberal Party
of Dory Chamoun and their political allies including the Maronite Patriarchy
and the American Embassy.

Discussing the claimed fear of naturalization and its connection with
employment of Palestinians, American University of Beirut Professor Sari
Hanafi, a key organizer of the June 27, 2010 historic civil rights march here in
Lebanon commented during an interview with Now Lebanon on 6/28/10:

“Poverty rates inside refugee camps (due to not being allowed to work)
are estimated at about 40 percent of the population, in comparison
with the 7 percent or 8 percent observed in the poorest Lebanese areas
such as Akkar (North Lebanon near Tripoli). According to the
Palestinian Najdeh Foundation, unemployment rates are at about 60
percent of the total population and only 7 percent of working
Palestinians have fixed contracts, 90 percent of which are with UNRWA
(the UN Relief and Works Agency). The rest are essentially employed
on the black market. These figures account for the exploitation of
Palestinians across the board. I do not think that this has anything to do
with the fear of naturalization of Palestinians in Lebanon. Palestinians
had originally two sources of employment: the PLO and UNRWA,
and today only the latter remains. Unfortunately, even UNRWA is
now increasingly using Palestinians on a temporary contract basis.”

UNRWA recently announced that it has a 113 million dollar deficit. It is being
forced to further curtail the shrinking health and education services in the
camps).

Being allowed to work is a right not a privilege

The granting of the right to work must be decoupled from permanent
settlement in Lebanon in the now active public debate. Unfortunately those
in Parliament opposed to granting civil rights to Palestinians have
increased the volume and shrillness of their claims that civil rights means
naturalization and citizenship and will affect the domestic sectarian
balance. Both claims are false, and Lebanon, as a signatory of all the major
human rights treaties, and bound to implement others based on principles
of customary international law, it has an obligation to respect the basic
rights of all persons legally residing on its territory. This is purely a
question of respect for human rights, ensuring that its refugees can live in
dignity without discrimination. Granting Palestinian refugees these
elementary rights is distinct from Lebanon’s obligations vis-à-vis its own
citizens. The granting of civil rights to Palestine refugees neither entitles
them to citizenship, nor obliges the Lebanese state to grant citizenship and
the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon do not and have never sought
Lebanese citizenship.

Since mid-June 2010, another argument against granting the right to work
has been surfacing and Phalange Party leader, former President Amin
Gemayel and his allies and even some of his fellow Maronites who compete
with him for support in the dwindling Christian community, are issuing
warnings. They have been complaining as Gemayal told a Phalange Party
gathering last week:

“Lebanon’s economy cannot sustain granting these privileges to
Palestinians. It will damage Lebanon’s economy. Lebanon does not have
enough money. Instead, the international community must take over
this file and find a solution. Anyhow the problem requires more study
before we act hastily.” (Emphasis mine.)

Opponents argue that allowing refugees to work will take jobs from
Lebanese workers

Following the PLO departure from Lebanon in August of 1982, Palestinian
refugees in Lebanon have been barred by law from 77 job categories. Five
years ago (February of 2005) pro-Hezbollah Labor Minister Trad Hamadeh
issued a decree that officially reduced the job restrictions imposed on
Palestinian employment down to 25 jobs. However, this decision remains
stillborn due to impossible to meet requirements of work permits (only 2% of
Palestinians in Lebanon have ever been able to secure one — sometimes
through bribery) reciprocity (which cannot be met since Lebanon does not
recognize a state called Palestine) and other government imposed
barriers designed specifically to keep Palestinians out of jobs. Since 2005, the
number of work permits delivered to Palestinians (261 in 2009) has only
varied, as Professor Hanifi has documented, by plus or minus 10 percent
every year, proving that there has been no real change in terms of Palestinian
employment.

Among those in Parliament and the public favoring granting Palestinian
refugees the right to work and the right to purchase a home, the old bromides
about naturalization and Palestinian refugees taking Lebanese jobs are
still pervasive, but losing ground. Even some of Lebanon’s intensely sectarian
media is beginning to discount them. The documented history of Palestinian
refugee fueling economic growth in countries, such as Syria and Jordan,
which have met their international obligations to Palestinian refugees, make
clear that Lebanon has much to gain from meeting her obligations and
allowing Lebanon’s Palestinian refugees their internationally guaranteed
rights. In these countries, Palestinians enjoy full citizenship rights, in the
French sense of the word. Without being granted nationality, they have the
essential social, legal and political rights of any other citizen, including
freedom of movement, the right to work and to own a home. This is what
Lebanon’s Palestinians are seeking and have a fundamental right to be
granted without further delay.

As Salvatore Lombardo, the director of UNRWA told key Lebanese leaders
on 6/30/10 during a Conference with the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue
Committee (LPDC):

“Let’s not forget that this will have a huge impact on Lebanon’s
economy and stability. Lebanon will gain, it will have a workforce that
will invest here.”

Abdallah Abdallah, the Palestinian ambassador to Lebanon, has joined
virtually all Palestinians in Lebanon in denying any intent to obtain
naturalization or political rights. “All what the Palestinians want is the right
to work like any other foreign nationals.”

Palestinian refugees are not in Lebanon as tourists

Palestinians were terrorized by Zionist forces and gangs while being forced
from their homeland and are so far unable to return. Consequently they have
no choice but to live and stay in Lebanon, which distinguishes them from
economic migrants and other foreigners. Yet, Lebanese law considers
Palestine refugees as foreigners, disregarding the protection needs of long-
term forced displaced persons guaranteed by international law.

As much as the well-being of the Palestinian community is dependent on the
well-being of the Lebanese economy as a whole, the Lebanese economy itself
is dependent on the work, capabilities and human resources of this skilful
community. An increased participation of Palestinian refugees in the
Lebanese economy, both in terms of quantity and quality, would therefore
greatly benefit the economic life of the entire country.

Unlike other groups of refugees and foreigners, due both the long history
of their presence in the country and the impossibility of return, Palestinians
have no other “economic affiliation” but to the Lebanese economy.
Palestinian refugees also contribute to Lebanon’s high seasonal agricultural
labor demands, as well as to the great need for construction workers. It is
common to see Palestinians, sometimes risking arrest, among those
congregated under Beirut overpasses seeking shade from the intense sun
while waiting and hoping for day labor construction work when can bring
their families $15-18 for a ten hour shift. Their exclusion from being able
to work legally is not only a violation of internationally guaranteed rights,
it is bad economic policy for Lebanon.

What Lebanon’s economy now enjoys from Palestinians will increase

The Washington DC and Beirut based Palestine Civil Rights Campaign and
those in Lebanon and internationally who are working to secure civil rights
for Palestinian refugees advocate a rights-based approach based on
international legal norms and universal moral and religious teachings. While
these arguments are sufficient, it is also worth emphasizing the benefits
that the Lebanese economy will reap from access to the Palestinian refugee
labor market.

At the time of their exodus, only four years after Lebanon’s independence
from the French in 1943, Palestinian assets brought into Lebanon were
estimated at four times the value of the Lebanese economy. Ever since,
periods of economic expansion have greatly benefited from Palestinian
capital being invested in the country.

As it is now, Palestinian refugees contribute massively to the Lebanese
economy, based on their numbers through active engagement in the black
market or informal-illegal labor force and by daily economic consumption,
as well as millions of dollars of financial contributions by International
Organizations such as UN specialized agencies plus donor countries and
NGOs, who are assisting Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Various studies
have concluded that Palestinians account for 10% of all consumption in
Lebanon, with food, healthcare and rent being the main expenditures. More
than 90% of Palestinian refugees spend all their income in Lebanon
contributing directly to the Lebanese economy. Allowing them to work will,
it is estimated by the International Labor Organization, double this figure
and dramatically spur growth.

Current financial benefits to the Lebanon economy from her Palestinian
guests include the following:

• The reception of Western Union type cash remittances by approximately
50% of the Palestinian households in the Camps from relatives living aboard.
Foreign workers on the other hand send their earning out of Lebanon to
their countries of origin in order to support their families.

• Supplying labor of varying skills for seasonal agricultural demands as
well as for major reconstruction projects. This brings considerable profits for
Lebanese companies, employers, and employment agencies and the workers’
wages of roughly $18 per day are often spent immediately for food,
healthcare and rent. Palestinian refugees often work in small businesses,
generally considered as a foundation of economic growth in any economy
and they contribute to “invigorating” the areas surrounding their camps by
creating low-cost markets for low-income and other marginalized
communities in Lebanon.

As a large percentage of Lebanese continue to leave the country for study
and employment, this creates serious gaps in Lebanon’s economy as well as a
steady demand for skilled and unskilled labor in the Lebanese labor market.
Palestinians refugees are willing and able to fill this chasm.

At the same time, Palestinians represent no deductions from the Lebanon’s
welfare system, as is sometimes claimed, and in fact they unjustly benefit the
Lebanese economy by paying social security while being denied by law any
services. Some Palestinians unable to work in Lebanon manage to leave and
find employment elsewhere, depriving the Lebanese economy of a young,
qualified and motivated workforce that could greatly contribute to its socio-
economic development.

Yet the economic benefits of full and legal participation by Palestinian
refugees in the Lebanese labor market have been willfully underestimated
through political resistance to granting them basic rights.

Granting Palestinians the right to work will not take Lebanese jobs

In stark contrast to the non-Palestinian work force, Palestinians represent
a numerically modest fraction and pose no threat to job opportunities for
Lebanese employees. Indeed, granting the right to work which includes
improving the work conditions and safeguards for the Palestinians currently
working in the so-called “informal sector” (i.e., illegal employment or black
market rendering them potentially liable for exploitation, dismissal, fines
and/or jail) will also benefit Lebanese who are forced to compete against
below minimum wages earners who are non-Lebanese.

Palestinian workers constitute only 3-5% of the total work force in Lebanon
which is estimated at around 1.1 Million. The size of the foreign labor force,
excluding Palestinians, is conservatively estimated at 600,000. Estimates
for the number of Syrian laborers vary from 200,000 to one million.

The Palestinian labor force is between 55,000 and 85,000 (based on estimates
of the resident Palestinian refugee population of between 225,000 and
330,000 Palestinian refugees, of which 69% are of working age and of these
approximately 37% are employed at least 5 hours per week.

Most of the Palestinians who find work do so in the 12 refugee camps
or more than three dozen gatherings. Palestinians work mainly in services,
instruction, industry, transport, and agriculture jobs not generally the
ones most Lebanese are employed in or would accept to enter. For example,
the construction sector employs 19% of all Palestinian workers, and only
0.8% of all Lebanese. Manufacturing employs 13% of the Palestinian
workforce and only 8.5% of the Lebanese. Agriculture employs 11% of the
Palestinian workers, and less than 2% of Lebanese.

In Lebanon, agricultural workers are excluded from the application of the
Labor Law. Construction and agriculture, two of the main sectors in which
Palestinians work, employ mostly daily paid workers. Legislation granting
the right to work to Palestinians will not significantly affect this group
of employees.

Despite the fact that Lebanon’s severe restrictive policies were meant to
exclude Palestinians from the labor market, they have had little effect on
keeping the refugees completely idle. Most Palestinian households report at
least one person per household works. The fact that Palestinians are already
working, albeit informally and sometimes illegally, indicates that legalizing
their status and providing them with the full right to work would not
cause a loss of jobs available for Lebanese citizens but only the regularization
of the current situation for the protection of both.

Palestinians provide a very positive but underutilized contribution to the
Lebanese economy.

A win-win scenario-additional benefits for Lebanon

While the unemployment rate among Palestinians is around 15%, a far larger
percentage of around 35% of the Palestinian workforce (60% of the men and
12% of the women) are underutilized workers. Apart from the unemployed,
these consist of discouraged persons (wanting to work but believing there
is none), visibly under-employed (time related, i.e. working less than 35 hrs a
week) or invisibly under-employed (low-productivity jobs and/or over-
qualification).

By granting the Right to Work which includes improving the work conditions
and safeguards for the Palestinians currently working in the “informal
sector”, it will also benefit Lebanese who are forced to compete against below
minimum wages earners who are non-Lebanese workers. Lebanese
employers often prefer to engage foreign workers saving money by paying
wages lower than legal minimum wage while avoiding registration in
social security system. Such low cost Palestinians risk undermining Lebanese
wage earners with similar qualifications

The most sought after jobs go to Lebanese

As noted, the educational level of Palestinian refugees remains relatively
low and those without higher education do not compete with Lebanese with
advanced schooling. Only 6% among Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon have
completed secondary school for a current non enrollment or dropout rate of
more than 90% from higher education. 70% have only a primary school
education or less. 13% drop out of school at the elementary level. This
education gap, plus widespread discrimination, keeps Palestinian refugees
from competing with Lebanese for many jobs.

As Lebanon’s Parliament deliberates this summer on how to meet its
international legal and moral obligations while benefiting its economy, at a
minimum two severe impediments must be removed for either or both to be
realized. These are the work permit and the application of the principle of
reciprocity.

The work permit

In order to obtain a work permit, the employee must have a work contract.
This poses a major challenge for Palestinians, especially for several
occupations associated with a high turnover of employers. A work permit
can be cancelled at any time in favor of a Lebanese worker. Another issue is
the validity of the permit, lasting only two years. Because of these and
numerous other administrative restrictions, only around 2% of all
Palestinian workers hold work permits. As noted above, Lebanon granted
136,000 foreigners working permits in 2009, and only 261 of them are
Palestinian. Only 11% of Palestine refugee workers have a written contract.
Most do not have paid vacation or sick leave. Occupational injuries are
not covered by UNRWA health services. Of the Palestinian male workers
who stop working, 70% do so for health reasons.

The principle of reciprocity cannot be applied to Palestinian refugees who
are stateless

Every country has a legitimate reason to protect the interests of its nationals.
This can be done through conditioning the provision of rights to foreigners
on the basis of a mutual enjoyment of these rights by its citizens in the
country of origin of the foreigner. However, applying this principle of
reciprocity to Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, who are stateless, means
effectively denying them the right to work. This impossibility to comply is
clearly against the logic and purpose of the legislation. Lebanon, which is a
state party to the Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights must
ensure the enumerated rights to all individuals within its territorial
jurisdiction including non-nationals. Discrimination on the basis of a person
being stateless is prohibited.

The right to work is essential for realizing other human rights and forms
an inseparable and inherent part of human dignity. Every individual has the
right to be able to work, allowing one to live in dignity. The right to work
contributes at the same time to the survival of the individual and to that of
her/his family, Moreover, insofar as work is freely chosen or accepted, it
enhances the families’ development and recognition within the community.
Granting the right to work to Palestinian refugees is part of Lebanon’s
obligations under international law and its enactment will benefit Lebanon’s
economy.

Franklin Lamb is Director, Americans Concerned for Middle East Peace, Beirut-Washington DC, Board Member of The Sabra Shatila Foundation, and a volunteer with the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign, Lebanon. He is the author of The Price We Pay: A Quarter-Century of Israel’s Use of American Weapons Against Civilians in Lebanon and is doing research in Lebanon for his next book. He can be reached at [email protected] For information and updates on the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign in Lebanon, and to sign the petition, go to: http://www.palestinecivilrightscampaign.org

Franklin Lamb on the Campaign for Palestinian Civil Rights in Lebanon:

62 years on, the battle for Palestinian civil rights in Lebanon is joined

Lebanon’s Merry Month of May
Can Lebanon come in from the Cold? Part II: Resistance and Rebuttal
Can Lebanon come in from the Cold?
Why We Petition For Palestinian Civil Rights in Lebanon
Petition! Civil Rights for Palestinian Refugee’s in Lebanon