Can Lebanon Come In From The Cold?
Part II: Resistance And Rebuttal
By Franklin Lamb
20 April, 2010
Countercurrents.org
Read Part I: Hiba's Story, Ein el Helwe Palestinian Refugee Camp, Lebanon
Shatila Palestinian Refugee Camp Beirut, Lebanon:
As of mid-April 2010 there are no fewer than six draft laws, half of them
‘embargoed for now’ being circulated and debated in Lebanon, any one of
which if adopted by Parliament, would grant Lebanon’s Palestinians, for the
first time since their 1948 expulsion from Palestine, some elementary civil
rights including the right to work, to have an ID, and to own a home.
Part Three of this discussion will reveal publicly for the first time, with the
permission of the various Drafting committees, the changes in Lebanon’s
laws each one advocates.
Despite the fact that bookies and odd makers at Lebanon’s main Casino
in Jounieh decline to give odds on any of the drafts actually being enacted by
Parliament, Lebanon’s political leaders are talking sweet.
“If it were up to me, I would give the Palestinians the right to work
tomorrow!” Prime Minister Saad Hariri exclaimed during a Future TV
channel interview recently and to various visiting delegations who are
increasingly inquiring about the subject of basic civil rights for Palestine
refugees as awareness spreads in Lebanon and internationally about camp
conditions in Lebanon. The PM’s polite interviewer demurred from asking
him why the Prime Minister thought it was not up to him and indeed
not up to all members of Parliament to correct this shameful and dangerous
injustice.
Hezbollah’s leadership, including Sayeed Hassan Nasrallah and his deputy,
former chemistry professor, Naim Qasim, and Hezbollah’s Parliamentary
delegation, among other party leaders, have repeatedly endorsed civil rights
for Palestinians in Lebanon as obligatory given the Resistance movements
“religious, moral, national and humanitarian duty”.
No Lebanese Political leader has been more consistently out front in support
of Palestinian civil rights than Druze leader Walid Jumblatt. He advocates
‘civil rights now’ and organized and funded a Progressive Socialist Party
conference last January which brought together scores of leaders to push for
Parliamentary passage of the right to work, to own a home and social
security entitlements.
Other leaders have also expressed their views that granting Palestinians
civil rights is needed for many reasons including lifting Lebanon’s shame.
So why are the odd makers at Casino de Beirut so skittish about giving some
friendly odds on passage of civil rights for Palestinian refugees?
“You foreigners are so naïve with short memories also!” Saddam (not his
real name), an "entrepreneur" and bon vivant explained from the Casino
parking lot last week, as he surveyed his domain which includes ‘comfort
vans’ in dark corners of the adjacent parking structure. “Nobody should bet
one Lira on the word of a Lebanese politician!”, he explains.
“Consider just the past year. Remember all those young people who worked
so hard during the last election for candidates all over Lebanon who swore
on the heads of their children that the youth would get to vote next time and
the voting age would absolutely be lowered from 21 years to 18? And then
refused to change the law and betrayed the youth and now ask why the
young are so cynical about politics? And women. Don’t get me started on the
subject of women’s rights! Women in Lebanon were promised all during the
2009 election that they would finally be granted civil rights so at least
they could bestow Lebanese nationality on their children. They were also
'guaranteed' a fair share of slots on the municipal elections ballots. They
were betrayed and got no civil rights and were limited to a mere 20% of the
municipal election slots although they number more than 50% of the
voters. Four women out of 128 members in Parliament? What kind of a
democracy is this? Politicians have promised Lebanese women civil rights for
more than 100 years and they got nothing."
"I am from Saida and every election the local politicians say the Saida
Trash Mountain, which pollutes the sea and everything else around Saida and
up the coast of Lebanon, will be removed and cleaned up. Last election
my MP Fuad Sinioria, a guy I like, promised it 'for sure' this time. As usual,
nothing was done. Then just last week, with an eye on the coming municipal
election my MP Sinioria again announced--here look at this. Do you read
Arabic?" Saddam shows me a newspaper with Sinioria’s photo on the front
page next to a photo of Saida’s huge Trash Mountain, which has been
growing higher and wider for 37 years—since the start of the Lebanese civil
war. “Here’s what it says: 'Local political leaders announce that solutions
to Sidon’s collapsing waste dump are on the horizon' What does this mean,
‘on the horizon’? Well, so is judgment day!’’ Saddam fumes, as he continues,
“In short, that is why no one should hold his breath waiting for Parliament
to do what should have been done as soon as the refugees came from
Palestine."
“Excuse me, I have to look after business.” Saddam mumbles as he
approaches one of his vans, looking at his watch and shaking his head while
muttering, "Time’s up! Ya Allah! (Lets go!) She rents by the hour, not the
week!”
In addition to general skepticism about Lebanese politicians "sweet words"
there are plenty of doubts being expressed about granting civil rights to
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Among them is the following sampling with
rebuttals from the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign-Lebanon:
If we grant civil rights to Palestinian Refugees it would interfere with
their Right of Return!
The spurious “would interfere with the Right of Return” argument has been
used by some in Lebanon to justify all manner of discriminations against
Palestine Refugees. For example, in relation to the prohibitions against
improving or renovation of existing refugee camps, some politicians have
claimed that the renovation ban is to prevent the consolidation of the
Palestinian presence in Lebanon and prevent the US-Israel backed
resettlement hence destroying the principle behind the right of return.
In point of fact, the granting of civil rights to Lebanon’s Palestinian
refugees, including the economic, social, and cultural rights in no way
prejudices their Right of Return. The right to return to one’s own country
is based in international law and is the most obvious way to redress the
situation of those who were forced to live in exile. The internationally
mandated Right to Return applies not just to those who were directly
expelled and their immediate families, but also to those of their
descendants who have maintained what the United Nations has declared are
"close and enduring connections" with the area. Anyone who has visited
Palestinians in Lebanon, including youngsters in Lebanon’s camps and
gatherings knows of their “close and enduring connections” to Palestine.
This observer will never forget young Mr. Hamid, a nine years old who
last year in Al-Buss Refugee Camp near Tyre proudly recited to a
delegation of visiting Americans the names of “214 of the more than 500
villages in my country that the Zionists destroyed during the Nakba. They
must all be rebuilt so we must hurry up and go home to do it” Hamid
articulately explained to his astonished visitors.
Palestinians who were expelled from any part of Palestine including the West
Bank or Gaza Strip, along with those of their descendants who have
maintained links with the area, can exercise their right to return.
Meanwhile, granting interim basic civil rights to help them live in dignity
in Lebanon will in no way interfere with their Return, but will likely
expedite it as the refugees in Lebanon gain the wherewithal to press their
claim more effectively in the international arena.
If Lebanon grants civil rights to the Palestinian Refugees, they may become
too comfortable and seek permanency in Lebanon and Naturalization
(Tawtin).
This argument is one of the most flimsy being raised by a few in Lebanon
on the issue of granting some civil rights to Palestine refugees. Virtually
the whole of the Palestine refugee community as well as all Lebanon’s
confessions and political parties are in agreement that despite the history
of Washington and Tel Aviv floating of ‘trial balloons” naturalization
(Tawtin) is out of the question and will not happen. The refugees insist
that their home is south of the border and nowhere else. Virtually all of
Lebanon agrees with the Palestinian position on this. Yet this tired bromide
still surfaces in the media from time to time. On March 3, 2010 even the
hold-out American Embassy in Beirut, on instructions from the State
Department and after years of waffling, announced that Washington no longer
favors Tawtin for Palestine refugees in Lebanon, abandoning Israel as this
chimeras only advocate.
The Palestinian refugee population poses a security risk for Lebanon and
before any civil rights are granted this danger must be resolved.
The Palestinian leadership in Ramallah and Lebanon have held the
consistent position that Camp arms are for camp security and would never be
turned against Lebanon. The arms and fighters that turned up in Nahr al
Bared Camp near Akkar in 2007 came from outside Lebanon and had nothing to
do with the Camp inhabitants.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas recently expressed in Lebanon the
communities view that the national Palestinian leadership ”supports the
Lebanese Government decisions on Palestinian arms inside and outside refugee
camps. We are with Lebanese authorities, with the Lebanese government and
with Lebanese sovereignty. We as Palestinians are not above the law," Abbas
explained in meetings with Lebanese leaders including President Michel
Suleiman, President Obama, his Middle East envoy, George Mitchell as well
as during a press conference on 2/22/10 with his French counterpart Nicolas
Sarkozy in Paris. Palestinian leaders in Lebanon regularly state the unified
Palestinian position: "We are with everything that the Lebanese government
says on weapons outside camps. Our stance is clear and won't change,"
Mahmoud Abass stated. Palestinian leaders in each of the 12 Refugee camps
and 27 ‘settlements’ in Lebanon express the same assurance and a real,
imagined or potential ‘security risk’ does not justify the continuing
deprivation of elementary civil rights for hundreds of thousands of
Palestine refugees in Lebanon.
On the subject of Palestinian arms outside refugee camps,
Druze leader Walid Jumblat on 4/20/10 called for “treating this dossier,
which gained the consensus of the previous dialogue committee separately ,
without associating it with the issue of civil rights for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.
These civil rights are urgent from the humanitarian scope, and they must be acknowledged
and implemented through legislative measures in Parliament," he wrote in an editorial
in the Progressive Socialist Party weekly journal, al-Anbaa.
How are Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon deprived of the civil right to work
since some do manage to find a job "illegally"?
In principle, the Lebanese Labor Law and Social Security Law are applicable
to both Lebanese and foreigners. Where Lebanese law treats Palestinians
differently is firstly, by restricting access to certain professions, and
secondly where it concerns employment injury compensation, social security
benefits including end of service compensation. Availability of these
entitlements for Palestinian workers is strictly conditional on possessing
a government Kafkaesque issued work permit and again on the poisonous
principle of reciprocity. Palestinian workers who find work pay social
security contributions, but are barred from any benefits.
The fact that some resourceful Palestinians have indeed found make-shift
‘illegal’ jobs often at a much lower wage and without any employment
benefits from an unscrupulous or even sympathetic employer is no solution
or acceptable excuse not to grant morally and legally mandated elementary
civil rights.
Lebanese women also are deprived of civil rights. They must get theirs
before Palestinian Refugees are given any.
The two problems have become politically related and among the most
ardent supporters of Women’s rights are the Palestine refugees. Among the
strongest supporters of Palestinian civil rights in Lebanon are women.
Both are illegally and immorally denied basic civil rights. It often requires
International Women’s Day and Land Day for Palestinians to generate some
hand wringing in Lebanon about the need for civil rights for both.
Those opposed to amending the draconian 1962 and 1969 laws (Presidential
Decree) restricting the right of Palestine refugees to work, often but not
always, reject woman’s rights and oppose changing the archaic 1925 law that
bars Lebanese women from giving citizenship to their child and husband.
To the chagrin of most Christians, strident opponents of civil rights for both
groups are often from the minority extremist Christian camp. Lebanese
holding this view argue that granting women the right to pass on their
citizenship would upset the country's delicate demographic balance and the
same would happen if Palestinians are granted civil rights.
Since Palestine refugees and women in Lebanon share a legal limbo quite
naturally they commiserate to some extent. Given the key role of women in
resistance movements, from heroines represented by the likes of Mairead
Farrell and Martina Anderson in Ireland, and Albertina Sisulu and Helen
Suzman in South Africa to Leila Khaled and Dalal al Moughabi for
Palestine and Laure Moghayzel, a founder of leading women’s groups in
Lebanon, it can be expected that the support of women may be the best
hope for their Palestinian sisters and brothers to achieve civil rights in
Lebanon.
Lebanon needs more time to straighten out the “situation” with the
Palestinians. Also, it should be remembered that Lebanon did issue
Identification Cards to the 5000 plus Palestinian refugees who have never
had either UNRWA or Interior Ministry registrations subjecting them to
arrest at any time. So Lebanon is making solid progress.
It is true that in August of 2008 the Ministry of Interior began issuing ID
cards as part of a plan to improve the legal status of the non-ID
Palestinians. On more than one occasion this observer witnessed the hot
crowded yard and garden in front of the Palestinian Embassy in Beirut as
well as the hallways and waiting rooms as hundreds of Palestinian Refugees
waited to apply. Their spirits were soaring as they explained that they
expressed the hope that could no longer be arbitrarily arrested and jailed
for not having ID. It also would mean that for some of them they could now
exit the Camp without fear.
Unfortunately, the euphoria was short lived as the Lebanese government
stopped issuing temporary identification papers to Palestinians five months
later, which meant that fewer than 750 cards were distributed before it
stopped the process, citing ‘security concerns.” In October 2009 the
minister of interior announced that the process would soon resume, and
indeed, the process has resumed. It remains to be seen when the “non-ID’s”
Palestine refugees will obtain.
Lebanon is a very small country and we cannot afford to allow refugees
to own a home, given our limited available housing space.
There has been no probative evidence offered from any quarter in support
of this proposition. Approximately 1/3 of Lebanon’s residential building are
empty, with many owners seeking tenants or buyers and would be happy to
rent or sell a home to Palestinians, either without conditions or the
condition that once they are able to return to Palestine the lease would end
at the beginning of the next year and a reversionary future interest in real
estate might be considered assuring that the mandatory vacation of the
residential dwelling would be available for Lebanese if they are interested
in living in it.
If Sunni and Christian Palestinian Refugees are granted civil rights,
including the right to work and to own a home, this will “upset Lebanon’s
delicate confessional balance” among Christians, Sunni, Shia, and Druze and
plunge Lebanon into dangerous internal sectarian conflicts.
Frankly, more than civil rights for Palestine refugees regularly “upsets the
delicate confessional balance” in Lebanon and this may ever be the case.
One recent example. On April 13, 2010 the 35th anniversary of the start of
the Lebanese Civil War, the two opposing political camps in Lebanon – March
8 and March 14 -- chose to remember this day in a friendly football game in
a show of solidarity at Beirut’s Damil Chamoun Stadium. Thanks to 29 year
old Phalange party member Sami Gemayel ‘s two goals late in the ‘unity’
match the result was a victory for the Saad Hariri-led March 14 team.
Savoring his teams win, Sami gloated that his opponent, Hezbollah’s MP Ali
Ammar’s “defense strategy was very weak’. While his comment may have
been meant as a joke it caused raised eyebrows among some confessions,
such is sectarian sensitiveness these days.
Wearing the wrong clothes, forgetting to observe one of the other confessions
holidays, celebratory gunfire during or after a favored confessional leaders
speech, violations of employment shares inside ministries (in Lebanon each
confessions gets a share of government jobs and one can be sure that each
confessions staff "nose counts" in ministerial offices to be sure the list
is what it should be. Drawing moustaches on posters of rival confessions
(and most confessions appear to be serious rivals) can lead to violence. The
point is that allowing Palestinians to work will be objected to in some
quarters, but not much more than other issues and the is no evidence that it
will not bring down or even alter the confessional system “balance.”
Moreover, the refugees from Palestine have never sought to vote, do not now
seek the right to vote, and have no intention to do so according to their
community leaders and polling data. Consequently, allowing them some civil
rights would not add or distract from any Lebanese sect when forming a
Cabinet, voting for Legislative candidates or advancing or retarding sensitive
sectarian legislation in Parliament.
Palestinian refugees don’t contribute to Lebanon’s economy so why should
Lebanon allow them the right to work?
Actually, despite facing severe work restriction most Palestinian refugee
households have at least one family member who is employed (often illegally
and at a lower exploitive wage than Lebanese citizens) constitute 10 per
cent of all private consumption in Lebanon, and do not burden the Lebanese
welfare system, according to a recent report by The Najdeh (Welfare)
Association, funded by aid agencies Diakonia and Christian aid.
The study is the result of a survey of 1,500 households in eight refugee camps
across Lebanon and a number of focus group discussions, and assesses
the income of Palestinian refugees, challenges to and perceptions of work,
and their contribution to the Lebanese economy. According to Najdeh, the
study was designed “to examine the contribution to the economy of the host
country Lebanon.”, the report found one third of the individuals sampled
works, and roughly 40 per cent were searching for work. Only 1.7 per cent
of those surveyed had work permits, a fact the report said “renders the
Palestinian refugee labor force invisible in official statistics” and exacerbates
their socioeconomic marginalization. Far below a livable wage, median
monthly wages for Palestinian Refugees has declined from $260-266 in 2007
to $108-112 “during the first half of 2008.” An overwhelming majority
(84 per cent) of Palestinian households believe there are no work prospects
for their children in Lebanon. Although Palestinian refugees on a per capita
basis cannot legally contribute much to the Lebanese economy through
employment, their large numbers means they count for 10 per cent
(approximately $352 million) of all private consumption in Lebanon. Food,
healthcare and rent constitute their top spending priorities.
Consistent studies over the six decades have shown that Palestinians have
aided Lebanon’s economy and do much more if allowed to work and open
businesses. An early study dated 12/18/59 by the Arab Supreme Committee
showed that the total monetary balance transferred by Palestinians from
assets in Palestine, the sale of family jewelry to buy food etc. was more
than three times the annual budget of the Lebanese state in the early 1950s
as has the UNRWA relief, education and health and salary budgets mainly
spent in Lebanon. This propelled the Lebanese. However By not allowing
the Palestinians to work Lebanon has stunted its economy.
Before the PLO administration left Lebanon in August of 1982, it created
directly or indirectly more than 40,000 jobs or approximately 18% of
Lebanon’s GNP. The PLO budget may have been larger than that of the
Lebanese state itself. Palestinians also contributed to “invigorating” the
areas surrounding their camps by creating low-cost markets for low-income
and other marginalized communities in Lebanon. The “Sabra, Ein el-Hilweh
and Nahr al-Bared camp markets are recognized as major informal
economic hubs for the poor,” said the report, adding that the destruction
of Nahr al-Bared during the battles of 2007 had “resulted in a gap in the
Akkar” region in northern Lebanon for such communities.
The debate continues…the cause endures…….
Next: Part III: Handicapping the draft laws heading to Lebanon’s Cabinet and Parliament.
Palestine Civil Rights Campaign-Lebanon
“Failure is not an option for the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign, our only
choice is success,” says 15 year old Hiba Hajj, a PCRC volunteer at the
Ein el Helwe Palestinian Camp in Saida, Lebanon.
If you haven't already, please sign here (you don't have to be Lebanese!):
http://www.petitiononline.com/ssfpcrc/petition.html
Franklin Lamb volunteers with the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign
in Lebanon. He is reachable at [email protected]
