The Palestinians are human beings if they refugees or citizens. My issues are:
1. Why nothing was said when Lebanon was under the Syrian occupation and it was Syria who orchastrated all of these unfair laws in Lebanon?
2. Look how the Palestinians are being treatdd in Syria. It is an undeclared second class citizens!!! Ask the Palestinians who LIVED (not living) there.
3. To my Palestinian friends, move to Syria if the treatment there is better!!
Please don’t take me wrong, I have all respect to all people especially the Palestinians!

They can take them if they want.

i’m sure there are many lebanese living in similar if not worse situations. it is highly unfair to be critical of a state for it;s treatment of refugees when its treatment of its own citizens is deplorable. if amnesty is so concerned about the living standards and plight of palestinians then perhaps it should draw up proposal to relocate them to countries with the available means to cater for them or campaign for greater democracy and freedom in lebanon for all inhabitants.

Educated and Professional Palestinians should be granted Lebanese citizenship. This will help Sunni-Shiaa demographic equilibrium.

As for the Christian-Muslim equilibrium in Lebanon:
Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Arab Gulf countries should grant asylum to another percentage of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

As for the rest of the camps population they should enjoy the basic rights to live in dignity: education, employment and health coverage. Despite shitty opposition from Hassouna and his boss Najjad.

Ghassan,

The report also criticizes Syria and Jordan if I correctly recall

Eliedth,
Hmm, you mean to NYC where Amnesty is based :) ?

Zara,
Point taken, but I don’t think the “state” is responsible. I think the problem is systemic. The entire political class and a large portion of public opinion is against granting Palestinians those rights.

Sam,
Now wait for the fireworks!

For all practical purposes, they are citizens. Now all we need a is “formula” that will give them rights, without “accepting” the Nakba, and without forcing a “tawtin” on the Lebanese.

One simple way was proposed; some consider it may require the Arabs to recognize Palestine as a state on the 67 borders. others consider that it can simply be a Lebanese administrative matter of allowing them work automatic work permits (not citizenship) and requesting all foreign workers other than Palestinians get a work visa. The Lebanese market currently takes 400,000 to 700,000 Syrians. So it can easily take 100,000 to 200,000 Palestinian workers, much of the rest being made of Lebanese workers from the “areas” who will replace underpaid Syrians. That will still leave room for 200,000 Syrian labourers, at most.

Yes, local labour wages will rise by 30%, but call it the price of internal peace.

1- The Palestinians are not citizens of Lebanon

2- There was a time they ruled Lebanon and were better than first class to the second class Lebs. I don’t recall Amnestyzi International complain.

3-Someone tell these idiot do-gooders, who are not affected by any of this, that we have other more pressing problems. (And apparently so do the Palis themselves as they seem to care little about the camps. I guess for every billion dollar of theft/aid to Arafat or the PA, the camps get a couple of thousand)

hehe no Mustapha not necessarily to NYC. They can take them to any country the want to.
We didn’t create the Palestinian problem the big nations in the world created it so let them solve it.

I know amnesty international is independent but what do they really expect us to do? the government barely manages to give Lebanese proper living conditions, if they care so much about Palestinians let them find a solution for them in other countries and we will all be happy

I concur with Jeha.

Why do the Arabs not look at the Philistines as their own family - what real differences are there

Langiage - Arabic

Religin - Muslim

Ethnicity - Arab

so whats the problem ?

Would you treat Arabians or Jordanians like this ?

Mustapha - must disagree with you here. Regardless of whether they are citizens or not is irrelevant. They are currently in lebanon and deserve to be treated as people. It’s standard procedure in many countries to give non-citizens the same rights as citizens (with some extra paperwork called visas).

Any that were born in Lebanon should be full citizens. No questions. Anyone is entitled to full citizenship of the country they were born in.

Conversely, if they were born in Lebanon, they are _not_ automatically entitled to citizenship of any new Palestinian state, or of Jordan, Syria, Egypt or wherever else their great-grandparents came from.

Nor do they have any particular right to move to Canada or wherever, as they are in no danger where they are. They are not refugees, even if their parents or grandparents were.

It looks to me as though the Lebanese are operating a kind of apartheid.

Let’s see. $200M+ Arabs in the ME spread over 20+ countries cannot find room for 500K Palestinian refugees and accept them as equals.

Can anyone tell me if there is something wrong with this picture?

This one is specifically for Lebanese.

How did Civil War start? What caused it?

Even Lebanese born out of a Lebanese mother and foreign father do not have the citizenship right…

Palestians were discriminated against becomes of laws not allowing them to work so that Syrian workers can do the jobs…

Palestinians cut their own throat in the 70″’s “trying to liberate Quds through Jounieh”…

I say it is time to let civility back to Lebanon. Of course HA will disagree as everything to them is a matter of Shiite power! They have worked hard enough through the years (still now…) forcing Christians and other Lebanese of different sects to immigrate…They’ll never allow any rights to the Palestinians!

Enough Hypocracy! enough using arabism and islam and brotherhood to leverage the Palestinian cause. The palestinian refugees could have had the best quality of life and the most organized camps living with dignity had the PLO donate to its own people part of its petro dollars that have been accumulated in swiss banks and then inherited by lucky wife! (billions of dollars). The refugee problem is not lebanese nor jordanian etc, its the problem of palestinian authority and its inefficiency and corruption. Stop blaming us for the inefficiency of others. If Soha arafat and the PLO only donate 10% of the money Arafat accumulated this issue would be closed long time ago. God dammit Leave Lebanon Alone.

guys,

I think most of you are right, Lebanon is for a large part not to blame for the Palestinian refugees’ plight,

but Dory, how is watching a humanitarian disaster taking place, and trying to do something about bad? This is not about Arabism, this is Amnesty International after all.

@Jeha
Most likely, local labor wages will actually *drop*, not rise. It’s a simple matter of supply and demand: with new employees seeking jobs, the employers will choose the cheapest labor force.

You are assuming that Palestinians will replace the Syrian workers and that the Palestinians will demand higher salaries. Both assumptions are not necessarily correct.

Mustapha,
“The continuing restrictions which deny Palestinian refugees access to their rights to work, education and adequate housing and health are wholly unjustified and should be lifted without further procrastination or delay.”"
” The continuing restrictions, which deny Lebanese authorities, access to the camps and its right to disarm the outlaw factions and terrorist organizations, which infect the camps intimidating the population and using their laundered money as incentive to take women as wives.
“They continue to be denied the right to adequate housing, due to unacceptable levels of habitability, restrictions on property ownership and, in camps in the south of Lebanon, unreasonable restrictions which have been imposed on their right to repair or improve their homes. Amnesty International has documented cases of Palestinian refugees being intimidated, fined and detained simply for seeking to build a brick wall to protect their home from the elements.”
Well, to amnesty international, I say those outlaw camps if not permitted to build brick walls, as the report mentions to protect their home from the element, they had the available funds to build a military infrastructures i.e. underground tunnels for arms smuggling. I have a question to ask here: What type of structure needs more funding, brick walls or underground tunnels? A question that needs to be reflected upon. Those illegal practices, wholly unjustified, should be stopped without further procrastination or delay!!!

Realy good Blog! Thaks for It!