Interesting recap of the history of the Palestinians in Lebanon since 1948, from today's Daily Star:
Palestinians pay price of decades of state neglect
Recent symbolic gestures do little to improve living conditions in camps
By Lysandra Ohrstrom
Daily Star staff
Monday, June 11, 2007
BEIRUT: In March 2006 the government sent a delegation of ministers to 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, marking the first time any state officials had visited the semi-autonomous communities since 1948. The visit was one of many symbolic government initiatives to address the plight of Palestinians in Lebanon since Prime Minister Fouad Siniora created the Lebanese Palestinian Dialogue Committee (LPDC) in 2005.
Like resigned Labor Minister Trad Hamade's decree in June 2005 allowing Palestinians to work in 50 manual and semi-skilled construction and service sector jobs previously barred to them, the morale boosting gesture has not perceptibly ameliorated the appalling living conditions in the camps.
Headed by ambassador Khalil Makkowi, the LPDC's mandate is to improve the living conditions of Palestinians residing in and outside the 12 refugee camps in Lebanon; "initiate a dialogue" to negotiate security inside the camps and disarm factions outside these zones; and to "study" the issue of re-establishing diplomatic relations and representation between Lebanon and the Palestine.
"Prime Minister Siniora formed the committee to tackle all of the issues of Palestinians' presence in Lebanon that had been left unattended for too long," explained Makkowi. "They came here as 120,000 and have grown to over 400,000. The conditions are unacceptable, they are living in total poverty and misery, and camps became a fertile ground for extremists."
By Makkowi's own admission the committees' achievements so far have been largely symbolic, save for re-establishing diplomatic relations when the PLO set-up new offices in Lebanon in March, 2006. Siniora's decision to "open the Palestinian file" is significant. The humanitarian crisis that has arisen from the conflict between the Lebanese Army and Fatah al-Islam militants in Nahr al-Bared suggests that the LPDC must pursue meaningful reforms to improve the living conditions for refugees here. The clashes have obliged the media to again represent the camps as security islands that have allowed extremist groups to flourish. But the tension and anger threatening to spill out of the camps is the culmination of decades of state neglect and the imposition of policies that are at best indifferent to humanitarian conditions in the refugee community, and should prompt the government to reconceive its relationship with the Palestinians it hosts.
There is little debate that the state has avoided playing any direct role in the lives of the country's Palestinian population living within or outside the original 15, or existing 12, official refugee camps. Since their arrival in 1948 only one piece of legislation that refers specifically to Palestinians has been passed, stipulating the creation of a bureau to register incoming refugees, and their subsequent marriages and children. Palestinians in other host countries are either given citizenship - in the case of Jordan - or are eligible for social services comparable to other citizens - in the West Bank and Syria. Only naturalized Palestinians are granted the rights enjoyed by Lebanese. The refugee community, while subject to Lebanese law, is denied the civil liberties prerequisite to a normal livelihood.
In Lebanon, unlike other host countries, Palestinians are identified as foreigners - rather than refugees - residing here without documentation from their country of origin. Since foreigners are only given the right to work if their home state grants reciprocal rights to Lebanese nationals, refugees are excluded from the labor market and forbidden to work outside the camps.
Successive Lebanese governments have consistently instrumentalized the Palestinian "issue," rationalizing the denial of refugees' civil liberties in terms of their right of return, or conversely railing against upsetting the sectarian political balance through their resettlement. Rarely has any administration addressed the appalling conditions within the camps, and successive governments' treatment of the Palestinians has fallen somewhere between benign neglect and outright oppression.
"Discussions of the Palestinian subject have always been related to the security," said Sharif Bibi, the operations coordinator of the Nahr al-Bared Relief Campaign. "Before the Syrian withdrawal Lebanese politicians used to say, 'we are making Palestinians live in these conditions because we don't want them to forget the right of return. Now the Palestinian issue now is very different from 10 or 20 years ago. Contradictions have been building up inside the camps for 10 or 20 years, and the Lebanese realize that it will burst."
Before Lebanon ratified the Cairo Accords in 1969, the Lebanese state played a "negative" role in the camps, according to the director of Palestinian NGO Human Development Center, Suhail Natour, by putting them under the control of security forces who forbade the Palestinians from organizing politically, The Cairo agreement arranged relations between the Palestinians and the Lebanese authorities on two levels, outlining the social and economic rights of refugees in the country, and delegated security inside the camps to the PLO. In signing the accord, the Lebanese government agreed to grant Palestinians the same social and economic rights as any other foreigner in Lebanon, allowing them to maintain their national identification but still be eligible for social security, health care, and education, explained Natour. "None [of these principles] have been applied before, during, or after the abrogation of the accord," he said.
"The official Lebanese attitude toward Palestinians living in Lebanon has always been negative. When the municipality of Beirut was paving streets and constructing new electricity grid, they stopped on edge of the camps. Even under the Israeli occupation, the situation for Palestinians is better than in Lebanon."
The circumstances of Palestinians have progressively deteriorated following the Sabra and Shatila massacres and the PLO's expulsion from Beirut in 1982. Refugees - including those displaced from Tal al-Zataar, Jisr al-Basha, and Sabra and Shatila - retreated inside the 12 remaining camps as racism against Palestinians rose.
The repercussions of the PLO's departure and Amin Gemayel's presidency on the Palestinian community in Lebanon were both practical and social, said activist, Mervat Abu Khalil, who has volunteered in the refugee camps for more than two decades.
"At the beginning UNRWA money was not needed, you had all PLO money and infrastructure. Not only clinics, dispensaries and schools, whatever, but you had political activities for all the factions, you had cultural and youth organizations, they were full of life. The PLO had offices in Tareq Jedidi between Sabra and Shatila and there was [a] continuation socially, you didn't feel the camps were ghettoes separated from the rest of the city," she recalled.
"With the rise in racism after 1982 the situation started to change. All the men were in Lebanese or Israeli jails or working abroad, so the women, children and elderly were left by themselves. Tareq Jedidi became a Lebanese residential area and the Palestinians withdrew to the camps, which became isolated and had to be self-sufficient. You didn't feel the separation between camp and rest of the city and have Internet cafes and billiards halls like you have now," Abu Khalil said.
In 1986 Gemayel abrogated the Cairo Accords. Though officially the PLO had no presence in the camp, it maintained a degree of authority through a network of "informal organizations" on the ground - including Fatah, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - who coordinated in organizing life of camps, said Natour.
The PLO also worked to get an unofficial representative authority in talks with the Lebanese government, but the state dealt with committee delegates as members of different factions, rather than a unified leadership. "They considered the camps Lebanese territory, under Lebanese sovereignty and everyone who is hosted must abide by Lebanese laws," he said.
The biggest blows to Palestinian refugees' rights in Lebanon have come during the tenure of late-former Premier Rafik Hariri. In 1994 the Cabinet approved a decree forbidding foreign residents abroad from re-entering the country without a visa of return issued by Lebanon. For five consecutive years, Palestinians in the midst of existing work contracts were denied return visas, dealing a significant blow to the economy of camps which are heavily reliant on remittances.
dailystar.com.lb
"Suddenly anyone who was outside of Lebanon was not allowed to come back without a visa of return issued by Lebanon," said Natour.
"This prompted Palestinians to bring their families and move to Canada. It was all about pushing the maximum number of Palestinians outside the country. That's why 420,000 Palestinians registered in Lebanon, but practically we are not more than 275,000, because of the refusal to grant any human rights since our arrival here. We have only the right of residence and it is an obligatory right for the Lebanese if they could cancel it they would," Natour said.
Bibi also estimated that only 275,000 of the 404,170 refugees registered with UNRWA in Lebanon remain in the country.
Prime Minister Selim Hoss lifted the return visa requirement in 1999, but more restrictions were imposed when Hairi returned to office two years later. In 2001 the government amended the property ownership law forbidding any foreigners from purchasing land in the absence of a reciprocal arrangement with their country of origin. Palestinians who had purchased property before 2001 were not allowed to be pass it on to heirs, and had no choice but to transfer land to awqaf (religious endowments).
One of the LPDC's more concrete accomplishments has been to ease travel restrictions on Palestinian residents of Lebanon. Even after the return visa rule was lifted, Palestinians encountered difficulty at immigration. According to Makkowi, General Security has cut down on the detention of Palestinians trying to return to Lebanon, and returned all confiscated documents.
The LPDC is also drafting amendments to foreign labor and property ownership legislation to exempt Palestinians from the principle of reciprocity. Since the reform requires the passage of a new law in Parliament, it is on hold for the time being.
"Of course changing the clause of reciprocity in employment and property laws in Parliament will be an uphill battle, because there is always fear in Lebanon that if we do this we are settling the Palestinians in Lebanon," Makkowi said. "This not true because the Palestinians don't want this, and there is national consensus in Lebanon that this cannot happen."
The issues of arms both inside and outside camps are "on hold until political situation returns to normal" said Makkowi. More progress has been made toward the former objective, said Makkowi, because all Palestinian parties are in agreement that "so many factions maintaining arms inside the camp is unproductive." The government asked all popular committees in the camp to form a unified delegation to negotiate with the LPDC to find a resolution "to regulate arms in the camp" that falls in "the context of the sovereignty and authority of Lebanese government." But Makkowi claims Palestinian factions have failed to reach a consensus to appoint a delegation.
"Fatah is considering forming a Palestinian brigade which will have authority over security for all camps, operating under supervision of Lebanese Army but this is just a floating idea," he said of a possible solution.
The pro-Syrian Fatah al-Intifada and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine factions stand accused of retaining arms outside the camp and smuggling tunnels in the Naimi region and the Western Bekaa. The national dialogue committee gave them a period of six months to hand in arms before talks dissolved, but the question has been put on the back burner because the army has "other priorities."
Another long-standing issue involves the 3,000 to 5,000 "non-ID" refugees. Most of them came to Lebanon from Jordan after Black September but because they still held Jordanian citizenship and did not fall into the category of refugees from 1948 and their descendants they were denied documentation. This question is also on the "half-burner" said Makkowi, but remains high on the agenda.
"Over 37 years the number of people without any documentation at all grew, they got married had, children. Now there are grown up girls who cannot get married, go to school, they cannot go outside the camp because they will be jailed," he said.
Once the LPDC receives a a complete list of non-ID Palestinians from the PLO, the information ministry will begin processing the data, promised Makkowi, "allowing them to go out of camps, get work, go to school, and travel."
On the humanitarian front, the LPDC eased the barriers on construction materials entering the camps in the South, instructing the army to give approval in 48 hours, Makkowi said. It use to take at least three to four weeks to bring in building materials, forbidding residents and NGO's on the grounded from making much needed infrastructure repairs.
Siniora launched a Camp Improvement Initiative with UNRWA in June 2006 to raise $50 million to improve humanitarian conditions inside the camp, and received $27 million of pledges at a donor conference last year. Though the aid has not been delivered, UNRWA director Richard Cook applauded Siniora's fundraising. "Previous governments have actively refused to allow it," he said. "In cases like the Beirut camps where we wanted to improve the conditions like infrastructure in camp and had opportunities of funding and we were not allowed to do it."
"The Siniora government has not only not continued this policy of refusal but has opened the door to improvements in the camps and actively sought funding for UNRWA," Cook said.
The $50 million will be distributed between the 12 camps - containing an estimated 200,000 people - allowing UNRWA to make what Cook termed, "very basic changes."
"Right now for the majority of people the conditions in the camp are appalling, these are some of the worst conditions I've seen compared to all other UNRWA fields," said Cook. "The [funds] will provide minimal international standards like sewage that doesn't back up in the winter and flood your home, water that isn't polluted and that is regular, electricity that is regular, streets that aren't full of potholes, homes that have kitchens, toilets, shower and livable accommodations depending on size of the family ... things we take for granted."
But even when funds are mobilized, the intervention of the government, local or municipal authorities is needed to implement projects to improve solid waste disposal, main sewer connections, and electricity and water supply in the camps.
While Siniora has spoken out on the need to improve the camps and mobilized donor funds, by Makkawi's own account, like most Lebanese leaders he continues to defer responsibility for the Palestinians to the international community.
"Of course the responsibility of taking care of Palestinians in Lebanon, as well as Jordan and Syria, belongs to the international community, which is why UNRWA was created. But UNRWA is not able to cope with growing demands, this is where we come in as the government to convince the international community that the circumstances of the Palestinians in Lebanon is unlike that of other countries, because in Jordan they are almost assimilated and in Syria they have the same rights as all citizens, though they are barred from voting," he explained. "So we are trying to encourage donor countries to provide funds to improve camps in Lebanon."
The absence of the state in the Lebanese camps over nearly six decades laid the foundations for the current crisis in Nahr al-Bared, argued Bibi, but he rejects placing the conflict in the context of Lebanese Palestinian relations. "The Fatah al-Islam thing is an answer to what we are living in, and outgrowth of the worst internal conditions and the worst external pressures, but its not a Lebanese Palestinian thing, it's about internal politics," he said.
"It's about the state misusing its resources in parts of the country. There are some areas of Lebanon where people are really living in worse conditions than the Palestinians and they are Lebanese. [Nahr al-Bared] should force the government to start to think of a development policy for the whole country."
dailystar.com.lb |
