[News] Disembowelling Palestinian Right of Return: America’s Dog in Lebanese Fight
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Thu Aug 5 13:18:50 EDT 2010
Disembowelling Palestinian Right of Return: America’s Dog in Lebanese Fight
05. Aug, 2010
http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2010/08/disembowelling-palestinian-right-of-return-americas-dog-in-lebanese-fight/
By Dr. Frankin Lamb
Shatila Palestinian Refugee Camp, Beirut
“Some members of Parliament prefer that the
camps explode and then they will insist that
“Palestinian security problems must be resolved
before Parliament can consider giving them civil
rights”meaning several more years of delay. That
would be a disaster for all concerned.”
‘Ahmad’, Resident of Al-Buss refugee camp, Tyre, Lebanon
Following some initial optimism after MP Walid
Jumblatt’s June 15 introduction of draft
legislation that would exempt Palestinians from
the Kafkaesque work permit process, grant them
the right to own a home outside their oxygen
scarce ‘sardine can’ camps, and allow them
to receive some worker paid earned social
security benefits, progress has dramatically slowed .
During last week’s Parliamentary session Head
of the Administration and Justice parliamentary
committee, MP Robert Ghanem, reiterated his
request to Berri and Parliament for a two-month
“rest period”. Premier Saad Hariri called for
postponing the voting for “two months or two
months and a half.” Several other members asked
the same. Parliament Speaker Berri quickly
agreed and postponed voting on the subject until
August 17, adding that “
the law will not pass
unless it enjoys consensus among Lebanese parties.”
Some supporters of Palestinian civil rights see
problems with more delays and with Berri’s “no
passage of civil rights without consensus”. What
is meant by consensus? A simple majority plus
one, two-thirds or..? “ Does it mean taking no
legislative action on Palestinian civil rights
unless and until MP Jumblatt can agree with MP
Sami Gemayel-normally polar opposites on
important issues? Others argue that Berri has no
authority to require ‘consensus’ as it would
likely mean any proposal will deteriorate into
the lowest common denominator with virtually no
rights being granted. Under the Lebanese
Constitution, a law passes when it receives one
more vote in favor than against and what is
needed for passage is not determined by the
Speaker. Some in Parliament are insisting on a
straight up or down vote on bills presented on
the subject of Palestinian civil rights. If
Jumblatts or any other draft law garners 65 votes out of 128 it passes.
A review of Lebanon’s Parliamentary history shows
that virtually all of Parliament’s important
decisions have been made by a straight up or down
vote, not ’consensus’. Surely one very
important vote was the one that took
place on August 17, 1970. The Parliamentary
vote margin that elected ‘consensus’ candidate
Suleiman Frangieh President of Lebanon over
Elias Sarkis was one vote, a result of last
minute vote switches engineered by Druze leader
Kamal Jumblatt. Forty years later to the day,
August 17, 2010, the ‘consensus’ vote” on
Kamel’s son Walid’s historic Palestinian Civil
Rights bill is scheduled for a vote. A propitious sign? Enshallah!
Ambivalence has spread around Parliament despite
two additional measures being offered. One
was introduced in Parliament in early July by
the Syrian Socialist National Party (SSNP). This
draft law most closely reflects internationally
mandated civil rights for refugees and of all
the proposals to date the NSSP draft is what
Parliament should enact to finally remedy six
decades of civil wrongs. If enacted it would
remedy the serial discriminations by successive
Lebanese governments since the 1969-1982, “Ayyam
al-Thawra” (“the Days of the Revolution”) , when
Palestinian refugees had many more employment
prospects and benefited from improved camp
living conditions. The SSNP proposal is a
preferred “one package” solution that will avoid
a protracted piece by piece process and would
largely finish this urgent problem.
Faced with two substantive draft bills,
the right wing Christian parties, often at
odds, have joined ranks with Prime Minister Saad
Hariri’s (“If it were up to me I would grant
Palestinians their rights tomorrow”-April, 2010)
Future Movement (“Muqtaqbal) to slam on the
Parliamentary brakes. All the March 14th
coalition except the Phalange Party have
accepted this draft bill which currently has the
most support in Parliament probably because it
offers the refugees the least civil
rights. According to its sponsors, the draft
must be studied more before
formally considered. A draft being
circulated reveals that those refugees with
a Palestinian ID Card approved by the Lebanese
General Security can receive a temporary
residency permit including a 5 year ‘laissez
passer’ travel document but not the approximately
5000 non-ID’s who came in the 1970’s following
Black September. Regrettably, this draft bill
keeps the work permit and only amends Article
59 of the labor law in order to waive work
permit fees for Palestinians. Nor does it allow
participation in the 25 Syndicated Professions
because it retains the impossible to meet Reciprocity requirements.
Some MPs are dexterous in their efforts to limit
civil rights granted to Palestinians. MP Robert
Ghanem, argued on 7/19/10 that work permits are
good for Palestinians “because they will
preserve the refugee status of Palestinians in
Lebanon. We fear that if we exempted the
Palestinians from a work permit, we will drop
their refugee status and this does not come in
line with their interests.” MP Ghanem surely is
aware that being allowed to work is very much in
line with the refugees interests and has nothing
at all to do with “dropping their refugee
status.” In fact they do not have refugee status
as provided by international law. That is one of
the main problems. Lebanon considers
Palestinians variously as “foreigners”, “special
category of foreigners” and other times a
“Palestinian refugees” without allowing them the
legal rights that their refugee status warrant.
With respect to Social Security benefits, the
March 14 proposal requires that refugees pay
into the Lebanese Social Security Fund but
allows only for end of service and a family
allowance payment. Its specifically forbids
sickness, accident or maternity benefits to
Palestinian refugees. Without health and
accident coverage the incentive to even seek a
work permit wanes. This ‘consensus’ proposal is
more of a gesture than a solution and unless
redrafted remains a bare bones proposal that
will do little to provide internationally
mandated civil rights. Nor will it satisfy
the pursuit of genuine rights among Lebanon’s
Palestinians, increasingly insisted on by the
international community. Many Palestinians and
their supporters are critical of this latest
proposal and see it as offering ‘a little
something’ that will allow its supporters to
say, as one MP boasted last week: , “we will
finally have achieved something for the refugees
and anyhow, how much more can we be expected
to squeeze from our flesh for these Palestinians?”
No Enshallah please! Just tell us Yes or No ok?
Meanwhile scores of Palestinians protested
outside Parliament last week as Palestinian
frustration continues to mount in the camps over
delays in granting civil rights. Parliamentary
Speaker Nabeh Berri’s office when pressed for a
statement whether Parliament would take action
this summer on the various bills would only offer
a one word response: “Enshallah”
As a foreigner in Lebanon this observer has come
to really despise the Arabic word
‘Enshallah’. True, it sounds nice
enough and more likely than not it comes from
lips with a smile, and the literal translation is good also: “God willing”.
However in reality, it’s a deadly and vicious
expression that every guide book publisher on
Lebanon has a moral duty to warn their readers
about. For the real meanings of “Enshallah”
are: , “probably not”, “almost certainly not
going to happen”, “forget about it fool”, or
simply, “no way and go away!” So if one is
presented with the response, ‘Enshallah’, whether
by the office of the Speaker of
Lebanon’s Parliament , or from someone you
might be asking out on a date or trying to get
something done in Lebanon, or tying to get civil
rights legislation enacted into law, one has a
big chance of being disappointed.
In Lebanon’s Parliament, about the worst thing
that can happen to a members pet legislative
initiative is to have it placed in “the Enshallah
drawer”, meaning it is set aside for ‘Enshalleh’
consideration sometime in the ‘Enshallah’
future. Often never to be heard from. Some
fear this is what may happen to proposals to
grant Palestinian refugees their internationally
mandated right to work and to own a home.
Other reasons for Parliamentary delay?
Some Parliament watchers speculate that certain
members seek to delay granting
Palestinians civil rights until the Special
Tribunal for Lebanon hands down expected
indictments, concerning the 2005 assassination of
Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. They calculate the
STL announcements will dramatically increase
Lebanese-Palestinian tensions. Change and Reform
parliamentary bloc MP Michel Aoun (Free Patriotic
Movement leader), no advocate of any meaningful
civil rights for Palestinians, is warning of a US
‘green lighted’ Israeli invasion of Lebanon if
the STL indicts “uncontrolled” Hezbollah members.
Others claim the main problem is that Lebanon
cannot move beyond the 1975-1990 Civil War and
raising in Parliament the subject of Palestinians
brings up also many painful memories that
most of the confessions wish to forget.
While some political analysts in Lebanon think
there is a chance that Parliament may well ease
the restrictions on the right to work, there is
still strong opposition to granting Palestinian
refugees the internationally recognized right to
own real property or even a single home–an
international right allowed in all other
countries. As a scare tactic on this issue the
specter of ‘Naturalization’ is again raised even
though it has nothing to do with home ownership.
If Israelis can buy homes in Lebanon why not Palestinian refugees?
There is no shortage of Lebanese politicians who
will explain why Palestinian home ownership is
out of the question including the claim
that there is simply not enough land in crowded
Lebanon for foreigners to be allowed to purchase
any. Kataeb-Phalange bloc MP Elie Marouni told
his followers on Bastille Day last week “that
the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon will never be
naturalized as long as there are Christian
believers who will sacrifice themselves for the
sake of Lebanon. We don’t have the space.” His
colleague and Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel
warned the day before that “granting
Palestinians the right to own property would lead to their naturalization”.
Neither of these leaders, has explained why
during the half century (1948-2001) when
Palestinian refugees were allowed to own property
the question of “naturalization” was never an
issue. There was no problem. The fact is that
the assertion that ‘naturalization’ would be
the result of a refugee family owning a home
is false and it is was invented solely for the
reason that it provides ‘raw meat’ for
detractors who basically don’t want any rights
for any Palestinians no matter what the facts are.
According to Lebanese Human Rights Ambassador Ali
Khalil: “Fanning the coals of ‘naturalization’ is
a recent bogeyman meant to scare Christians who
already are nervous because their numbers
continue to shrink. Generally more affluent
than other sects, they are able to leave Lebanon
for better prospects. If Palestinians were able
to work and became a bit more affluent many of
them would leave also but that fact appears lost
on those who prefer to keep them in squalid camps
in Lebanon rather than allowing them to work
and perhaps move out of Lebanon.”
The ‘not enough land for foreigners’ claim is
faulty on two grounds. Regarding population
density, in Saida’s Ein el Helwe Camp, the
largest of the 12 in Lebanon, approximately
90,000 refugees are tightly packed into less than
1 km sq. area whereas the average Lebanese
population density is close to 350 persons per sq, km.
Foreigners buy as much land in Lebanon as they
wish and can afford despite the ‘legal’
limitations for foreigners of 3,000 sq. meters
in Beirut and 5000 sq. meters outside Beirut.
Foreigners regularly ignore the “law” and
sometimes pay bribes to purchase whatever land
they want and sometimes even citizenship.
Free Patriotic Movement leader and Hezbollah ally
MP Michel Aoun is calling for a new law to
reclaim property from foreign owners in response
to complaints about his voicing strong objection
to granting Palestinian refugees in Lebanon the right to own property.
“We can’t issue a law that gives the Palestinians
the right to own property, but we can issue a law
to reclaim properties owned by foreigners,”
Aoun said with a straight face, adding
that “Christian parties didn’t act with
prejudice when the issue of civil rights
for Palestinian refugees was raised. “Our stance
is similar to that of the Phalange Party and the
draft law would only be put to the vote of the
parliament after being studied,” Aoun added. Some
in Lebanon are waiting to see if General
Aoun’s “No buying a little bit of Lebanon” law
gets introduced in Parliament and what the US
Congress and Arab league reaction will be if it does.
BayIt BeyLebnan? (Hebrew for ‘your home in Lebanon?’)
The Israeli-American Likud banker and warmonger
Irving I. Moscowitz, financial backer of the
archeological tunnel in east Jerusalem and
supporter, financially or otherwise, of
virtually all Zionist groups developing stolen
Palestinian land including his own properties
in Maale Adumim, Har Homa in Palestinian east
Jerusalem and Beitar Illit is claimed to have
moved into the real estate market in Lebanon.
Regarding occupied Palestine, Moscowitz has for
years advised would be investors, (ignoring the
Geneva Conventions and settled International
law) at Jewish only “real estate fairs” in
American and European Synagogues : “Your
investment is insured, protected and 100% legal.
You should consider strengthening your portfolio and Israel’s future!”
Moscowitz is said to expect competition for
Lebanese land from Lev Leviev, who the NYT refers
to as ‘the missionary mogul”. Leviev, now the
world’s largest cutter and polisher of
diamonds, also specializes in illegal real
estate developments on stolen Palestinian
land. Leviev’s , Leader Management and
Development, is currently building the settlement
of Zufim on Palestinian land in the illegally
occupied West Bank. When asked recently by
Ha’aretz Daily if he has a problem building on
expropriated Arab land he replied, “For me,
Israel, Jerusalem, Lebanon are all the same.”So
are the Golan Heights. As far as I’m concerned,
all of Eretz Israel is holy. To decide the future
of Jerusalem? It belongs to the Jewish people.
What is there to decide? Jerusalem is not a topic for discussion.”
Both tell associates that with their American
partners, they are moving into the Lebanese real
estate market which they find attractive. If
true, Lebanon’s Parliament might want to
consider using some of the extra time they have
extended themselves this summer, currently
being devoted to sounding the ‘chicken little
sky is falling’ alarm about Palestinians wanting
to exercise their internationally mandated civil
right to own a home pending their return to
Palestine. Parliament should
investigate claims that “American” companies”,
some with 100% Israeli stockholders are buying
up Lebanese land and using bribes to avoid Lebanese law.
‘Darwish’, a school teacher in South Lebanon
explained this week what many Palestinians feel:
“My family home and property were stolen by
Zionist thugs in Akka in 1948 and also our
cousins home outside Jerusalem. If you look at
the current advertisement in Israeli
newspapers, (‘Darwish shows a copy of an ad he
printed off the internet from Haaretz.com that
reads, “Own a little piece of Switzerland” which
describes a quaint Swiss like scene, and it shows
a bucolic vista that Darwish claims was his
family’s village, now a Zionist colony.) so you
see this is my problem. In Palestine our home
was stolen and in Lebanon I cannot own
one. Worse than this, it bothers me and my
family that Zionists can now sell my land in
Palestine to foreigners while as a Palestinian in
Lebanon I cannot buy a temporary home. Israelis
can invest their profits from our stolen
Palestinian land and they can build homes in
Lebanon and sell to other foreigners, but
Palestinians can’t buy a home here. We have
heard that some of the same “American and
European” companies that sell our Palestinian
land to foreigners in Palestinian now operate in
Lebanon. One ‘American’ company is reported to
have 11 stockholders. All of them Israelis”.
Parliament appears to be ‘playing’ the
Palestinians this summer, as well as
‘playing’ the international community that
expects more courage, compassion and respect
for international human rights from a gifted
people. Parliament risks degrading Lebanon in
the process and its leaders should schedule a
straight up vote without further dilatory
tactics such a ‘more study’ and ‘building near
unanimous consensus’ that appears designed to
produce the lowest common denominator which means
that without political will and courage it will
likely produce not much at all. Regarding six
decades of annual calls for ‘more study of this
sensitive problem’ there are already more than 30
studies completed just since 2000. They
unanimously conclude what nearly every ten
years old in Lebanon understands needs to be
done and that is to grant the internationally
mandated right to work, to own, inherit and
bequeath a home, and access to some social
security protection without further dilatory tactics.
Franklin Lamb volunteers with the Palestine Civil
Rights Campaign and can be reached at
<mailto:fplamb at palestinecivilrightscampaign.org>fplamb at palestinecivilrightscampaign.org.
Freedom Archives
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