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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element" dir="ltr"> <font
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href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/why-palestinians-are-wary-joining-lebanons-protests/28811">https://electronicintifada.net/content/why-palestinians-are-wary-joining-lebanons-protests/28811</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Why Palestinians are wary of joining
Lebanon's protests</h1>
<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/amena-elashkar">Amena
ElAshkar</a></span> <span class="field field-publisher">-</span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single"
content="2019-11-05T17:16:00+00:00">5 November 2019</span></span>
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<figure id="file-85806"><source media="(min-width:
72rem)"><figcaption><small></small></figcaption></figure>
<p>In Elia Square in the southern Lebanese city of
Sidon, Nashwa Hammad last week stood holding a
Palestinian flag in one hand and a Lebanese in the
other. The freelance journalist was chanting alongside
her Lebanese friends.</p>
<p>“I am one of very few Palestinians on these protests.
But my mother is Lebanese, that makes me Lebanese as
much as Palestinian,” Hammad, 26, told The Electronic
Intifada. “I have lived my entire life in Lebanon. I
was in Lebanese schools. And I never lived in refugee
camps. What more does it take to be Lebanese?”</p>
<p>As thousands of Lebanese flood public squares in big
cities, the role of the country’s many different
communities will be closely scrutinized. Among those
communities are Palestinian refugees, so often a
lightning rod for sectarian tensions in Lebanon.</p>
<p>This is especially true as the protests enter a
critical stage after the <a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/analysis-saad-hariris-resignation-means-lebanon-191029192013901.html">resignation</a>,
on 29 October of Saad Hariri, the country’s prime
minister.</p>
<p>But this time, perhaps, communitarian strife is
harder to whip up.</p>
<p>The demonstrations erupted after a series of
legislative measures to impose new taxes, including
one that would have levied a charge to use WhatsApp on
cellphones.</p>
<p>A week before those proposals were made in
parliament, the country faced fuel and bread
shortages. Together, these proved the final straw for
a population tired of government mismanagement.</p>
<p>Thus the protests, directed as they are against
official corruption and incompetence, have united
communities that in Lebanon have traditionally been
seen as estranged.</p>
<h2>Staying cautious</h2>
<p>Some chants were directed at Gebran Basel, Lebanon’s
foreign minister and head of the Lebanese Free
Patriotic Movement.</p>
<p>Basel was widely derided as racist in the summer over
<a
href="https://gulfnews.com/world/mena/racist-lebanese-foreign-minister-sparks-twitter-storm-1.64510278">tweets</a>
that seemed to encourage Lebanese employers not to
hire Palestinian or Syrian refugees.</p>
<p>“Basel out, out!” protesters chanted, in support of
more rights for Palestinian and Syrian refugees in
Lebanon. “Refugees in, in!”</p>
<figure id="file-85811"><source media="(min-width:
72rem)"><figcaption><small><span></span></small></figcaption></figure>
<p>“Whatever affects the Lebanese people affects us too.
Corruption, sectarianism and inequality harm all of
us,” Hammad said. “My father has a Palestinian travel
document issued from Egypt. I have to renew my permit
in Lebanon every few months. But my mother is
Lebanese. I am not even asking for a Lebanese
citizenship, even though I believe it should be every
woman’s right to pass on her citizenship to her kids.”</p>
<p>Ghassan al-Naji, 29, was in Martyrs’ Square in Beirut
on 26 October with his Lebanese wife Mariam.</p>
<p>“I am here to support her and her cause,” Ghassan, a
social worker, said. “We have been coming here nine
days in a row now.”</p>
<p>Mariam al-Naji, 25, who is from Beirut, explained why
participating in the protests was so important for
her.</p>
<p>“My boy will grow up in this country and will have no
rights whatsoever only because his father is
Palestinian. This is not fair.”</p>
<p>Nevertheless, in the refugee camps, Palestinians have
largely decided to keep themselves away from the
demonstrations.</p>
<p>“We absolutely support the Lebanese people in their
demands.” said Ahmad Safadi, 55, a taxi driver from
Burj al-Barajne camp. “But we cannot be part of their
uprising. Given our history in Lebanon, some Lebanese
parties that are against the uprising would use us as
an excuse to sabotage the protests.”</p>
<h2>Moments of joy</h2>
<p>There have been exceptions to this rule. On 20
October Samir Geagea, head of the Maronite Christian
Lebanese Forces party announced the resignation of his
ministers from the Lebanese government in response to
the protests.</p>
<p>These included the minister of labor, Camille
Abousleiman, notorious in Palestinian refugee camps
for having taken a hard line on preventing the
employment of refugees.</p>
<p>In July, people saw labor ministry billboards erected
that <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/jobs-clampdown-stirs-unrest-lebanons-camps/28411">warned</a>
– or perhaps urged – entrepreneurs that “your business
moves forward only by the hands of your country’s
sons.”</p>
<p>News of his resignation was therefore met with a
celebratory march on 20 October at the Ein al-Hilweh
refugee camp.</p>
<figure id="file-85816"><source media="(min-width:
72rem)"><figcaption><small><span></span></small></figcaption></figure>
<p>Samia Hussein, 49, participated in that march with a
mixture of glee and relief.</p>
<p>“Of course, we are going to celebrate his
resignation. Abousleiman wanted to prevent all of us
from working in Lebanon. Now he is the one who lost
his job,” Hussein, a homemaker, said laughing.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, she urged caution on her fellow camp
dwellers.</p>
<p>“My heart is loaded with hope seeing all these people
demanding reforms, but I am not allowing any of my
children to participate. We have to be prudent. We do
not want the scenario of Palestinians in Syria to be
repeated.”</p>
<p>Hussein said Palestinians in Lebanon are stereotyped
as subversives.</p>
<p>“This is why we support [the protesters] from inside
our camps. I am happy that young women and men are
aware of this and are not participating. Maybe some
Palestinians are but they are mostly Palestinians from
outside the camps, who are entirely submerged in
Lebanese society.”</p>
<p><em>Amena ElAshkar is a journalist and photographer
based in Burj al-Barajne refugee camp in Beirut.</em></p>
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