True "Resistance" begins in Lebanon's Palestinian camps
As the "Resistance" is acutely aware, Lebanon's political sects of whom Hezbollah is by far the most powerful have prevented the emergence of an energetic and vigorous Palestinian community in Lebanon. The consequent pauperization, ghettoization, marginalization, broad deterioration of community health and growing sense of hopelessness by many in Lebanon's Palestinian camps community is leading to the fragmentation of Palestinians. This is a factor undercutting their Full Return, a claimed raison d'etre of the "Resistance."
Increasingly Lebanon's Palestinians are insisting that it's time to reverse these trends by giving meaning to the "Resistance" motto of "Moral and Religious Duty to Palestine." What does the "Resistance" motto mean if not to help the Lebanon-hosted refugees from Palestine gain elementary civil rights to aid their Return," is a common camp expression these days.
One reason the "Resistance" has seemingly abandoned its claims to support the Palestinian cause in Lebanon by granting them elementary civil rights is partially clarified by referencing the regional expansion tasks assigned the "Resistance" by Tehran. Specifically orders for the "Resistance" to focus on more beneficial political objectives including the "Lebanization" of Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and then Jordan and other Middle East countries .
Problematical for Lebanon's Palestinians seeking their half century overdue civil rights, they are told by some "Resistance" sources that the war in Syria must first end before any consideration of the right to work and home ownership. Despite premature claims that it is essentially over, the war in Syria may end for years.
For decades without serious "Resistance" opposition, Lebanon's Parliament and ministerial decrees have erected a series of legal and institutional barriers that deprive Palestinian refugees of the right to work, to social security, and to join Lebanese trade unions and many other elementary rights granted refugees globally. For example, Palestinian refugees are subject to all legal regulations governing foreign workers and visitors including the principle of reciprocity and the requirement to obtain work permits. Given that there is yes no state of Palestine with official diplomatic relations and reciprocity agreements with Lebanon these barriers are invoked to prevent Palestinian refugees from obtaining work permits, especially within professional associations. These discriminatory regulations are enforced in Lebanon to target Palestinians despite Article 7 of the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, which Lebanon has not signed, but which is binding on Lebanon by International Customary Law. The Refugee Convention specifically exempts refugees including Palestinians in Lebanon from the principle of reciprocity and allows them to work without a permit three years after they establish residence in the asylum country.
By outlawing Palestinians elementary civil rights to work or to own a home and depriving them of a host of other civil rights, unlike what any other refugee group on earth is granted at birth, Lebanon is also violating countless principles, standards and rules of globally recognized international humanitarian law. Among the most notable are the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; and the September 1965 Casablanca Protocol on the Treatment of Palestinians in Arab Countries.
Shortly after the late summer 1982 PLO withdrawal from Lebanon, movement to and from Palestinian refugee camps, particularly those in the south, have been subject to strict security measures. The Lebanese army maintains checkpoints at the entrances to most of the southern camps. In addition, the army strictly monitors -- and restricts -- building and renovation materials brought into the southern camps, especially in the Tyre region. In May 2010, Lebanese security forces also banned building materials from Beirut's Burj al-Barajneh refugee camp based on orders from the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. Earlier this year, the Minister of the Interior and Municipalities requested the Directorate General of Internal Security Forces to investigate unlicensed centers and offices for humanitarian and social organizations in the destroyed Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, and required 23 associations to apply for licenses or risk legal sanction. The threat was issued even though the associations cannot obtain licenses under the Associations Law.
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