U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has used rare power to warn Security Council of impending “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza and urged members to demand cease-fire.
They are barred from naturalisation, legally barred from owning property, and although Lebanon hands out and renews hundreds of thousands of work permits every year to people from Asia, Africa and other Arab countries, only a handful have been given to Palestinians.
All of that also means that they’re not entitled to any social service such as healthcare or education.
And another thing I’ve recently learned about, Lebanese authorities constructed a concrete wall with watch towers around the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.
Edit: I also forgot to add that, even if they get work permits, some jobs are simply off-limits to them.
I never knew about this. It seems strange to me that they’d give work permits to others but not their culturally, ethnically similar neighbors. I wonder why they’d prefer to give permits to others?
In the immediate aftermath of the Nakba, they didn’t want to make the refugees status permanent because they expected the refugees to someday be able to return to their land. In more modern times, Lebanon has a (largely unsuccessful) balance of power between the Christians, Sunnis, and Shias. Making the refugees position permanent would significantly upset that balance by shifting the population in favor of the Sunnis.
They are barred from naturalisation, legally barred from owning property, and although Lebanon hands out and renews hundreds of thousands of work permits every year to people from Asia, Africa and other Arab countries, only a handful have been given to Palestinians.
All of that also means that they’re not entitled to any social service such as healthcare or education.
And another thing I’ve recently learned about, Lebanese authorities constructed a concrete wall with watch towers around the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.
Edit: I also forgot to add that, even if they get work permits, some jobs are simply off-limits to them.
Yikes. It started out as expats in Japan and took a left turn to concentration camp real fast.
I never knew about this. It seems strange to me that they’d give work permits to others but not their culturally, ethnically similar neighbors. I wonder why they’d prefer to give permits to others?
In the immediate aftermath of the Nakba, they didn’t want to make the refugees status permanent because they expected the refugees to someday be able to return to their land. In more modern times, Lebanon has a (largely unsuccessful) balance of power between the Christians, Sunnis, and Shias. Making the refugees position permanent would significantly upset that balance by shifting the population in favor of the Sunnis.
Got it. Thank you for the explanation.