Thursday, January 02, 2020
Elder of Ziyon
The apartheid against Palestinians in Lebanon is getting worse - but since Israel isn't involved, no one bothers to pretend to be in solidarity with them.
Yasser Ali, a member of the General Secretariat of the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, warned of "the specter of famine" in Palestinian camps in Lebanon.
He stated that the unemployment rate in the camps that Palestinians are forced to live in worsened from 56% to 65% in 2019 and the poverty rate worsened from 65% to 80%.
Palestinians in Lebanon are barred from some 73 categories of jobs in Lebanon, which is why their unemployment and poverty rates are so high.
In addition, Ali said, Lebanese banks does not allow Palestinians to withdraw funds or even to have funds transferred from abroad.
A large number of refugees mainly depend on their children's remittances from abroad, estimated at about one hundred million dollars per year. Most UNRWA "registered refugees" in Lebanon have left Lebanon long ago; as of a couple of years ago there were only 174,000 actually in Lebanon out of some 470,000 listed. Now, the numbers are probably lower as young Palestinians in Lebanon have literally no future.
In addition, there are some 20,000 Syrian Palestinian refugees who are still in Lebanon, who are also forced to live in the same overcrowded camps as the other Palestinians.
Palestinians in Lebanon held massive demonstrations to allow them to hold more kinds of jobs this year, according to Ali. But when the larger demonstrations against the government began, the Palestinians decided that they should stop their own protests, because their situation is so precarious and they didn't want to look like they were taking sides. After all, most Lebanese despise their Palestinian "guests" and the poor Palestinians don't want to make things even worse for themselves and their families.
Lebanon is the worst place in the world for Palestinians by any measure. Discrimination against them is the law in Lebanon. They are not allowed to buy land or even to expand their houses. They are hated by the population. They would love to live in the West Bank or even Gaza.
Yet how often do you see any articles about Palestinians in Lebanon? How many NGOs that pretend to care about Palestinians even mention the situation in Lebanon? When was the last time Human Rights Watch tweeted about Palestinians in Lebanon?
The sad fact is that when Jews aren't involved, no one gives a damn about Palestinians. 5000 were killed in Syria - the media is silent. Corruption is endemic in the West Bank - no one cares. Christians have virtually all left Gaza because of Muslim persecution - but the only mention of them in the media is when Israel limits their travel on Christmas.
Virtually every person and group that says they are pro-Palestinian are proven by this story and others to be nothing of the sort. They are simply anti-Israel, and the only reason anyone would care more about Israel's treatment of Palestinians more than the far worse treatment they receive in Lebanon is good, old fashioned antisemitism.
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