Human Rights Watch and a UN refugee agency expressed concern on Tuesday that Lebanon was blocking Palestinians fleeing Syria from entering the country.HRW also noted a similar policy in Jordan:
UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said it was “concerned about the increased restrictions on Palestine refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria from entering Lebanon”.
“We are monitoring the situation on the border carefully and have been given assurances by the Lebanese authorities that these restrictions are temporary,” said UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness in a statement.
Beirut has not announced a blanket ban on the entry of Palestinians from Syria, but government sources confirm a general policy to keep out Palestinians fleeing the conflict.
Human Rights Watch has also documented the Jordanian government’s policy of pushing back Palestinian refugees from Syria trying to enter Jordan from Syria at the border, without considering their claims for asylum in Jordan.But UNRWA's claim of being concerned about how Palestinian Syrians in Lebanon are faring is hollow. UNRWA is treating them badly too, as Albawaba notes:
UNRWA keeps asking for money for the Syrian refugees. However, UNRWA already inflates the numbers of Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon by about 200,000 - yet it cannot find the money to handle an additional 50,000 refugees when they budget money for 200K phantom people?Mohammed Hassan, a refugee from Syria who is in charge of health at the Baddawi Popular Committee, explains that “in general, most cases in Baddawi and Bared are of chronic diseases. Two months ago, there were six cancer patients who had to return to Syria, being unable to get treatment in Lebanon.”
“Aid comes from NGOs mostly,” he continues. “The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) covered some needs based on their meager capacity, but no medicine. However, some political factions cover these issues also. But patients still need money if they want to see specialists.”
“As for UNRWA, it treats Syrian Palestinians as it did in Syria, covering 50 percent of expenses, but only through pressure and connections,” he adds. “The percentage is not logical. UNRWA knows that Lebanon prohibits Palestinian refugees from getting jobs.”
“UNRWA staff treat us as ‘second class,’ since we come from Syria,” he continues. “We met the UNRWA director in North Lebanon and explained our situation, but nothing has been solved until now. The priority is 100 percent health coverage. We want to be treated like they would treat a refugee who was displaced from Bared to Baddawi, for example.”
Lebanon, for its part, wants to ensure that its Palestinian population stays miserable and stateless. Only last month:
Foreign Affairs Minister Gebran Bassil Monday voiced Lebanon’s opposition to a recent Arab League resolution because it failed to mention the Palestinian right of return.There have been thousands of lucky Palestinians over the years who have managed to become citizens through loopholes in Lebanese laws. None of them ever said "no, I prefer to remain stateless." Yet Lebanon - and UNRWA - insist that the Pals reject naturalization, when it is in fact the self-proclaimed Arab leaders who reject Palestinian Arabs from becoming citizens. The entire reason Lebanon, Jordan and other Arab nations insist on "the right to return" is so that they can get rid of their Palestinian populations.
During a news conference, Bassil said the ministry had sent a letter of complaint to the organization and had held contacts with its head, Nabil Elarabi, and the Palestinian Foreign Affairs Ministry urging an amendment to the statement, which was released April 9.
“We supported the decisions which were expected to be in the final statement because it preserved the tripartite formula of the Arab Peace Initiative,” he said, referring to the need for Israel’s withdrawal to the 1967 borders, the establishment of a Palestinian state and the right of refugees to return. “We were surprised to see that the right of return, or at least rejection of naturalization in Lebanon, was dropped from the final statement ... therefore, we announce our reservation and opposition to what happened.”
“The right of return is a permanent Lebanese stance and that position can change if [Palestinians] abandon such a right. Lebanon’s stance, then, will be outright rejection of naturalization,” he said.
The Lebanese Constitutional forbids naturalization, Bassil said, adding that such a move would damage the country’s demography.
That's how much they love their "brethren."
Jews remain the most hated people in the Middle East, hands down. But Palestinian Arabs are a close second.