The first official census of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon has revealed that there are 174,422 Palestinians now living in Lebanon, a figure almost two thirds less than previously estimated.Even though UNRWA knows how many Palestinians are in Lebanon and how many left, it claims that there are 450,000 "registered Palestine refugees" in the country - because it wants to screw the world out of more money.
The Palestinians — both original refugees and their descendants — were believed to number about 450,000 but tens of thousands emigrated from Lebanon in over the past decades, seeking better opportunities.
The census released Thursday was conducted by the Lebanese Central Administration of Statistics and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
I looked at this in 2012, when it was thought that there were still 260,000 Palestinians actually in Lebanon in a study that UNRWA itself funded - and buried.
Lebanon is where the world's hypocrisy about Palestinians is in full view. A country whose very laws are discriminatory against Palestinians, where Palestinians are barred from getting many jobs or to own land, where they are pushed into overcrowded camps where they are not allowed to build and that are not allowed to expand.
The plight of Palestinians in Lebanon is worse than in Gaza. No wonder two thirds of them have fled to wherever they could go.
Yet popular artists still perform in Lebanon without anyone complaining about "apartheid." There are few articles and no conferences and no UN resolutions to help these Palestinians.
Anyone who says they care about Palestinian suffering and who never mentions their oppression in Lebanon (and Syria and Jordan and Egypt) doesn't really care about Palestinians.