I spend a lot of time reading reports and news articles about how terribly Palestinians are treated in Lebanon - they cannot become citizens, they cannot access many jobs, there are many laws discriminating against them, they may not build in the camps, they cannot own land outside the camps. It is official, widespread and sanctioned discrimination that is far closer to apartheid than anything Israel has ever done.
But sometimes I still learn something.
UN Habitat wrote a long report on the State of Lebanese cities in 2021. On page 134, I saw something that surprised even me:
Water access standards is one of a range of determinants of slum living conditions. By definition, there are substantial differences between slum and non-slum households in terms of access to water and sanitation. The non-inclusion of slum settlements from service provision is often directly related to the legal tenure of the land in question. The UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme promotes the ‘need to enact laws and policies to dissociate the tenure status from service provision’ (WWAP, 2019:105). Palestinian camps, officially not connected to the public network, are relevant urbansited instancesI may be the first person on the planet to read page 134 of this report.
By and large, Palestinian camps in Lebanon are located in the middle of urban areas. The existing water infrastructure might not be ideal but it exists.
Lebanon decided long ago to deny Palestinian access to municipal water.
One would think that some NGO might have written about this over the past 75 years. But it is really hard to find anyone even elliptically talking about this.
Interpal says, "Palestinian refugees are forced to buy unregulated drinking water from local vendors." The World Health Organization says, "In Shatila, drilled wells within the camp provide water for drinking and other domestic purposes. These wells are managed by entrepreneurs who sell the water to residents, and distribute it as drinking water to households."
No one seems to ask why Lebanon never extended their water supply that already surrounds the camps into the camps themselves. And the people who clearly know about this don't seem to be very bothered by it.
There is a massive amount of anti-Israel reports published by NGOs and the media. New ones appear literally every day - the UN has a weekly newsletter listing them. Hardly any of them even mention human rights abuses against Palestinians outside those that are blamed on Israel.
Interestingly, whenever I mention a problem like this on Twitter, the Israel haters are so offended that they try to change the subject back to how Israel is the worst violator of human rights in the history of mankind.
This bias hurts Palestinians because they cannot even get basic media coverage of their very real suffering in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and elsewhere. No one is interested in these issues because the giant NGO industry is fueled by antisemitism, and they actively discourage highlighting any problem that doesn't blame Israel.
No Jews, no news.
