Lebanon's marginalised Palestinian refugees are offered hope by a controversial draft law that affords them thitherto denied basic rights, Lucy Fielder reports from Beirut Last Sunday, thousands of Lebanese and Palestinian demonstrators descended on Beirut demanding civil rights for Lebanon's Palestinian refugees. Holding banners saying "We just want to live in dignity", refugees from all of Lebanon's 12 squalid camps protested against the institutionalised discrimination they face and in support of a draft law that proposes sweeping -- and long overdue -- changes. "We absolutely refuse to forget our right to return and we don't want Lebanese citizenship," said Haifa Jammal, one of the organisers. "We just want the right to work, to own property; these are basic human rights." In Lebanon, the idea of granting such rights to the Palestinians is explosive. Many Lebanese fear that any improvement of the refugees' conditions is a first step towards tawteen, the granting of Lebanese nationality. Typically, this has been the view held by many Christians, particularly those on the political right. But a broad spectrum of Lebanese have also in the past stood against improving the Palestinians' lot, whether because of fears of tipping Lebanon's fragile sectarian balance -- the Palestinians in Lebanon are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim -- or on the pretext that this would somehow negate their right of return to historic Palestine. "Our camps are so dirty and overcrowded, there is no room for the new generation, even though they were born here. It's unimaginable," Jammal said. Lebanon's Palestinian refugees are estimated to number around 270,000; more than 400,000 are registered with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), but many of those are believed to have left Lebanon. They are the descendants of those who fled or were driven across the northern border following the Nakba in 1948. In Lebanon, Palestinians are denied the right to work in all but the most menial professions outside the camps, to own property or claim social security. Syria and Jordan allow their Palestinian inhabitants many more rights, without granting them nationality. "I studied business and accounting, but I can't practise it," said Ahmed Hazzouri, another protester. "There's a kind of racial discrimination against the Palestinians." Druze leader Walid Jumblatt submitted the draft bill to parliament on 22 June. It would grant the Palestinian refugees the right to work, to social security and medical aid in state hospitals, and to own property, without granting the vote or citizenship. After a heated debate, the bill was sent to a review committee and a vote was scheduled for 15 July. A similar proposal was submitted a few days later by the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, with the difference that it would scrap the need for costly work permits. Sunday's demonstrators praised both initiatives, but also want the permits ditched. Lebanon's Palestinians are forbidden from working in more than 70 professions, particularly white-collar jobs, through a reciprocity clause that is applied to many other states. In theory, because Palestine doesn't allow the Lebanese to work there, the Palestinians are banned from working in Lebanon. That no Palestinian state exists has not prevented the application of the rule. Jumblatt's proposal suggests that the Palestinians be exempt from the reciprocity clause. A 2006 decree was supposed to broaden the number of jobs open to the Palestinians, but it contained no mechanisms to ensure it was implemented and remained ink on paper. An old fault-line opened up in parliament during the draft law debate, with Christian MPs temporarily united against the law, including Hizbullah ally Michel Aoun and his Free Patriotic Movement, as well as Samir Geagea's rightwing Lebanese Forces and other smaller groups. Many blame the Palestinian presence in Lebanon, particularly after the influx of fighters from Jordan in 1970, for sparking civil war. Shia Hizbullah and Amal, Saad Al-Hariri's Sunni Future Movement, and Jumblatt's mainly Druze Progressive Socialist Party have said they will vote in favour. In 2008, Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) representative in Lebanon Abbas Zaki apologised in vague terms for any Palestinian wrongs during the civil war period in Lebanon. In 2005, a Lebanese Palestinian Dialogue Committee was founded. Sari Hanafi, a professor of sociology at the American University of Beirut and one of the march's organisers, believes such shifts have created the impetus for change. "There have been many Palestinian gestures," he told Al-Ahram Weekly. "There's also an awareness that the Palestinian camps' insecurity has increased because of growing poverty and crowdedness, which is a serious threat to Lebanese stability." As well as the old "naturalisation by stealth" arguments, many economic arguments against the bill have been aired over the past week, along with arguments that since Lebanon was not responsible for the dispossession of the Palestinians in 1948, the international community should shoulder the costs (as it largely does). Along with the humanitarian and human rights grounds for passing the law, Hanafi said campaigners needed to debunk these and other myths, for example highlighting that the Palestinians are entitled to education and healthcare from UNRWA and therefore are unlikely to be a drain on Lebanon's resources. "Palestinians also consume 10 per cent of Lebanon's GDP and they don't send remittances home," he said. Hazzouri, at the protest, made a different but complementary point. "We could invest in Lebanon if we were allowed to. The Palestinians want to work and many are educated. Now if someone does manage to get some money together, they daren't keep it in Lebanon." Rosana Bou Monsef, an analyst for the pro- parliamentary majority An-Nahar newspaper, said she doubted the law would be passed as it is, criticising its sweeping nature. The sectarian political system relies on consensus, so the Christians, who form about 35 per cent of the population, cannot be ignored. "It's going to be very hard to push this through without the go-ahead from at least the main Christian sides, Aoun, the Lebanese Forces and the [Maronite] patriarch," she said. "This needs to be studied and discussed. I believe the government will give the Palestinians some of these rights, but not all. And not under pressure." Bou Monsef said the Christians would need guarantees that this was not a first step towards absorbing the Palestinian population, and reassurances on the economic viability of the measures. "For example, how are we to grant the Palestinians the right to a pension when we cannot afford it, and many Lebanese do not get one?" UNRWA head Filippo Grandi warned last week of a growing funding shortfall as a result of the global financial crisis, with UN services at the camps already stripped down to the bare minimum. Bou Monsef said instability was not likely if the bill was passed, with no party currently interested in destroying the fragile calm enjoyed since the Doha Agreement ended clashes in May 2008. Hanafi, too, believed a compromise might emerge from the predicted parliamentary tussle over the refugees' rights. "We'll see soon enough whether the rightwing succeeds in buying time," he said. "They don't have any alternative proposals, apart from establishing work quotas, which go against the principle of granting universal rights."
