"We gave to Palestinians the right to work in Lebanon, like all Arabic workers have the right to work in Lebanon."
A huge overstatement.
Unfortunately
Lebanon did not grant its Palestinian refugees meaningful civil rights on
8/17/10 or even significantly improve their work prospects. What it did do was
cancel the work permit fee ( which was never a big problem) and allow for the
setting up of a private Social Security Fund (not the Lebanese National
Security Fund as misreported in much of the media.) The Palestinian Private
Fund was a compromise. If the Private Fund is set up it will be paid for by
Palestinian workers themselves and hoped for private donations.
Insisting on a shadowy, opaque "consensus vote" rather than a more democratic,
simple majority roll call, Parliament decided on the lowest common denominator
by which all the MP's were essentially given a veto. What it produced was a
weak, emasculated bill unworthily of the label: Civil rights law.
MP Walid Jumblatt, author of his Druze Progressive Socialist Party June 15, 2010 draft bill, which would have actually granted some substantive civil rights, appeared to throw in the towel without even stepping into the ring. However to his credit, Jumblatt confessed this morning that he will do better next Round and told Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper: "The second more serious battle is ahead: And it is home ownership rights. I won't give up, and what has been accomplished today is only the outcome of consensus among everyone (ed: led by Samir Geagea) but home ownership rights remains pending, and it is very important."
The excellent Syrian Socialist National Party bill, which meets International legal standards for treatment of refugees, supported by many human rights organizations including most NGO's as well as the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign-Lebanon and the Sabra Shatila Foundation was not even considered.
Within the Palestinian and NGO community there is widespread disappointment and frustration. Ziad Sayegh, an expert on Palestinian refugee rights in Lebanon said that the new legislation would have little effect in changing the overall social and economic situation on the refugees.
According to scholar Suheil al- Natour, Director of a Palestinian Human Rights Center based in Mar Elias Camp , "They spent a long time on discussions which emptied the law of any real meaning, and I wish they had put it off so we could push for a better version-- Those who voted yesterday are suggesting that what they did will alleviate the burdens on the Palestinian community. This is not true. We will not have the full right to work, they law will not apply to the more than 30 syndicated professions, we do not have any rights for property. We do not have free movement. Our camps are surrounded by the army. We will not reduce this catastrophic situation by just some changes small changes to Article 50 of the 1964 Labor law which may not even help many Palestinians get jobs."
Among the jobs still prohibited to Palestinians are more than 30 syndicated professions including medicine, law, dentistry, engineering, nursing, and all technical professions in the construction sector and its derivatives such as tiling, coating, plastering, installation of aluminum, iron, wood or decoration works and the like-teaching at the elementary, intermediate and secondary levels with the exception of foreign language teacher when necessary, hairdressing, ironing and dry-cleaning upholstery, publishing, printing, engineering work in all specialties, smithery and upholstery work, and all kinds of work in pharmacies, drug warehouses and medical laboratories. In general all occupations and professions which can be filled by Lebanese nationals and have Guild or Syndicate Memberships, money changer, real estate agent, taxi driver or driver training instructor, registered nurse or assistant nurse, or other jobs in the medical field, that have Syndicates, a health controller, any job in the engineering field, licensed health controller, medical laboratory worker, clinical health industry jobs, prosthetic devices fitter, certified accountants, dental laboratory science technician, jobs relating to nutrition and meals, topography, physiotherapy, veterinary medicine."
Also, a key factor will be if and how the new law is actually implemented. Changes made in 2005 to the labor law were never implemented and Lebanon has a long history of passing laws and not ever implementing them. The role of the international human rights community is now to monitor and assure that laws regarding refugees in Lebanon are fully implemented without interminable delays.
The winners and the losers
� �� The big winners today are: Israel and the US, the Christian right-wing Kateib
(Phalange) party, the Lebanese Forces, the National Party, Maronite Patriarch
Nasrallah Sfeir, and Hezbollah ally and head of the Free Patriotic Movement,
all of whom opposed meaningful civil rights for Palestinians. Also, the
politically fractured pro-Saudi March 14th coalition and even Syria were
winners. The latter will be the likely beneficiary from any explosions inside
the camps as the refugees exist in the pressure cooker camps and denied the
safety value of basic civil rights.
The big losers today are: Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, those under
occupation in Palestine and those in the Diaspora. A meaningful victory would
have given them some hope as their struggles for Justice continue.
Also
Lebanon, who will now face mounting international pressure to comply with her
international legal obligations plus efforts to cut off US aid based on the
requirements of the 1961 US Foreign Assistance Act regarding deprivation of
civil rights, and for which purpose a lawsuit in being prepared in Washington
DC. In addition, he UN Human Rights
Council may sanction Lebanon if it's long overdue Universal Periodic Review
(UPR) of treatment of Palestinian refugee scheduled to be discussed in Geneva
in December is found wanting. Lebanon plans to tell the UN Human Rights Council
that its record is ok now since it amended its exclusionary labor law which
should now help Palestinians get jobs. One Lebanese official stated off the
record that this was one of the main reasons Parliament did anything for the
Palestinians on 8/17/10. It remains to be seen how the Council views Lebanon's
meager accomplishment.
Lebanon
will also experience a mounting and intensifying internal civil
rights movement and calls for BDS as international activists become more
aware of the degradation in Lebanon's camps and Lebanon refusing its
international obligations and who will hopefully join the Palestinian civil
rights movement. Plans to picket the Lebanese Embassy in Washington DC
until civil rights are granted to Palestinians refugees are underway.
It
was probably appropriate that Lebanese Forces leader MP Samir Geagea was the
first to the microphones to claim victory after Parliament deliberated for a
few minutes to deny Palestinian refugees any meaningful civil rights. Geagea
welcomed the parliament's approval of his proposed amendment to Article 50 of
the 1964 Labor Code to " grant work permits to Palestinian refugees."
The amendment to the 1964 labor law was the least Parliament could have done
and still be able to say it did anything at all. It will not, as Geagea assured
his followers, "resolve the Palestinian humanitarian issues in Lebanon...."
Geagea explained that there is no possibility of granting Palestinian refugees
the right to own property. "Lebanon cannot solve the
Palestinian issue on its own" the Palestinians nemesis for the past four decades
declared.
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