David Frum: The Palestinian ‘problem’ is an Arab problem
August 21, 2010 – 8:00 am
Lebanon has expanded working rights for 400,000 Palestinian refugees. Fourteen occupations will remain closed to Palestinians, including medicine and law. Otherwise, though, Palestinians can now for the first time work legally inside Lebanon.
Actually, “Palestinians” is a misnomer here. We are talking often about Lebanese-born people, people who would be regarded as citizens in almost any other country. But a person born on Lebanese soil to Palestinian parents — or grandparents! — is an alien forever.
It’s not just Lebanon. Syrian-born, Egyptian-born, Kuwaiti-born Palestinians enjoy fuller legal rights than Lebanese-born Palestinians. Yet they too are denied citizenship in the land of their birth. (Jordan is an honourable exception: It granted citizenship rights to refugees from the 1948 war in 1950. Yet even Jordan puts obstacles in the way of citizenship for refugees from the 1967 war.)
Read More
Actually, “Palestinians” is a misnomer here. We are talking often about Lebanese-born people, people who would be regarded as citizens in almost any other country. But a person born on Lebanese soil to Palestinian parents — or grandparents! — is an alien forever.
It’s not just Lebanon. Syrian-born, Egyptian-born, Kuwaiti-born Palestinians enjoy fuller legal rights than Lebanese-born Palestinians. Yet they too are denied citizenship in the land of their birth. (Jordan is an honourable exception: It granted citizenship rights to refugees from the 1948 war in 1950. Yet even Jordan puts obstacles in the way of citizenship for refugees from the 1967 war.)
Read More
No comments:
Post a Comment