Palestinians in Lebanon
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Palestinians in Lebanon include the
Palestinian refugee Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine, and their descendants, who fled or were expelled from their country over the course of the 1947–49 Palestine war ( 1948 Palestinian exodus) and the Six-Day War ( 1967 Palestinian exo ...
s who fled to
Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
during the
1948 Palestine War The 1948 Palestine war was fought in the territory of what had been, at the start of the war, British-ruled Mandatory Palestine. It is known in Israel as the War of Independence ( he, מלחמת העצמאות, ''Milkhemet Ha'Atzma'ut'') and ...
, their descendants, the Palestinian militias which resided in Lebanon in the 1970s and 1980s, and Palestinian nationals who moved to Lebanon from countries experiencing conflict, such as Syria. There are roughly 3,000 registered Palestinians and their descendants who hold no identification cards, including refugees of the 1967 Naksa. Many Palestinians in Lebanon are refugees and their descendants, who have been barred from naturalisation, retaining stateless refugee status. However, some Palestinians, mostly
Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
women, have received Lebanese citizenship, in some cases through marriage with Lebanese nationals. In 2017, a census by the Lebanese government counted 174,000 Palestinians in Lebanon. Estimates of the number of Palestinians in Lebanon ranged from 260,000 to 400,000 in 2011.
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
estimated 300,000 in 2011.Human Rights Watc

"World Report 2011: Lebanon" accessed April 7, 2011.
The
United Nations Relief and Works Agency The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees. UNRWA's mandate encompasses Palestinians displaced by the 1948 ...
(UNRWA) counted 475,075 registered Palestine refugees as of 31 December 2019.UNRWA - Where We Work - Lebanon
accessed December 27, 2019.
As part of its 2021 crisis response, UNRWA, estimated 180,000 Palestinian residents of Lebanon plus 27,700 Palestinian residents of Syria. Most Palestinians in Lebanon do not have Lebanese citizenship and therefore do not have
Lebanese identity card The Lebanese identity card ( ar, بطاقة الهوية (''bițāqat al-hawiya''); french: Carte nationale d'identité) is a compulsory Identity document issued to citizens of the Republic of Lebanon by the police on behalf of the Lebanese Mini ...
s, which would entitle them to government services, such as health and education. They are also legally barred from owning property or entering a list of desirable occupations. Employment requires a government-issued work permit, and, according to the ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' in 2011, although "Lebanon hands out and renews hundreds of thousands of work permits every year to people from Africa, Asia and other Arab countries... until now, only a handful have been given" to Palestinians. Palestinians in Lebanon also have to heavily rely on the UNRWA for basic services such as healthcare and education, because they are not granted much access to the social services the Lebanese government provides. In February 2011, a decree was signed by Boutros Harb, the caretaker labor minister of Lebanon, on carrying out labor law amendments from August 2010. If these labor law amendments go into effect, it will make it easier for work permits to be acquired by Palestinians. The amendments are seen as "the first move to legalize the working status of Palestinians since the first refugees arrived, fleeing the 1948 Arab-Israeli war". In 2019, Minister of Labor Camille Abousleiman instituted a law that Palestinian workers must obtain a work permit, under the justification that Palestinians are foreigners in Lebanon despite their long-standing presence. Palestinians are in a 'grey area' of Lebanon's labor laws: although they are categorized as foreigners, they are excluded from the rights foreigners enjoy, and their rights as refugees are not fairly protected. The ruling catalyzed a swell of frustration and protests across the Palestinian camps in Lebanon. Activists claimed the law unfairly targeted Palestinian refugees, and would narrow down an already limited set of employment opportunities.


Definition

UNRWA defines a Palestinian refugee as "any person whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period June 1, 1946 to May 15, 1948. And who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict." Descendants of male refugees are also able to register with UNRWA. Palestinians in Lebanon include Palestinian refugees registered with
UNRWA The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees. UNRWA's mandate encompasses Palestinians displaced by the 1948 P ...
and th
Lebanese authorities
Palestinian refugees registered only with the Lebanese authorities, and Non-ID Palestinians. According to the 2017 - 2021 Lebanon crisis response plan, there are an estimated 3000 to 5000 Non-ID Palestinians who reside in Lebanon. Some of whom were previously registered as UNRWA refugees in Egypt and Jordan, but now hold expired, unrenewable or unrecognizable identity cards by the respective issuing authorities. Non-ID Palestinians also refer to members of the PLO, who came to Lebanon following Black September. Non-ID Palestinians are able to obtain temporary identification papers by the Lebanese government, although these must be renewed yearly and are subject to conditions, such as inability to register formalities such as marriage, divorce and death. As a result of the Syrian civil war, 44,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria fled to Lebanon. Recent figures in the 2017-2021 Lebanon crises response plan places the number at 29,000.


Demographics

Estimates of the number of Palestinians in Lebanon ranged from 260,000 to 400,000 in 2011. In 2018
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
estimated 174,000 "longstanding" Lebanese refugees and 45,000 Lebanese refugees more recently displaced from Syria. The
UNRWA The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees. UNRWA's mandate encompasses Palestinians displaced by the 1948 P ...
counted 475,075 registered Palestine refugees as of 1 Jan 2019 in its twelve
refugee camps A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced peo ...
in Lebanon. In 2017, a Lebanese government census counted 174,000 Palestinians in Lebanon.


Legal status


Nationality

Most Palestinians in Lebanon are stateless. They are not entitled to Lebanese citizenship, though most were born in Lebanon and irrespective of how many generations their families have lived in Lebanon. Some Palestinians, mostly
Palestinian Christian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
women, have received Lebanese citizenship through marriage with a Lebanese national, and some by other means. (
Lebanese nationality law Lebanese nationality law governs the acquisition, transmission and loss of Lebanese citizenship. Lebanese citizenship is the status of being a citizen of Lebanon and it can be obtained by birth or naturalisation. Lebanese nationality is transmitt ...
does not provide for a Lebanese wife conferring Lebanese nationality to a foreign husband or to a child with a foreign father.) During the
Syrian occupation of Lebanon The Syrian occupation of Lebanon ( ar, الاحتلال السوري للبنان, french: Occupation syrienne du Liban) began in 1976, during the Lebanese Civil War, and ended on 30 April 2005 after the Cedar Revolution and several demonstrati ...
in 1994, the government naturalized over 154,931 foreign residents of Palestinian (mostly
Palestinian Christians Palestinian Christians ( ar, مَسِيحِيُّون فِلَسْطِينِيُّون, Masīḥiyyūn Filasṭīniyyūn) are Christian citizens of the State of Palestine. In the wider definition of Palestinian Christians, including the Palestin ...
) and
Syrian Syrians ( ar, سُورِيُّون, ''Sūriyyīn'') are an Eastern Mediterranean ethnic group indigenous to the Levant. They share common Levantine Semitic roots. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend of both indi ...
(mostly Syrian Sunnis and
Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
) descent. It was argued that the purpose of these naturalizations was to sway the elections to a pro-Syrian government. This allegation is based on how these new citizens were bussed in to vote and displayed higher voting rates than the nationals did.


Other restrictions

Without citizenship, Palestinians in Lebanon do not have
Lebanese identity card The Lebanese identity card ( ar, بطاقة الهوية (''bițāqat al-hawiya''); french: Carte nationale d'identité) is a compulsory Identity document issued to citizens of the Republic of Lebanon by the police on behalf of the Lebanese Mini ...
s, which also entitles the holder to health, education and other government services. Palestinians living in and outside the 12 official camps, can receive health, education and other social services from UNRWA. According to
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
, Palestinian refugees in Lebanon live in "appalling social and economic conditions." Following a 2001 amendment on foreign ownership of property, which stated that the foreign person must hold the citizenship of an internationally recognized country, Palestinian refugees came to be excluded from land and property ownership. Non-citizen Palestinians are legally barred from owning property, and barred from entering a list of liberal professions. Employment requires a government-issued work permit, and, according to the ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', although "Lebanon hands out and renews hundreds of thousands of work permits every year to people from Africa, Asia and other Arab countries... until now, only a handful have been given" to Palestinians. They labor under legal restrictions that bar them from employment in at least 39 professions, "including law, medicine, and engineering," a system that relegates them to the black market for labor. According to the 2017 census conducted by the Lebanese government, more than 90% of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are informally employed. In 2016, Lebanese authorities began constructing a concrete wall with watch towers around the
Ain al-Hilweh Ain al-Hilweh ( ar, عين الحلوة, lit. meaning "sweet natural spring"), also spelled as Ayn al-Hilweh and Ein al-Hilweh, is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. It had a population of over 70,000 Palestinian refugees but swell ...
refugee camp, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. The wall has faced some criticism, being called "racist" by some and supposedly labeling residents as
terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
s or islamists. As of May 2017, the wall construction was nearing completion. For travel abroad non-citizen Palestinian residents of Lebanon can obtain travel documents that serve in place of passports. Travellers who hold only a
Palestinian passport The Palestinian Authority Passport ( ar, جواز سفر السلطة الفلسطينية) is a passport/travel document issued since April 1995 by the Palestinian Authority to Palestinian residents of the Palestinian territories for the purpo ...
are refused entry to Lebanon.


Social status

Palestinians in Lebanon also have to heavily rely on UNRWA for basic services such as health care and education, because they do not have much access to the social services the Lebanese government provides. In February 2011, a decree was signed by
Boutros Harb Boutros Harb (بطرس حرب) (born 3 August 1944) is a Lebanese politician who served at different cabinet posts including Minister of Telecommunications. Early life and education Harb was born into a Maronite family in Tannourine, Lebanon ...
, the caretaker labor minister (of Lebanon), on carrying out labor law amendments from August 2010. If these labor law amendments go into effect, it will make it easier for work permits to be acquired by Palestinians. The amendments are seen as "the first move to legalize the working status of Palestinians since the first refugees arrived, fleeing the 1948 Arab-Israeli war".
Israeli Arab The Arab citizens of Israel are the largest ethnic minority in the country. They comprise a hybrid community of Israeli citizens with a heritage of Palestinian citizenship, mixed religions (Muslim, Christian or Druze), bilingual in Arabic an ...
journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
,
Khaled Abu Toameh Khaled Abu Toameh ( ar, خالد أبو طعمة, he, חאלד אבו טועמה; born 1963) is an Israeli Arab journalist, lecturer and documentary filmmaker. Abu Toameh writes for ''The Jerusalem Post'' and for the New York-based Gatestone ...
accused Lebanon of practicing
apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
against Palestinian Arabs who have lived in Lebanon as stateless refugees since 1948. According to Human Rights Watch, "In 2001, Parliament passed a law prohibiting Palestinians from owning property, a right they had for decades. Lebanese law also restricts their ability to work in many areas. In 2005, Lebanon eliminated a ban on Palestinians holding most clerical and technical positions, provided they obtain a temporary work permit from the Labor Ministry, but more than 20 high-level professions remain off-limits to Palestinians. Few Palestinians have benefited from the 2005 reform, though. In 2009, only 261 of more than 145,679 permits issued to non-Lebanese were for Palestinians. Civil society groups say many Palestinians choose not to apply because they cannot afford the fees and see no reason to pay a portion of their salary toward the National Social Security Fund, since Lebanese law bars Palestinians from receiving social security benefits." In one of his series of articles accusing the government of Lebanon of practising "apartheid" against the resident Palestinian community, the
Israeli Arab The Arab citizens of Israel are the largest ethnic minority in the country. They comprise a hybrid community of Israeli citizens with a heritage of Palestinian citizenship, mixed religions (Muslim, Christian or Druze), bilingual in Arabic an ...
journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
, Khaled Abu Toameh describes the "special legal status" as "foreigners" assigned uniquely to Palestinians, "a fact which has deprived them of health care, social services, property ownership and education. Even worse, Lebanese law bans Palestinians from working in many jobs. This means that Palestinians cannot work in the public services and institutions run by the government such as schools and hospitals. Unlike Israel, Lebanese public hospitals do not admit Palestinians for medical treatment or surgery." Journalist
Ben-Dror Yemini Ben-Dror Yemini ( he, בן-דרור ימיני; born April 17, 1954) is an Israeli journalist. He has worked for the daily newspaper ''Maariv'', and in Spring 2014 began writing for the daily ''Yedioth Ahronoth''. Biography Ben-Dror Yemini was b ...
describes Palestinians in Lebanon as living "under various restrictions that could fill a chapter on Arab apartheid against the Palestinians. One of the most severe restrictions is a ban on construction. This ban is enforced even in the
Nahr al-Bared Nahr al-Bared ( ar, نهر البارد, literally: Cold River) is a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, 16 km from the city of Tripoli. Some 30,000 displaced Palestinians and their descendants live in and around the camp, which ...
refugee camp, bombed by the Lebanese army in 2007. Calling on Lebanon to change the systematic discrimination against his people, Palestinian journalist
Rami George Khouri Rami George Khouri (born 22 October 1948) is a journalist and editor with Palestinian background and joint Jordanian and United States citizenship. He was born in New York City to an Arab Palestinian Christian family. His father, George Khouri, a ...
compared Lebanese treatment of Palestinians to the "Apartheid system" of South Africa. Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon contain armed groups which sometimes deal in illegal drugs, and that would cause infighting among the rivals. In June 2020, a woman was shot dead in the
Shatila refugee camp The Shatila refugee camp ( ar, مخيم شاتيلا), also known as the Chatila refugee camp, is a settlement originally set up for Palestinian refugees in 1949. It is located in southern Beirut, Lebanon and houses more than 9,842 registered ...
as she was walking on the street carrying her child during a shooting exchange between rival gangs.


Sectarian tensions

Due to sectarian tensions carried from the civil war, some discriminatory social attitudes are still held towards Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. These attitudes, are further complicated by Lebanon's delicate sectarian makeup. Despite the annulment of the 1969 Cairo Agreement, the Lebanese army does not enter the 12 camps, based on an informal understanding between the Palestinian factions and the Lebanese army. There exists some cooperation between the Palestinian factions and Lebanese army.


See also

*
PLO in Lebanon The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was based in Lebanon for a significant period of time (1960s-1982), using their set-up in the country to expand as an organization, gathering support and maintaining their armed struggle with Israel. Arg ...


References

{{Demographics of Lebanon Ethnic groups in Lebanon Middle Eastern diaspora in Lebanon Arabs in Lebanon Palestinian diaspora in the Arab world Palestinian refugees Statelessness Ethnic groups in the Middle East