BEIRUT: As more Palestinian refugee camps handed over caches of weapons to the Lebanese army this week, a Lebanese government official told The Associated Press that the disarmament effort could pave the way for granting Palestinian refugees in Lebanon more legal rights.
Ramez Dimashkieh, head of the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, a government body that serves as an interlocutor between Palestinian refugees and officials, said his group is working on proposed legislation that they hope to introduce by the end of the year that could improve the situation of Lebanon’s approximately 200,000 Palestinian refugees.
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are not given citizenship, ostensibly to preserve their right to go back to the homes they fled or were forced from during the 1948 creation of the state of Israel, which now bans them from returning. They are prohibited from working in many professions, have few legal protections and can’t own property.
The proposed legislation under being drafted would not confer Lebanese nationality on the refugees, Dimashkieh said, but would strengthen their labor and property rights.
“If people see a serious move forward in terms of arms delivery and they see the Palestinians here … are serious about transforming into a civil society rather than militarized camps, it will make the discourse much easier,” he said.
