Citizenship in Lebanon and the Palestinian dream of return..

Photo: Red Markers are Palestinian Camps in Lebanon

We all know (somewhat) how Palestinians are treated in Gaza and the West Bank (illegal blockade, illegal occupation, abuse and terrorisation to put it in a nut shell) but do you know how Palestinians are treated in Lebanon?

In this article I'm going to discuss citizenship; which Palestinians were given citizenship, who were not given citizenship and why citizenship was denied.

Many Lebanese themselves are ignorant to the treatment of Palestinians in their own country, many Lebanese I've spoken to (both inside Lebanon and outside of Lebanon) thought that Palestinians had citizenship and that the camps were "communities".

Sorry to burst their bubbles, as they were under the impression their government was doing so much for the Palestinian cause (by allowing Palestinians to live in their country after they were forced out of Palestine) but no, majority of Palestinians were not given citizenship or basic rights, at all. Sorry, let me rephrase that, majority of the Muslim Palestinians were not given citizenship, but the vast majority of the Christian Palestinians were given citizenship during the early years of Palestinian displacement.

I will say, originally the Lebanese government was sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, they did take over 100,000 Palestinians in to their country, but as the possibility of Palestinians returning to Palestine grew less likely, their hospitable nature decreased, significatly and quickly.

Photo of Travel Document

The failure of Lebanon (unlike Jordan) to issue Palestinians with citizenship impacts a Palestinian's ability to live their lives with the same relative ease other people in Lebanon are blessed with, particuarly in regards to travel. Rather than being allocated a passport (as this requires citizenship) Palestinians are given a travel document, which causes many Palestinians struggles when/ if they want to travel outside of Lebanon, as it is not an "official passport".


To give you a simple example, when Palestinian refugees living or studying outside of Lebanon return to Lebanon to visit their families in the camps, they are required to stand in the "immigrant queue" at Beirut Airport, and are not permitted to stand in the the "Lebanese queue" even though they were born and raised in Lebanon.

I ask this question of the Lebanese government, if your intention in not allowing citizenship for Palestinians living in your country (for the past 64 years) was to not kill the dream of the Right of Return, why then did you give citizenship to (majority of) Christians yet force Muslims to live in the Camps? Was this merely to keep the balance of Muslims and Christians in check?

Faith is very important in Lebanon, it is a way of distinguishing and identifying people from each other, and the sectarian breakdown is clearly evident in the constitution of Lebanon. The President of Lebanon must be Maronite Christian, the Prime Minister must be Sunni Muslim and the speaker of the Parliament must be Shia Muslim. This itself speaks volumes on why Palestinian Muslims were largely rejected for naturalisation or tawteen (unlike their Christian counterparts); I doubt half a million more Muslim voters would have been beneficial for Christian politicians.

Photo: CNS Palestinian girl in Dbayeh Camp

I'm not saying there are not any Christian refugees, that isn't true - the Dbayeh Camp I mentioned a few days ago is almost exclusively Christian, there are between 2000 and 4000 Christians living in this camp in Beirut.

The people living in the Dbayeh camp have also complained about their treatment, one man, Elias Habib, 41 stated during an interview with a Catholic News Service:

"If you are born in a country, you should be a citizen of that country... But in Lebanon, if you are born a refugee, your children are born refugees and even if your son marries a Lebanese, he remains a refugee*."

Photo: Boy walking in Shatila Camp.

The right to citizenship was denied to Palestinians apparently for their own good, so as not to hurt their chances of returning to Palestine one day and living a magical life. However, I ask this question, what good comes from Palestinians being forced to live a miserable life in the meantime?

Answer? None. No good comes from this never ending government policy of discrimination, marginalisation and systematic abuse that is forcing Palestinians to live in unsafe, unsanitary and impoverished refugee camps. This discrimination is contributing to the rise of mental health issues in the camps, as well as problems such as drug use. These problems stem from the overall feelings of hopelessness in the camps.

Palestinians in Lebanon are truly stuck, they can't go back to Palestine (Abbas certainly hasn't helped the situation of Palestinians in diaspora after giving up his own right of return) and it is very difficult for Palestinians to escape the camps in search of a better life overseas.


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* The only way for a Palestinian to aquire Lebanese citizenship is for a Palestinian female to marry a Lebanese male, as only Lebanese males pass on their citizenship.