In spite of the fact that Israel is transferring to Gaza 2200 tons of aid on a daily basis, Al'Amal, the Libyan ship carrying 2000 tons of aid designated for Gaza, settled for dismantling its content in Egyptian Alareesh port, not without attracting publicity. While all are racing towards Gaza, interestingly enough, the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are in great dire and need badly all the assistance which is superfluous to Gaza. Monica, a European welfare worker in the UNRWA (United Nations Relief Welfare Aid) was quoted in Alhayat newspaper, published in London, saying in response to major Lebanese efforts to send out a flotilla from Lebanon to Gaza a couple of weeks ago:" Why are you so enthusiastic to send aid to Palestinians in Gaza while ignoring your Palestinians in the refugee camps in Lebanon?"
The Arab media has been launching active discussions in the last couple of weeks shedding light on the living conditions of around 400,000 Palestinians who are suffering in Lebanon's refugee camps, lacking basic civil rights. The question has risen following a bill put forward by Walid Jumblat leader of the Druze Social Progressive party in the Lebanese parliament mainly to embarrass the Christians, asking to guarantee the Palestinians equal rights. The Lebanese population is built from a very delicate ethnic tissue encompassing 11 sects of Christians and 5 of Moslems. Even if the intention of the bill emanates from a humanitarian aspect, yet it cannot be viewed without political implications. The Christians view this move as building up of Moslem power and endangering their share in the national pie. The Shiaa are not in favor because the bill enhances the Sunni bloc.
The concerns of the Lebanese stem from the fact that historically, the Palestinians meddled in local and external politics. Early on, they set up Fatah land from which they used to attack Israeli targets. They backed up the leftists against the Christians which led at the end to the explosion of the civil war in 1976 lasting 13 years of. Lebanon has paid indeed a very high price for hosting the refugees.
Yet, the Palestinian refugees are still living without any civil rights or citizenship. Building materials inside their camps are denied entrance. What is obsolete or damaged cannot be rebuilt. They are not allowed to own any property even if they inherited it. They are forbidden from practicing any of 72 professionals such as a physician, pharmacist, and chartered accountant. engineer etc.
Similar to hundreds of thousands Palestinians, Dr.Ahmad Abu Matar, well established in Norway, has managed to flee from Gaza and build up an academic career. He maintains that unlike the full fledged civil rights and citizenship granted by Western democracies to Palestinians, Arab governments are using the right of return as a fig leaf to continuous humiliation of the Palestinians and denial of their basic rights. Like many Arab liberals he endorses the idea of providing the refugees Ad hoc citizenship, until and if the right of return materializes.
After more than 60 years in exile, the right of return seems to many Arab intellectuals a farfetched goal. Even if Israel would endorse the principle of right of return, how feasible would it be for 2.5 million Palestinians in Jordan and another 1.25 million of Palestinians in foreign countries to give up the life they like and are used to, for the sake of the return cause? Abu Matar sounds very skeptical regarding those who live abroad and well established. He maintains that thousands of them, who returned to Israel after the peace accord in 1993, have not been granted yet a formal Israeli permit. He would go as far as predicting that Palestinians living currently in Gaza and suffering from the friction between Hamas and Fatah will be queuing in masses for any foreign embassy ready to bestow upon them civil rights
While many humanitarian and civil rights organizations plan to launch a flotilla directed to Gaza, among them a Jewish organization Justice for Jews for Palestinians , needless to say, that they better direct them to the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. There, they need the aid
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