A woman watching through at the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon on November 11, 2014. (Getty)[/caption]
by Ghenwa El Minawi
After years of political paralysis, the Lebanese elections, originally due in 2013, are finally taking place. Years of disorder are commonly attributed to the Lebanese parliament, which failed to elect a successor to former president Michel Suleiman. In October 2016, following two years of presidential vacancy, parliament finally gained a quorum and elected Michel Aoun. The implementation of the new electoral law in June 2017 displaced the formerly antiquated system under which 128 members of parliament were elected from a 26 multi-member constituency and candidates with the highest turnout within each religious community would accede to parliament.
Although the Lebanese government has taken a step in the right direction in amending the ills of its electoral system, it has not addressed the systemic exclusion of certain long-suffering minorities. On the one hand, the parliament has achieved some positive reforms. For example, of the 976 candidates in the 2018 parliamentary election, 111 are women. According to the local news outlet Naharnet, “That marks a sharp increase compared with the previous legislative election in 2009 when just 12 women were among 706 candidates who took part.” On the other hand, the country’s population of Palestinian refugees remains marginalized and disenfranchised. As new elections draw near, the debate over the future of these refugees has returned to the public discussion.
A CLOSER LOOK AT PALESTINAINS IN LEBANON
The sorrowful existence of over two thirds of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon is well known to the Lebanese public. Former refugee camps, strewn across the country, have evolved into concrete slums where Palestinians live in squalor. Their presence in the country dates back to the mass displacement of Palestinians following the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) was originally established to assuage their plight across the region. Operating in Gaza, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq, UNRWA asserts that conditions in Lebanon are uniquely repressive for the Palestinians.
Lebanon’s fragile sociopolitical configuration culminated in a profoundly discriminatory legal framework for these refugees. They are prohibited from land ownership, denied citizenship, and legally barred from entering the white collar work force. To make matters worse, Palestinians are commonly blamed as the catalyst for unleashing 15 years of civil war beginning in 1975.
Joint research by UNRWA and the American University of Beirut finds that more than 63 percent of Palestinians in Lebanon live in destitute conditions, including “decaying infrastructure, lack of recreational space, inadequate access to roads, degraded water and wastewater treatment systems, contaminated water, and electrically powered Jerry rigs.”
With as many as four generations born in Lebanon, efforts to integrate Palestinians into the public sphere have been met with a barrage of xenophobic and racist sentiments from the Free Patriotic Movement party leader and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil. Like many Lebanese politicians, he has repeatedly stated his opposition to naturalising Palestinian or, for that matter, Syrian refugees. Bassil has also taken to Twitter on the subject: “I am for the right of women married to a foreigner to pass the Lebanese nationality to their children,” he wrote in September 2016, “but our constitution and composition do not allow granting citizenship to 400,000 Palestinians.” In October 2017, in response to the notion of constructing Syrian refugee camps, he Tweeted, “Yes, we are racist Lebanese, and at the same time we are open to the world and no one has the right to lecture us about being humanitarian.”
Lebanon’s fragile sociopolitical configuration culminated in a profoundly discriminatory legal framework for Palestinian refugees.
The year has also been a tumultuous one for Palestinian refugees in light of political debates in the U.S. about the prospect of cutting funding for UNRWA.
ADVOCATING FOR PALESTINIAN NATURALISATION THROUGH SATIRE
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Manal Kotram’s satirical campaign poster. (Courtesy of Manal Kortam)[/caption]
Amidst these tensions, one activist, Manal Kortam, ignited enormous controversy by taking to social media with a campaign known by its hashtag #WeExist( موجودين#) — the collective “we” intended being Palestinians in Lebanon.
The photo above is meant to be satirical: It is framed to resemble a campaign advertisement for the 2018 elections, yet advocates for a community that that lacks the right to vote or field a candidate. Kortam’s “pseudo-campaign” has provoked a much-needed debate about the status of Palestinian civil rights in Lebanon.
In an interview with Majalla, Manal described the challenges she has faced in building her “movement”:
“Many conservative Christian factions have accused me of starting this movement on the basis of wanting nationality for the Palestinian people, but that’s not the case … I am not a mouthpiece nor do I have the right to impose my views on who should be naturalized. My message is advocating freedom and dialogue.”
“Discrimination is not in Lebanon’s national interest. There is a huge untapped labour and education force that no one pays attention to. … Labour rights, education rights, and [the right to join] professional syndicates are more important than nationalities.” Manal Kortam
Supporters of Hamas in particular have accused Kortam of “compromising Palestinian identity” by implying that they might become citizens of Lebanon. In response, she says, “I just don’t accept the obscene conditions people are living in.”
Others have applauded her for the bravery and courage it takes to even start such a discussion.
Regarding the Lebanese tendency to blame Palestinians for the country’s civil war, Kortam says, “It’s naïve to think that no one else made mistakes at that scale.”
Lebanese media, for its part, has barely covered Kortam’s efforts. “#WeExist is about breaking doors down, changing the national discourse, and linking groups together,” Manal tells Majalla. “Social media has provided us with a strategy … it’s the key to this movement since local media outlets are ignoring the reality.”
In Manal’s view, the larger message of her effort goes beyond the narrow question of whether Palestinian refugees receive a Lebanese passport; it is a broad call for civic engagement. “Discrimination is not in Lebanon’s national interest,” she says. “There is a huge untapped labour and education force that no one pays attention to. … Labour rights, education rights, and [the right to join] professional syndicates are more important than nationalities.”
