The Harsh Reality of Being a Palestinian in Arab Lands

There are almost 4.3 million Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA who live in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. They have been suffering from severe and at times inhuman restrictions there which involve: residency rights; freedom of movement and employment; as well as property ownership rights.

The fact is that there is an absence of legislation regulating their status in most of the Arab countries, as they have been deprived of civil rights and basic needs for decades, which makes them believe that the Arab countries don't want to absorb them.

The vast majority of the Palestinians in the Arab world is treated as foreigners and are denied access to government supplied services such as education, health and social benefits.

As documented by human rights organizations which have repeatedly condemned Lebanon's policy of discrimination against Palestinian refugees, the Lebanese treatment of Palestinians is particularly abhorrent.

In Lebanon, Palestinians are deprived of education and health services, and they are not entitled to social security even though they contributed while working. In 1995, the Lebanese government issued a decree restricting the refugees from working in 72 professions. The majority of Palestinians are therefore forced to work illegally, making them subject to exploitation in the black market.

The human rights group Amnesty International has written in one of its reports that "the treatment of refugees in Lebanon is a legacy of shame". The report pointed out that "Lebanon's discriminatory practices against Palestinians violates international human rights law and are in violation of its obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The highest concentration of Palestinians is in Jordan which has almost 1.7 registered refugees, while Syria and Lebanon have about 400,000 registered each.

Some still hold on to the unrealistic dream of returning to areas inside the present state of Israel. This is the false hope of demanding a right of return by PLO leaders in negotiating for peace with Israeli governments. Given the number of people involved, and that the PLO considers even the 4.3 million number to be under estimated, an influx of all Palestinian refugees into Israel proper would transform the population of the Israeli state from a Jewish one to an Arab Palestinian state. Aside from the economic & social challenges involved, such an outcome would be anathema even to the most left wing liberal minded Israeli.

Many of these refugees are unlikely, under the current circumstances, to accept an offer to move to the West Bank or Gaza Strip, where their chances of improving their conditions are slim. There would appear to be no doubt that many would agree to stay in the Arab world once they are offered citizenship, jobs and a better life away from the impoverished refugee camps but given the policies of the Arab countries such an eventual scenario seems highly unlikely.