[imc-okanagan] IMC Beirut: Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon - A Radio Documentary

[Stefan Christoff]

IMC Beirut: Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=13600

[A 30 Minute Radio Documentary Produced by Sawsan Kalache, Mohammed Shublaq and 
Stefan Christoff of the Independent Media Center of Beirut.]

Hundreds of thousands of stateless Palestinian refugees reside in Lebanon 
scattered in impoverished refugee camps throughout the country, originally 
displaced through the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Without the 
right to work in over 70 professions, barred from owning property and legally 
defined as foreigners, Palestinians live in Lebanon as second-class citizens 
without basic social or political rights.

In June 2005, Lebanon's Labour Minister proposed changes to the country's 
labour laws, which if implemented by the newly formed government will allow 
Palestinians in the country the right to work in manual and clerical jobs, 
while still being forced to apply for foreign work permits. Although the 
proposed changes will still prohibit Palestinian professionals from working as 
doctors, lawyers, journalists, politicians and engineers.

The proposed amendments to the country labour law takes place in the shadow of 
larger political changes in Lebanon. In April 2005, Syria capitulated with U.N. 
Security Council Resolution 1559 and withdrew upwards of 15 000 troops from the 
country. Social and political pressure also forced tens-of-thousands of Syrian 
workers from the country. In this context Palestinians in the camps express 
skepticism regarding economic motives for the proposed change regarding their 
right to work, as it is commonly argued that Palestinians can now fill the 
cheap-labour vacuum, left by the withdrawal of Syrian labour force.

----> This radio documentary features many voices of Palestinians in Lebanon 
including, Olfat Mahmoud of the Women's Humanitarian Organization (WHO) in Burj 
el-Barajneh refugee camp, Souheil el-Natour a central committee member of the 
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and Jaber Suleiman of 
Aidoun in Lebanon (Arabic for "the Returnees").

----> For more information of the current situation of Palestinian Refugees in 
Lebanon visit the Independent Media Center of Beirut at: 
http://www.beirut.indymedia.org

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