Total population | |
---|---|
174,422 (2017 census) [1] – 250,000 (2023 UNRWA estimated max. resident) – 489,292 (2023 UNRWA registered) [2] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Greater Beirut, Sidon, Tripoli, Beqaa Valley | |
Languages | |
Arabic (Palestinian Arabic, Lebanese Arabic) | |
Religion | |
Sunni Islam, Christianity [3] |
Palestinians in Lebanon include the Palestinian refugees who fled to Lebanon during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, their descendants, the Palestinian militias which resided in Lebanon in the 1970s and 1980s, and Palestinian nationals who moved to Lebanon from countries experiencing conflict, such as Syria.[ citation needed ] There are roughly 3,000 registered Palestinians and their descendants who hold no identification cards, including refugees of the 1967 Naksa. Many Palestinians in Lebanon are refugees and their descendants, who have been barred from naturalisation, retaining stateless refugee status. However, some Palestinians, mostly Christian women, have received Lebanese citizenship, in some cases through marriage with Lebanese nationals.[ citation needed ]
In 2017, a census by the Lebanese government counted 174,000 Palestinians in Lebanon. [4] Estimates of the number of Palestinians in Lebanon ranged from 260,000 to 400,000 in 2011. [5] Human Rights Watch estimated 300,000 in 2011. [6] The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) reported 489,292 registered Palestine refugees as of March 2023 but estimated that no more than 250,000 were then resident in Lebanon. [2]
Most Palestinians in Lebanon do not have Lebanese citizenship and therefore do not have Lebanese identity cards, which would entitle them to government services, such as health and education. They are also legally barred from owning property [7] or entering a list of desirable occupations. [8] Employment requires a government-issued work permit, and, according to the New York Times in 2011, although "Lebanon hands out and renews hundreds of thousands of work permits every year to people from Africa, Asia and other Arab countries... until now, only a handful have been given" to Palestinians. [5] Palestinians in Lebanon also have to heavily rely on the UNRWA for basic services such as healthcare and education, because they are not granted much access to the social services the Lebanese government provides. [9] This reliance on healthcare and education does not guarantee that this reliance has always been visible, oftentimes UNRWA for instance was not allowed to enter certain areas, this was especially the case when tensions were high. [10] Nonetheless, while UNRWA currently is allowed to enter inside these camps, many critique the manner in which UNRWA operates, they point out towards the lack of basic healthcare or any other form of relief inside these Palestinian camps. [10] In February 2011, a decree was signed by Boutros Harb, the caretaker labor minister of Lebanon, on carrying out labor law amendments from August 2010. If these labor law amendments go into effect, it will make it easier for work permits to be acquired by Palestinians.[ needs update ] The amendments are seen as "the first move to legalize the working status of Palestinians since the first refugees arrived, fleeing the 1948 Arab-Israeli war". [5]
In 2019, Minister of Labor Camille Abousleiman instituted a law that Palestinian workers must obtain a work permit, [11] under the justification that Palestinians are foreigners in Lebanon despite their long-standing presence. Palestinians are in a 'grey area' of Lebanon's labor laws: although they are categorized as foreigners, they are excluded from the rights foreigners enjoy, and their rights as refugees are not fairly protected. The ruling catalyzed a swell of frustration and protests across the Palestinian camps in Lebanon. [12] Activists claimed the law unfairly targeted Palestinian refugees, and would narrow down an already limited set of employment opportunities. [13]
UNRWA defines a Palestinian refugee as "any person whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period June 1, 1946 to May 15, 1948. And who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict." Descendants of male refugees are also able to register with UNRWA.
Palestinians in Lebanon include Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA and the Lebanese authorities, Palestinian refugees registered only with the Lebanese authorities, and Non-ID Palestinians. [14] According to the 2017 - 2021 Lebanon crisis response plan, there are an estimated 3000 to 5000 Non-ID Palestinians who reside in Lebanon. Some of whom were previously registered as UNRWA refugees in Egypt and Jordan, but now hold expired, unrenewable or unrecognizable identity cards by the respective issuing authorities. Non-ID Palestinians also refer to members of the PLO, who came to Lebanon following Black September. Non-ID Palestinians are able to obtain temporary identification papers by the Lebanese government, although these must be renewed yearly and are subject to conditions, such as inability to register formalities such as marriage, divorce and death.
As a result of the Syrian civil war, 44,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria fled to Lebanon. [15] Recent figures in the 2017-2021 Lebanon crises response plan places the number at 29,000.
Estimates of the number of Palestinians in Lebanon ranged from 260,000 to 400,000 in 2011. [5] In 2018 Human Rights Watch estimated 174,000 "longstanding" Lebanese refugees and 45,000 Lebanese refugees more recently displaced from Syria. [16]
UNRWA reported that "as of March 2023, the total number of registered Palestine Refugees in Lebanon is 489,292 persons" and that "UNRWA records show a total of 31,400 Palestine Refugees from Syria residing in Lebanon", but that registration is voluntary and may not be updated with deaths and emigrations. UNRWA estimated no more than 250,000 currently resident in Lebanon [2] In 2017, a Lebanese government census counted 174,000 Palestinians in Lebanon. [4]
Region | Population of PRL | Population of PRS | Total population | Share of the total |
---|---|---|---|---|
North | 41,495 | 3,859 | 45,354 | 24.7% |
Beirut | 22,149 | 1,619 | 23,768 | 13% |
Mount Lebanon | 11,752 | 1,978 | 13,730 | 7.5% |
Saida | 59,201 | 5,550 | 64,751 | 35.3% |
Tyre | 24,410 | 2,706 | 27,116 | 14.8% |
Beqaa | 6,542 | 1,994 | 8,536 | 4.7% |
Total | 165,549 | 17,706 | 183,255 | 100% |
Most Palestinians in Lebanon are stateless. They are not entitled to Lebanese citizenship, though most were born in Lebanon and irrespective of how many generations their families have lived in Lebanon.
Lebanese government gave citizenship to about 50,000 Christian Palestinian refugees during the 1950s and 1960s. In the mid-1990s, about 60,000 Shiite Muslim refugees were granted citizenship. This caused a protest from Maronite authorities, leading to citizenship being given to all Christian refugees who were not already citizens. [18]
During the Syrian occupation of Lebanon in 1994, the government naturalized over 154,931 foreign residents of Palestinian (mostly Palestinian Christians) and Syrian (mostly Syrian Sunnis and Christians) descent. [19] It was argued that the purpose of these naturalizations was to sway the elections to a pro-Syrian government. [20] This allegation is based on how these new citizens were bussed in to vote and displayed higher voting rates than the nationals did. [19]
Without citizenship, Palestinians in Lebanon do not have Lebanese identity cards, which also entitles the holder to health care, education and other government services. Palestinians living in and outside the 12 official camps, can receive health care, education and other social services from UNRWA. [21] According to Human Rights Watch, Palestinian refugees in Lebanon live in "appalling social and economic conditions."
Following a 2001 amendment on foreign ownership of property, which stated that the foreign person must hold the citizenship of an internationally recognized country, Palestinian refugees came to be excluded from land and property ownership. Non-citizen Palestinians are legally barred from owning property, [7] and barred from entering a list of liberal professions. [8]
Employment requires a government-issued work permit, and, according to the New York Times , although "Lebanon hands out and renews hundreds of thousands of work permits every year to people from Africa, Asia and other Arab countries... until now, only a handful have been given" to Palestinians. [5] They labor under legal restrictions that bar them from employment in at least 39 professions, "including law, medicine, and engineering," a system that relegates them to the black market for labor. According to the 2017 census conducted by the Lebanese government, more than 90% of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are informally employed.
In 2016, Lebanese authorities began constructing a concrete wall with watch towers around the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. [22] The wall has faced some criticism, being called "racist" by some and supposedly labeling residents as terrorists or islamists. [23] As of May 2017, the wall construction was nearing completion. [24] [25]
For travel abroad non-citizen Palestinian residents of Lebanon can obtain travel documents that serve in place of passports. [26] Travellers who hold only a Palestinian passport are refused entry to Lebanon. [27]
This section needs additional citations for verification .(March 2024) |
Palestinians in Lebanon also have to heavily rely on UNRWA for basic services such as health care and education, because they do not have much access to the social services the Lebanese government provides. [9] In February 2011, a decree was signed by Boutros Harb, the caretaker labor minister (of Lebanon), on carrying out labor law amendments from August 2010. If these labor law amendments go into effect, it will make it easier for work permits to be acquired by Palestinians. The amendments are seen as "the first move to legalize the working status of Palestinians since the first refugees arrived, fleeing the 1948 Arab-Israeli war". [5]
Activity status | Female | Male | Total |
---|---|---|---|
Employed | 11.9% | 59% | 35.3% |
Unemployed | 4.5% | 12.5% | 8.5% |
Inactive (not looking for a job) | 83.6% | 28.5% | 56.2% |
The condition of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon has been variously criticized in the media. [28] [ full citation needed ] According to Human Rights Watch, "In 2001, Parliament passed a law prohibiting Palestinians from owning property, a right they had for decades. Lebanese law also restricts their ability to work in many areas. In 2005, Lebanon eliminated a ban on Palestinians holding most clerical and technical positions, provided they obtain a temporary work permit from the Labor Ministry, but more than 20 high-level professions remain off-limits to Palestinians. Few Palestinians have benefited from the 2005 reform, though. In 2009, only 261 of more than 145,679 permits issued to non-Lebanese were for Palestinians. Civil society groups say many Palestinians choose not to apply because they cannot afford the fees and see no reason to pay a portion of their salary toward the National Social Security Fund, since Lebanese law bars Palestinians from receiving social security benefits." [29]
Israeli Arab journalist, Khaled Abu Toameh accused Lebanon of practicing apartheid against Palestinian Arabs who have lived in Lebanon as stateless refugees since 1948. [30] [ full citation needed ] [31] [ full citation needed ] Toameh described the "special legal status" as "foreigners" assigned uniquely to Palestinians, "a fact which has deprived them of health care, social services, property ownership and education. Even worse, Lebanese law bans Palestinians from working in many jobs. This means that Palestinians cannot work in the public services and institutions run by the government such as schools and hospitals. Unlike Israel, Lebanese public hospitals do not admit Palestinians for medical treatment or surgery." [32] [ full citation needed ] Israeli journalist Ben-Dror Yemini describes Palestinians in Lebanon as living "under various restrictions that could fill a chapter on Arab apartheid against the Palestinians. One of the most severe restrictions is a ban on construction. This ban is enforced even in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, bombed by the Lebanese army in 2007". [33] [ full citation needed ] Calling on Lebanon to change the systematic discrimination against his people, Palestinian journalist Rami George Khouri compared Lebanese treatment of Palestinians to the "Apartheid system" of South Africa. [34] [ full citation needed ]
Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon contain armed groups which sometimes deal in illegal drugs, and that would cause infighting among the rivals. In June 2020, a woman was shot dead in the Shatila refugee camp as she was walking on the street carrying her child during a shooting exchange between rival gangs. [35]
Due to sectarian tensions carried from the civil war, some discriminatory social attitudes are still held towards Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. These attitudes, are further complicated by Lebanon's delicate sectarian makeup.
Despite the annulment of the 1969 Cairo Agreement, [36] the Lebanese army does not enter the 12 camps, based on an informal understanding between the Palestinian factions and the Lebanese army. There exists some cooperation between the Palestinian factions and Lebanese army.
This is a demography of the population of Lebanon including population density, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East is a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees. UNRWA's mandate encompasses Palestinians who fled or were expelled during the Nakba, the 1948 Palestine War, and subsequent conflicts, as well as their descendants, including legally adopted children. As of 2019, more than 5.6 million Palestinians are registered with UNRWA as refugees.
Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine, and their descendants, who fled or were expelled from their country, village or house over the course of the 1948 Palestine war and during the 1967 Six-Day War. Most Palestinian refugees live in or near 68 Palestinian refugee camps across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In 2019 more than 5.6 million Palestinian refugees were registered with the United Nations.
Camps were set up by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to accommodate Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA, who fled or were expelled during the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War or in the aftermath of the Six-Day War in 1967, and their patrilineal descendants. There are 68 Palestinian refugee camps, 58 official and 10 unofficial, ten of which were established after the Six-Day War while the others were established in 1948 to 1950s.
Ain al-Hilweh, also spelled as Ayn al-Hilweh and Ein El Hilweh, is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. It had a population of over 70,000 Palestinian refugees but swelled to nearly 120,000, as a result of influx of refugees from Syria since 2011. The camp is located west of the village Miye ou Miye and the Mieh Mieh refugee camp, southeast of the port city of Sidon and north of Darb Es Sim.
Human Rights in Lebanon refers to the state of human rights in Lebanon, which were considered to be on par with global standards in 2004. Some believed to be criminals and terrorists are said to be detained without charge for both short and long periods of time. Freedom of speech and of the press are ensured to the citizens by the Lebanese laws which protect the freedom of each citizen. Palestinians living in Lebanon are heavily deprived of basic civil rights. They cannot own homes or land, and are barred from becoming lawyers, engineers and doctors. However, the Lebanese government has reduced the number of restricted jobs and created a national dialogue committee for the issue. During the Arab Spring, Lebanon experienced major protests and sectarian violence, but avoided the large-scale political upheaval seen in many parts of the Arab world.
The 2007 Lebanon conflict began when fighting broke out between Fatah al-Islam, an Islamist militant organization, and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) on May 20, 2007 in Nahr al-Bared, a UNRWA Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli.
Yarmouk is a 2.11-square-kilometer (520-acre) district of the city of Damascus, populated by Palestinians. It is located 8 kilometers (5.0 mi) from the center of Damascus and within municipal boundaries; this was not the case when it was established in 1957. It contains hospitals and schools. Yarmouk is an "unofficial" refugee camp, as UNRWA rejected a Syrian government request to recognize the camp in 1960. Now depopulated, it was previously home to the largest Palestinian refugee community in Syria. As of June 2002, there had been 112,550 registered refugees living in Yarmouk.
Issues relating to the State of Palestine and aspects of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict occupy continuous debates, resolutions, and resources at the United Nations. Since its founding in 1948, the United Nations Security Council, as of January 2010, has adopted 79 resolutions directly related to the Arab–Israeli conflict.
Palestinian people have a history that is often linked to the history of the Arab Nation. Upon the advent of Islam, Christianity was the major religion of Byzantine Palestine. Soon after the rise of Islam, Palestine was conquered and brought into the rapidly expanding Islamic empire. The Umayyad empire was the first of three successive dynasties to dominate the Arab-Islamic world and rule Palestine, followed by the Abbasids and the Fatimids. Muslim rule was briefly challenged and interrupted in parts of Palestine during the Crusades, but was restored under the Mamluks.
Palestinians in Iraq are people of Palestinians, most of whom have been residing in Iraq after they were displaced in 1948. Before 2003, there were approximately 34,000 Palestinians thought to be living in Iraq, mainly concentrated in Baghdad. However, since the 2003 Iraq War, the figure lies between 10,000–13,000, although a precise figure has been hard to determine. The situation of Palestinians in Iraq deteriorated after the fall of Saddam Hussein and particularly following the bombing of the Al-Askari Mosque in 2006. Since then, with the rise in insecurity throughout Iraq, they have been the target of expulsion, persecution and violence by Shia militants, and the new Iraqi Government with militant groups targeting them for preferential treatment they received under the Ba'ath Party rule. Currently, several hundred Palestinians from Iraq are living in border camps, after being refused entry to neighbouring Jordan and Syria. Others have been resettled to third countries.
The article describes the state of race relations and racism in the Middle East. Racism is widely condemned throughout the world, with 174 states parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by April 8, 2011. In different countries, the forms that racism takes may be different for historic, cultural, religious, economic or demographic reasons.
Mieh Mieh refugee camp is a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, located on the outskirts of Mieh Mieh village in the hills 4 kilometers (2.5 mi) east of the southern city of Sidon. The original refugees in the camp generally came from Saffourieh, Tiereh, Haifa and Miron, in what is now Israel. It was established in 1954 on land leased from private landowners of the Miye ou Miye village. Around the 1990s, the Mieh Mieh camp was located on 60 dunams in Miye ou Miye village. Today, the camp is 1.8 times that size at 108 dunams. In 2003, it had a population of 5,037.
Burj el-Shemali is a municipality located some 86 km south of Beirut and 3 km east of the Tyre/Sour peninsula, merging into its urban area. It is part of the Tyre Union of Municipalities within the Tyre District of the South Governorate of Lebanon.
Syrian refugee camp and shelters are temporary settlements built to receive internally displaced people and refugees of the Syrian Civil War. Of the estimated 7 million persons displaced within Syria, only a small minority live in camps or collective shelters. Similarly, of the 8 million refugees, only about 10 percent live in refugee camps, with the vast majority living in both urban and rural areas of neighboring countries. Beside Syrians, they include Iraqis, Palestinians, Kurds, Yazidis, individuals from Somalia, and a minority of those who fled the Yemeni and Sudanese civil wars.
Present absentees are Arab internally displaced persons (IDPs) who fled or were expelled from their homes in Mandatory Palestine during the 1947–1949 Palestine war but remained within the area that became the state of Israel.
El-Buss camp – also transliterated Bass, Bas, or Baas with the definite article spelled either al or el – is one of the twelve Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, located in the Southern Lebanese city of Tyre. It had been a refuge for survivors of the Armenian genocide from the 1930s until the 1950s, built in a swamp area which during ancient times had for at least one and a half millennia been a necropolis. In recent decades it has been "at the center of Tyre’s experience with precarity" and "a space that feels permanent yet unfinished, suspended in time."
Palestinians in Syria are people of Palestinian origin, most of whom have been residing in Syria after they were displaced from their homeland during the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight. Palestinians hold most of the same rights as the Syrian population, but cannot become Syrian nationals except in rare cases. In 2011, there were 526,744 registered Palestinian refugees in Syria. Due to the Syrian Civil War, the number of registered refugees has since dropped to about 450,000 due to many Palestinians fleeing to Lebanon, Jordan or elsewhere in the region to escaping to Europe as refugees, especially to Germany and Sweden.
Syrians in Lebanon refers to the Syrian migrant workers and, more recently, to the Syrian refugees who fled to Lebanon during the Syrian Civil War. The relationship between Lebanon and Syria includes Maronite-requested aid during Lebanon's Civil War which led to a 29-year occupation of Lebanon by Syria ending in 2005. Following the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War, refugees began entering Lebanon in 2011.
On 30 July 2023, fighting broke out inside the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon after Islamist gunmen tried to assassinate Fatah militant Mahmoud Khalil, killing a companion of his instead.
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