The Palestinians in Lebanon between Living Pressure and Political Loss!!
(Translated)

For more than seventy lean years, the Palestinians in Lebanon have been suffering from chains of hardship, and the humiliation in the treatment and dealing with them! And by looking carefully at the problem of the Palestinians in Lebanon, and those who influence their presence and life there, the following are clear:

First: The crisis of the Lebanese entity: The entity of Lebanon, which the French colony established to be a sectarian entity, has a crisis in viewing the Palestinian presence, and a constant apprehension about changing the demographics, where the Palestinians are counted in the logic of sectarianism in Lebanon as the Sunni presence. This view was reflected in the negative dealing with the life of the Palestinians, through the siege of the camps and the restriction of human rights, of work and ownership, and then the Lebanese state disavowed the extension of its influence inside the camps under false pretenses. This Lebanese official engagement reinforces American dictates, consistent with its recent view of the existence of a Jewish entity on the land of Palestine, then recently came Lebanon's political and economic problem, which has been economically reflected in the people of Lebanon, and had a multiplier effect on the living conditions of the Palestinians in it.

Second: The UNRWA crisis: The major countries that supported and backed the existence of the Jewish entity on the land of Palestine, through the partition resolution No. 181 issued by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1947 CE, are the same ones that established the UNRWA Relief Agency for Palestinian Refugees, according to Resolution No. 302 , issued by the United Nations General Assembly itself in 1949 "with the aim of providing direct relief and employment programs for Palestine refugees", until a (solution) is found for their cause; however, in the absence of this (solution), the General Assembly has - repeatedly - renewed UNRWA's mandate, the last of which was to extend its work until June 30, 2023. Over the course of seventy-two years, UNRWA, which was created to deal with the exceptional situation of asylum, has become a part of the (natural) reality of Palestinian life, and while major countries - especially America - are sponsoring (solutions) that perpetuate the presence and settlement of the Jews, governments in the Islamic world complement the role by pressing the refugees to leave the camps, and opening the door for immigration to disperse in all parts of the land. At the same time, UNRWA resources become scarce, and there are directives for UNRWA management to not engage seriously with the living issues of the Palestinians, even with funding sometimes, and this is evident from the performance of the curators in its administration, despite having all the legal powers, and examples are many, most notably:

- The apparent delay in providing relief to the refugees in the Corona pandemic, despite the fact that UNRWA has the funding, and the power to change the program of operations in the presence of the state of emergency.

- Failure to take the necessary health precautions in dealing with Corona, as evidenced by the criticism of the Lebanese Minister of Health for its performance, and the ensuing scandal of providing a quarantine shelter in a school in the Galilee camp, that lacked the minimum standards of health safety.

- Submission to the state in seizing UNRWA funds as a result of the financial crisis, and not using UNRWA its international authority to take any serious measures to stop the looting of these funds, through Lebanese banks and corrupt politicians. It is reported that since October 2019, UNRWA projects have been stalled; these projects which employ thousands of Palestinian workers and employees, and which the market benefits from, inside and outside the camps.

- Submission to Lebanese politicians to leave the camps file subject to the military and security authority, which increases violations against the refugees at checkpoints, in the absence of any practical practice for the UNRWA’s raised slogan "protection", until recently the camps have become with gates, which are closed at the time of the curfew midst of the Corona crisis, as if people are prisoners, or herds confined in their corrals at night!!

- Failure to lift human rights violations against the refugees, especially the right to own property and work, which will have a great impact in relieving population pressure inside the camps, and ensuring sustainable livelihoods, far from the logic of relief and subsistence.

- UNRWA does not provide any effective development initiatives to donors and those in charge of the political and economic issue in Lebanon to reorganize the camps in a healthy and safe manner.

- The international administrative team currently managing UNRWA performs only routine internal administrative tasks and does not make any strategic decisions, adapted to the deteriorating humanitarian situation.

- The agency's submission to the dominance of the factions, and allowing these factions to tamper with recruitment processes, which has perpetuated the logic of favoritism, which paralyzes its functional body, and deprives many qualified people of employment.

Third: The crisis of the Palestinian factions: which begun by raising the slogans of the liberation of the whole of Palestine, and ended with the approval of the two-state solution, which inevitably, practically dropped the so-called "right of return", although it deceived by its remaining verbally. The Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are mostly from that part of the Blessed land of Palestine, on which the Jewish entity was established, the so-called land of 48, which the factions recognized as a right for the Jews! So where will they return?!!

These factions now have no vision for the Palestinian presence in Lebanon, neither are they with the Palestinians remaining in Lebanon on the pretext of what they claim to preserve the right of return, which is practically and realistically denied their recognition of the existence of the Jewish entity, nor are they with resettlement in the countries in which the Palestinians lived the most of their lifetime, while they are content with the settlement of Palestinians in Europe and America!!

Therefore, why are these factions satisfied, then, with all this humiliation of the Palestinians in Lebanon, the humiliation of depriving them human rights and not moving in the face of the state? The answer is, they now have no project or vision for the situation of these people, except to use their backs, raise their cause as a slogan to fill pockets and stomachs, and maintain the relationship with Lebanese politicians, partners in conspiracy and corruption. Hence, the political orientation of the son of Palestine, who has been running behind international resolutions and all that is official, has been lost, and so he did not reach anywhere.

Accordingly, we in Hizb ut Tahrir say to our people in Palestine in general, and in Lebanon in particular: resolve your vision towards your fate, as your fate does not come off from the fate of all Muslims, who suffer the injustice of the agent rulers of the West, and whose unifying state was destroyed, in whose shade Jews, and behind them the colonists, never dared to establish their entity on the land of Palestine and expel you from it. Palestine like Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt, are all Muslim countries and your country, so do not be embarrassed by your stay in your country, for you are more worthy of it than the agents, and the liberation of Palestine, the Masra of the Messenger of Allah (saw), is the responsibility of every Muslim on the face of the earth, but your survival in the land of Ash-Sham specifically, and your stationing in it, and your patience on the griefand life of misery, have the great reward, Allah willing, because it strikes schemes of the disbelievers to get you out of Ash-Sham, and to keep you away from the abode of the Muslims, Bayt al-Maqdis and the precincts of Bayt al-Maqdis.

[يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اصْبِرُوا وَصَابِرُوا وَرَابِطُوا وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ]

“O you who believe! Endure and be more patient (than your enemy), and guard your territory by stationing army units permanently at the places from where the enemy can attack you, and fear Allah, so that you may be successful.” [Al-i-Imran: 200]