'We Exist': Symbolic campaign hopes to give rights to marginalised populations in Lebanon

According to the census carried by the government's Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee in 12 Palestinian camps, as well as 156 informal "gatherings" across the country, there are 174,422 Palestinian refugees in the country. Before the census was announced in December 2017, they were estimated at 500,000.

Palestinians began taking refuge in Lebanon camps, now turned cities, in 1948 during the war which led to the creation of Israel. 

Lebanon's May elections will coincide with the 70th anniversary of the Nakba or "catastrophe," when Israel forcibly displaced more than 700,000 Palestinians from their homes, during the 1948 Palestine war.

Their presence is now acknowledged legally in Lebanon as refugees, most of them under the help and protection of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), but they are not considered as citizens. This affects their chances and opportunities in life. 

A 2015 study led by UNRWA and the American University of Beirut found out that more than 63 percent of Palestinians live in camps with poverty and dangerous infrastructures.

With her campaign, Manal Kortam wants to highlight their situation. 

"It’s important to show candidates that Palestinians are here, they are citizens of Lebanon, and they should be considered if people want a real democracy and social justice in their country," she told The New Arab.

"Palestinians’ situation is completely absurd, we need laws to integrate and reinforce their engagement in society," she added. 

Anis Mohsen, Palestinian-Lebanese editorial secretary of Majalat Al-Dirasat Al-Filistiniya (Journal for Palestinian Studies), also spoke to The New Arab about the situation.

"All the professions that have a syndicate in Lebanon are forbidden to Palestinian refugees, like journalist, lawyer, dentist, engineers, doctors and even accountants," he said. 

"Otherwise, we are employed illegally, which means being less paid and having no rights, no social security, retirement or compensation. When I quit one of my jobs as a journalist, I should have received around $30,000 in compensation, but I ended up with nothing," Anis revealed.

It’s important to show candidates that Palestinians are here, they are citizens of Lebanon, and they should be considered if people want a real democracy and social justice in their country

He explained that people are employed under other jobs titles, like nurses instead of doctors, or foremen instead of engineers.

"Even my son, he applied to many jobs, everything is usually okay during the interview but after knowing he is Palestinian, they don’t call him back. That’s how you end up with many young people with good degrees who are unemployed or work in underpaid jobs," he added.

"There is also a lot of racism and hatred speech," said Anis, even with politicians like Foreign Minister Gibran Bassil who asked UNRWA to "unregister every Palestinian refugee who stays outside Lebanon or acquires the citizenship of another country" on March 15. They also cannot own property since the 2001 amendment to law January 4, 1969 (Acquisition of Real-Estate Rights by Foreigners in Lebanon).

Last year, a wall was built around the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in South Lebanon for "security" reasons, which means the residents have to go through an army checkpoint to come and go.

"Our situation has changed a lot through the years," Anis said. "In 1984, when I graduated in journalism from Romania, the Lebanese embassy in Bucharest refused to renew my travel documents, so I had to stay in Syria for four years before I was able to come back.

"Imagine, some Palestinians remained stuck in airports for months before a country would take them in. Here, there is no law for us, we are treated as foreigners. It’s like being a ghost."

Here, there is no law for us, we are treated as foreigners. It’s like being a ghost

But Manal Kortam’s campaign is not only for Palestinians. It seeks to include all vulnerable groups that are not given rights or attention, like women, disabled and poor people. 

"The Lebanese system is based on exclusion and segregation of the most vulnerable groups. Palestinians are the bottom of the chain of this culture of oppression, they received all the discrimination," Manal said. 

"I want to tell Palestinians and other people: you do what you want but you should have rights and advocacy, this is the only way to be heard. For them to decide what they want, they need to be empowered first and live in dignity, because self-determination is a right."

Manal wants her campaign to continue after the elections, in order to establish a new discourse and encourage a different mindset. 

"We have a system that is not working, and not only for Palestinians. We share common problems and suffer from the same system, all of us need a rule of law to protect the citizens. I hope that after a while my campaign will be able to reach out on post-war reconciliation [the Lebanese civil war lasted from 1975 until 1990 and no national reconciliation was conducted], not only between Palestinians and Lebanese but among Lebanese themselves.

"There is still that culture of fear that helps leaders convince people there is no other alternative than them [most of the Lebanese leaders participated to the civil war]. But the process of dialogue takes time, and it’s just the beginning for us."

For Manal, "We Exist" is a first step to tackle the issue of Palestinian refugees and other vulnerable groups. With the idea of having a society based on fair laws for all, the only way to "benefit us all".


Florence Massena is a freelance journalist based in Lebanon, where she reports on the region with a focus on the environment, women's issues, refugees and humanitarian initiatives.

Follow her on Twitter: @FlorenceMassena