The EU Praises Lebanon’s Human Rights Record, Ignoring How It Abuses Palestinians
by Elder of Ziyon
By any objective measure, Palestinians in Lebanon are treated far worse than those who live under Israeli “occupation.”
They are banned, by law, from holding jobs in dozens of fields, including law and medicine. They are banned from owning property. They are forced to live in terrible “refugee” camps, in pitiful conditions, and they need a permit to leave those camps.
Even within the camps, they are banned from building new structures or additions on buildings.
They are banned from owning businesses. They cannot ever become citizens. They have a 67 percent poverty rate. The list goes on and on.
This is all institutional discrimination. It is so bad that more than half of the Palestinians registered by UNRWA as living in Lebanon have left to live in Europe or elsewhere. The Palestinians who cannot leave say that living in Lebanon is like living in prison.
The European Union claims that “human rights are at the heart of the European Union’s external action and the EU reaffirms its role as a leading global proponent of the promotion and protection of human rights. ”
Last year, the EU issued a report on the human rights situation in Lebanon — and it did not mention one of the facts listed above about the Palestinians there.
Its summary of the human rights situation in Lebanon said: “Lebanon generally upheld and preserved respect for human rights and the rule of law and undertook some important key reforms.”
The EU, of course, doesn’t hesitate to condemn Israel when it is perceived as doing something that the EU disagrees with — like cutting payments to the Palestinian Authority that go to terrorists.
The hypocrisy is blatant and shameful. But it isn’t only from the EU, of course. No one calls on artists to boycott Lebanon because of how it treats Palestinians. No one tells people not to buy Lebanese products.
Based on this EU report, one can say that there is a conscious effort to suppress news about how Lebanon mistreats the remaining 200,000 Palestinians who live there. This is more Palestinians than the number who live in Area C, under Israeli rule, who are in the headlines constantly.
The only conclusion one can make is that the people screaming about human rights for Palestinians aren’t really concerned about Palestinians. They only want to use the issue as a bludgeon to go after Israel.
Apparently, they are really more concerned about denying the human rights of another people.
Elder of Ziyon has been blogging about Israel and the Arab world for a really long time now. He also controls the world, but deep down, you already knew that.