Rethinking refugees,

sovereignty and rights in the

Middle East.

Ruba Salih

School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

From a “superfluous” nation to the

scandal of the nation

Gemayel in 1982: Palestinians as “a people too many”

Darwish: the superfluous nation

Refugees excluded from the Arab springs and their analyses.

Palestinian refugees as a diagnostic of state sovereignty in the host Arab states.

Palestinian refugees’ lives unfolds across order and its suspension.

What does being “human” means outside of the sphere of rights of the nation-state?

Are political subjectivities attainable in spaces of statelessness and of humanitarian management?

Palestinian refugees in

Lebanon 1948 refugees from Palestine after creation State of Israel

(100.000 in Lebanon)

12 camps and 42 informal gatherings

PLO (exiled in 1982 after Israeli war on Lebanon)

War of the camps (1984-1989): Amal Shi’a war against Palestinian camps

Refugees after Oslo. Political Limbo and abandonment

Today: 313,000 Palestine Refugees (200.000 living below Lebanon’s lowest poverty line of $2.4 per day)

Palestinian refugees status Exceptional status in Humanitarian assistance UNRWA vs UNHCR

No rights: In Lebanon extra-juridical space: neither foreigners nor citizens (Bidun)

Arbitrariness and governmental management.

Resettlement (tawteen) declared unconstitutional

No Return impossible horizon

“…they consider us foreigners, but even the foreigners have more rights than us. The foreigner has the right to own, to buy. But the Palestinian has no rights whatsoever in Lebanon. This discrimination, they say, is because you’ll go back to Palestine. Fair, but I am a human being, I want to live” (Abu Aiman , Bidun in Chatila Camp)

Denied rights and right to resettlement to preserve the right of return for Palestinian to their villages

Palestinians in Lebanon.

No right to buy, sell or inherit properties

Banned from more than 70 professions (mercantile, admin, professional)

No right to access to social services, including health or education

2005: amendment lifting ban on 50 categories, but minimal differences (permit cost 700$ and permits given arbitrarily) ,

60% of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon live below poverty line, and the rate of unemployment is nearly 50%

How does this work? foreigners can buy property within a certain limit

provided they can obtain a licence through a decree

issued by the council of Ministers of Cabinet, based on

the recommendation of the Minister of Finance.

foreigners of Arab countries can own properties without

licence, provided they paid a higher fee compared to

nationals.

Palestinians no reciprocity as stateless are denied

these rights

International and political

agreements

1962: Cairo Agreement between PLO and Lebanese

government brokered by Nasser

1969: Casablanca Protocol: calling for Palestinians

right to travel, work and reside. Signed with

reservations by Lebanon.

Campaign for civil rights

Return and rights have forcefully been proposed by

both the Palestinian leadership and the Lebanese

political parties as incompatible

Demanding Human rights as relief from some suffering

Slogan 2010: “We want to live in dignity in order to

return”

Palestinians and the question of

rights. Exile as politics and standpoint for political subjectivity

Rejection of nation-state logic and its institutional apparatus

Unveiling sectarianism in Lebanon and its role in promoting exclusion. “This idea of nations and citizenship…there are no nations in the Arab world…with the exception of Egypt under Nasser….it is all just families

Being here “longer” than Lebanese:

“ ….I’ve been in Lebanon longer than the Lebanese, once I spoke to a Lebanese: he asked why aren’t you in Jordan? I told him: ‘I’ve been in Lebanon since before you were born!’

“And anybody can buy citizenship if they have money! “

Borders, nationality and the devices that accompany and legitimise the apparatus of exclusion and inclusion are apprehended as illegitimate

Critique of rights Maybe if they give us the jinsiya (citizensip) here it is a

problem (for haqq al-awda), but if we don’t take citizenship we would also not take our rights. In all cases, the Lebanese also have a lot of problems, and did not get their rights

Lebanon: the 0,3 of the population, (around 8000 individuals revolving around two main families), own 50% of the national wealth, and wealth inequalities are among the highest globally

Humanitarianism governing local populations. New Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP) assist “vulnerable and poor”

Lebanon: people as clients: “bidna en haseb”

Unrwa pays for the residence permits (iqama) of the Palestinian to the Lebanese. So the Lebanese earn from the Palestinians. It is not a question of right of return, (haqq al-awda), but a question of money. The Lebanese government get 51 millions $ from our presence here. Also, you should keep in mind that the Palestinians are the only ones who actually keep the money here in the country, everybody else, the Egyptian or Syrian workers or migrants, sends money home….so… Lebanon makes a lot of money out of Palestinians’ remittances and Unrwa paying to Lebanon to keep us here…but Lebanon doesn’t spend anything on us…

Conclusion: Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are not asking for

human rights, as the right to be relieved from some

suffering

Politicize the realm of the human and its relation to

rights, through dissensus

Destabilise national order of things : claiming rights

AND return

Question the whole framework through critical thinking

and ‘performative politics’ (Butler)