Smuggling exposed in pictures as Palestinian thugs tie disarmament to human rights!

Two rather shocking news items headlined the evening news in Lebanon Saturday. The first was a video aired by LBC showing trucks and 4x4 SUVs freely crossing the border with Syria near Anjar, accompanied by heavily armed smuggler-protection force that apparently is ready to shoot at any obstruction. The video was shot from a high building overlooking the illegal crossing point. An-Nahar on Sunday printed photos from the same smuggling episode.

This came after one of the main benefactors of arms smuggling, Damascus-based PFLP-GC chief Ahmad Jibril, toured Lebanese officials to discuss “behind closed doors” the issue of his weapons, which he proclaimed “are not subject to dialogue as long as we are in a tragic situation and our [Palestinian] citizens don’t feel safe.” Jibril met with Saad Hariri, Fouad Siniora, Nabih Berri and his brother in arms, Decapitator Hassan Nasrallah.

Jibril, whose Syrian hosts provide him with all life’s luxuries, made himself ambassador of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, explaining “our pain, living problems, and we were promised a complete solution for all problems suffered by Palestinian refugees in the country”. He said he and the “dear Lebanese brothers” saw eye to eye on many things, adding that he will present Hariri with a memorandum on Palestinian rights in Lebanon.

Jibril, of course, is one of the many problems Palestinian refugees in Lebanon could do without. It is no secret that the camps are controlled by a multitude of armed factions, each contributing to the theft of the miniscule benefits Palestinian refugees receive from Lebanon and the UN. It is laughable that someone like Jibril, with his limited but growing influence thanks to Syrian support, finds it appropriate to speak on behalf of the people he prostitutes to serve his master in Damascus. It is also abominable that he speaks of civil rights for Palestinians while trading in their misery and usurping Lebanese state authority.

"We want to tell the Palestinian people residing on Lebanese territory that they will soon have the same rights like their Lebanese brothers," he said.

The same rights? This idiotic and self-defeating phrasing comes from the man who runs several military bases in the Bekaa valley and south of Beirut in Naameh. His thugs have been recently involved in several shooting incidents against Lebanese government employees. The PFLP-GC was also named in the first UN Hariri investigation report.

Meanwhile, another Palestinian madman, Sultan Abul Aynain, was pardoned by a Lebanese military court after years of being considered a fugitive.

Fatah Secretary General in Lebanon, facing a death sentence passed in absentia, surrendered Thursday to a military court, which quickly retried him and found him innocent. Maj. Gen. Sultan Abul-Aynain, leader of the mainstream Fatah group of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Lebanon, was sentenced to death by a Lebanese Military Tribunal in 1999 after he failed to appear in court to answer charges of leading an armed group and attacking people and public property. He has said the charges were politically motivated. At the time, Abul-Aynain was a follower of the late Palestinian leader and Syrian foe Yasser Arafat and the Lebanese government was controlled by Syria.

Fatah’s man in Lebanon is reportedly seeking a home in Beirut (no link on this but I read it in one of the papers a few days ago), after years of “hiding” in Tyre’s Rashidieh camp. Now check out his conditions for “dialogue” with the Lebanese authorities.

“We will not have dialogue with the Lebanese government based on United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559 nor on any other basis,” said Abul Aynain. “However we are very serious in reaching a solution regarding our weapons inside and outside the Palestinian refugee camps. But we will not enter the game of answering accusations through the media, which some Lebanese politicians with foreign agendas are playing,” he added.

Abul Aynain also addressed the necessity to provide Palestinian refugees in Lebanon with their basic human rights, such as the right to own land. “The Palestinians will not enter into a dialogue if they are not sure about their future,” he said. “How can we enter a dialogue if we are deprived of our basic human rights?”

Some may find it mind-boggling that the Lebanese state is even negotiating its sovereignty with non-Lebanese thugs while allowing the border smuggling to continue. But then, this is the same state that lets a militia run its national defense matters. Realism may dictate that the state engage in talks with these people, since they’re the ones carrying the arms (though not necessary controlling them). But the state should not grant them any representational power over Palestinian civil rights. They should not be allowed to preposterously tie their imperative disarmament to "human rights". Last time I checked, their weapons were not there to defend them against the Lebanese army or get refugees jobs.

If the oppression of Palestinian civil rights was a past government policy and in a way a reflection of historic fear of Palestinian settlement in the country, conferring legitimacy upon the armed thugs who have hijacked Palestinian representation will do Lebanon no good. For those thugs cannot even be trusted to serve the residents they claim to defend. If the Lebanese state is serious about tackling the issue of Palestinian rights, then the solution starts with the Palestinian and Lebanese NGOs in the camps, as well as the UNRWA. Empower and deal directly with the civilian representatives of the camps, not the thugs who terrorize them, steal their electricity and water, and plant ideas about suicide and war in the heads of their poor children. For once, make the poor residents feel important and not their parasitic self-appointed masters. Don’t create another Hizbullah of Fatah and the PFLP-GC.

Comments

Do you believe that the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon should (in principle at least) have equal rights? This isn't meant as a loaded question.
I'm only asking as there's always been this ambiguity about their future.Even if there ever is a viable Palestinian state I think there will be a fair number of Palestinians who will have to stay on in Lebanon.

[JoseyWales]

All of that, Jibreel spitting on the Lebanese and other transgressions, is the logical conclusion of a culture and a people yelling Palestine Uber Alles for the past 50 years (i.e the Arabs and the Lebanese). That what they got: uber alles (=above all and everything is Palestine).

If I remember correctly, Abul Aynain was appointed PLO or Fatah representative in Lebanon AFTER a Lebanese court had sentenced him to death.

The appointment was made by Arafat to spite the Lebanese, who took it like girly girls, by letting Aynain be, inside a camp for 10-plus years, and now by dropping charges, and accepting to deal with him.

Then and now, it does not matter whether charges against Abul Aynain were politically motivated or not (the military and civil judiciaries both suck, but that's for anoher day).

It matters that after everything (civil war and destruction) Arafat/PLO crapped yet again on the Lebanese state. And the state took it in the rear part of its anatomy and to this day (sorry, but that's called for).

As to rights etc to the Palestinians, I think a number of them should be stay and be integrated and given rights in Lebanon because that is reality.

However to do that, some need to be gone as Lebanon cannot absorb more than 100 or 150,000. That means we need to talk and pressure the "brothers" NOW to take their fair share of refugees.

HOWEVER, that's another taboo that falls under the Palestine myth/legend/fraud: you know "they" are all going back home, so "they" need to stay very close (hearty haar haar).

So if you talk about assimilating some and shipping some off: you are a traitor.

Ergo, back to doing nothing. Back to the wonderful world of Lebanese and Arab politics where things are left to fester until they blow up in everyone's face.

[Abu Kais]

For a long time, I was a firm believer in the right of return. But I don't know anymore. I realized that I believed in that out of spite, not necessarily for the refugees' own good. I feel bad and selfish for depriving Palestinian refugees and their descendents their most basic human rights. I think at the least the children of Palestinian fathers and Lebanese mothers should be naturalized. Some think giving Palestinians full rights is equivalent to encouraging them to stay in the country. But these policies of mental expulsion and anti-assimilation are dangerous, if not racist. The camps are becoming havens for terrorists, criminals and, sadly, impoverished people. Ticking time-bombs.

In the long run, I think, Lebanon stands to benefit from allowing Palestinians to become useful members of Lebanese society. Lebanese people, after all, are not a distinct species, and cannot keep denying them the haven that other "minorities" enjoy in the country of minorities. Look at the Armenians. They still have a strong attachment to their mother country, yet they are productive elements of Lebanese society and most importantly, proud Lebanese. It is stupid to deny Palestinians a Lebanese identity in this day and age. The old demographic fears will always be there. Not naturalizing Palestinians (at least a part) won't end those fears. The solution is to have a pluralistic and secular society. I don't see us doing Israel a favor by giving them the option to become Lebanese citizens, or at least residents with full rights.

But Josey above is right. Those refugees live in the "wonderful world of Lebanese and Arab politics where things are left to fester until they blow up in everyone's face."

[anonymous American]

If Saudis, Kuwaitis, etc can own land in Lebanon, why can't Palestinians?

Lebanon's Palestinian policy is completely self-destructive. Why would you let Egyptians work in Lebanon, take the money home to Egypt, but not Palestinians? Who would keep the money in Lebanon.

[Ghassan Karam]

Arab regimes and previous Palestinian "adminstrations" , read Arafat, have played a cruel hoax on the aspirations of Palestinian refugees by refusing to speak the truth to them.

History if full of unjust acts. Human history is nothing much besides that of war, oppression and exploitation. Let us not forget that the world of Islam and the Arabs have done in many cases what has been done to the Palestinians by the Israelis.North Africa including Egypt did not know Islam and did not speak the Arabic language prior to the spreead by force of the Arab empire. North Africans had no choice, they were forced to adopt a new religion and learn a new language. The same is true of the near east. Prior to the spread of Islam each of these countries had its own peoiple, traditions and language. Arab imperialism could actually be classified as the most successful in history.

My point is that Arafat and others new that the unconditional right of return is a non starter but yet they kept the mytyh alivein the hearts and minds of the poor camp refugees. Israel cannot be expected to agree to the right of return because then Israel will be voting to put an end to the Israeli state.

Where does this leave us? The Arab world has failed the Palestinian people repeatedly over the years but never have we failed them as much as we did in not working towards integrating them in our socities. Of course the refugees have rights to pursye their dreams , to attend schools, to have access to health care and to fulfill their human potential. All the above can be done without their unconditional return to Israel. To keep that idea alive is criminal because it is a pure phantasy.

[Saleem]

So much written and spoken. So many countries involved.

And yet we forget we are one SINGLE Human race created by ONE singlke creator. Why can't we live peacefully under one blue sky. How much longer will this world last. Think!