Apartheid and Coronavirus in the Middle East
by Khaled Abu Toameh • May 8, 2020 at 5:00 am
Many Arabs and Palestinians took to social media to remind everyone that the only apartheid in the Middle East exists in an Arab country [Lebanon].
The latest Lebanese measure did not surprise those who are familiar with this Arab country's long-standing discriminatory policies of apartheid towards Palestinians.
According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), "Palestinians in Lebanon cannot work in as many as 39 professions and cannot own property [real estate]."
The Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, Samidoun... revealed that Palestinian refugees are "barred from 72 regulated professions, including medicine, public transit, farming and fishery."
It now remains to be seen whether "pro-Palestinian" groups and individuals in the West will denounce Lebanon for its continued racism and discrimination against Palestinians.
Is Lebanon using the coronavirus pandemic to carry out ethnic cleansing of Palestinians?
A directive issued on May 1 by the Lebanese General Security, an agency responsible for immigration in Lebanon, bars, until further notice, the return of "foreign maids" and Palestinian refugees, even if their families have lived in Lebanon for generations. In the eyes of the Lebanese, there is apparently no difference between a "foreign maid" and a Palestinian Arab.
A Palestinian born and raised in an Arab country, in other words, is still considered by that Arab country to be a foreigner.
The May 1 directive, signed by Brigadier General Walid Oun, director of general security at the Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut, says, "accompanying maids and people of Palestinian descent" may not board Lebanese expatriate evacuation flights. These are Palestinians from Lebanon who left the country to search for work and are now seeking to return home.
