PLO official in rare criticism against Lebanon’s treatment of Palestinian refugees

Headline: “Is burial forbidden?!”

Excerpt from an op-ed by Khaled Jamil Mismar, member of the Palestinian National Council – the legislative body of the PLO

“We all know that Palestinians in Lebanon do not have the right to work, own a house, or build a house that will provide them or their family with a roof, in addition to many other bans.

While I stayed there I did not feel this, due to my activity in the ranks of the Palestinian revolution. This is thanks to the warm embrace of the masses of the members of the Lebanese people and its national movement, with which we shared the sweet and bitter moments, and which became our partner in the struggle against the Zionist enemy and the defense of the Palestinian revolution. When we were in Lebanon, we felt that we were among our family and the masses of the members of our people. We defended Beirut, we and the Lebanese National Movement, like we defend the apple of our eye. That was in 1982…

It is possible to talk endlessly about Beirut and the Beirut campaign (i.e., the Lebanon War), and there is much sadness, but the anniversary of the siege that was imposed on us in Beirut and our exit from it during those days in 1982, in addition to the death of my wife’s brother today in Beirut, has reawakened this sadness…

It is true that this is a personal matter that only affects me and my wife, but it pained me when I learned from the family members that in addition to the many bans that I noted at the start of this article, Palestinians are also forbidden from being buried in the cemeteries of the Lebanese!

Allahu Akbar [Allah is greatest], is it not enough that Palestinians are wandering throughout the world, delayed in airports, and only able to enter many Arab countries with great difficulty? Is their suffering and the suffering of the members of their people in Jerusalem and all of occupied Palestine not enough? Is it not enough? Is it not enough?

Is there no small plot in an Arab cemetery to bury his body?

But Allah be praised, we have a cemetery for Martyrs (Shahids) in Beirut. Our embassy there helped to bury him in that cemetery, where the best of the members of the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples are buried.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 3, 2017]