Discrimination against Palestinians in the job market stems from their status as foreigners in Lebanon. Article 1 of the ‘Law Pertaining to the Entry Into, Residence In and exit From Lebanon’ (10th July 1962) classifies Palestinians as foreigners irrespective of the fact that the majority of today’s Palestinian population were born and have lived their whole lives on Lebanese territory. As a result of this foreigner status it is demanded that a work permit, given for a maximum of two years, is granted before employment is gained in anything other than ‘agriculture, animal husbandry or small enterprises within the camps’.
Work permits are therefore essential to obtain for any form of meaningful employment, and are notoriously difficult to get hold of. According to the Presidential Decree 17561 of 18 September 1964 is only possible to obtain a work permit if one of the following criteria are met: he/she is a specialist whose job cannot be filled by a national and whose position has been thorougly advertised, the foreign national has been resident in Lebanon since before 1954 and works in an institution for nine months a year, or the applicant has been married to a Palestinian man for longer than a year (but not vice versa). These restrictions mean it is rare for an employer to even attempt to gain a work permit for a Palestinian employee, and instead Palestinians are limited to lower status jobs such as cleaning and seasonal employment for which a status is not required.
The work permit has an ally in removing Palestinians from the workforce; the ban on Palestinians entering specified professions. Until 2005 a famous ‘72’ professions were off-limits for Palestinians as ‘foreigners’, including ‘all administrative and mercantile work of whatever nature’ and ‘all commercial work of whatever nature.’ As a young Palestinian from Al-Bass camp in Sour points out, ‘I can’t be a lawyer, I can’t be a doctor, I can’t be a furniture man. Seventy two jobs I can’t do. Some of them are difficult, some of them are simple. Difficult jobs like doctor, lawyer, pharmacist. And simple like I can’t drive a truck with two wheels.’
Despite the removal of 50 professions on the list in 2005 little impact has been seen in the actual employment of Palestinians. For many there is no incentive to register for work permits for certain jobs when they are working illegally and if registered would pay taxes but receive no social security benefit. In addition this amendment has not been ratifed and could therefore be reversed or amended at any time. The two measures of the work permit and the ban on employment are effective discriminatory tools, working together to ensure almost complete obstruction for Palestinians entering the workforce. Despite the power of the latter being limited in recent years, the former is ensuring the same small percentage of Palestinians gain meaningful employment.
Unsurprisingly given these restrictions, Palestinian unemployment is estimated at 60 to 70%. Those who do gain employment often have seasonal, part-time manual labour which is not enough to maintain a standard of living above the poverty line. The main employers in the camps are the aid agencies such as UNRWA and the Red Crescent, alongside the various different Palestinian factions who appear to be among the highest payers and are therefore percieved as the best employers.
Whilst the camps are providing higher levels of education than ever before, qualifications cannot turn into employment prospects and hard work does not equate with reward. Where other children have the luxury of choosing a career and working towards it, the Palestinians in Lebanon are stuck within a perverse paradox. They can obtain skills and qualifications but they cannot earn money from using them. They can dream but these dreams will transpire to nothing.
These discriminatory policies cause a twenty-six year old with a diploma in accounting and formal computing qualifications to work for UNRWA packing aid boxes for six hours every day. These restrictions cause an intelligent student mid way through his accounting degree to be at the beck and call of his employer day and night in order to obtain a work permit illegally, only to be employed at half the rate of his colleagues.
As the West turns a blind eye to the discrimination faced by Palestinians in Lebanon, and to the half-lives they are forced to lead, it is possible that this ignorance and avoidance is creating the very stereotype they are so afraid of. Only two weeks ago a man in Al-Bass camp spoke in hushed tones about the hidden battle within the camp between the Islamic radicalists and the less militant Fatah party. Internal conflict within the camps can be more clearly seen in Ein al-Hilweh in Saida, locally known as ‘The Wild West’ due to its lawlessness and violence, and in the destruction of Nahr al-Bared by the Lebanese Army in 2007. These events did not make international headlines; why should they when the Israel/Palestine conflict fills the quota for conflict in the Middle East?
For how much longer will the Palestinians in Lebanon put up with this discrimination peacefully? Despite all these measures to bar them from meaningful employment and to give them a life of secondary status in their country of birth, dreams of a better future are very much present. Dreams cannot die, they simply morph into a different expression. Two important questions arise; what expression their desire for change will take, and whether the international community will begin to listen.
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