In se days Donald Trump has shown his unrivalled talent to make enemies and to raise people against him. His decision to recognise Jerusalem as capital of Israel and to move US embassy re does not change actual situation on ground. It only shows once again that Washington was never a neutral mediator in Middle East.
Khaled Diabis a freelance journalist and blogger based in Tunis. Diab was born in Libya in 1973 as son of Egyptian parents and has lived in many countries of Middle East and Europe.
Neverless, city of Jerusalem has an enormous symbolic significance, not only for Jews and Europeans, but also for Arab Muslims and Christians. The fate of Palestinians has been deeply rooted in consciousness of Arabs and Muslims for generations. That is one reason why this purely symbolic announcement trumps has been able to provoke such fierce reactions from both Arab leaders and streets of Middle East. Anor reason lies in fact that many Arabs in this so deeply-depressed region want at least one thing to convey semblance of a certain unity.
The foreign ministers of Arab League warned that Trump's decision would "exacerbate tensions, anger" and threaten region "to plunge into more violence and chaos" – as if Middle East was not already deeply entangled in both. In keeping with its history of useful and ineffective efforts, league's announcement of a United Nations Security Council resolution against Trump has also been made – which will prevent US as a permanent member anyway.
Palestine Proclaim – rejecting PalestiniansLebanon's foreign minister, Bran Bassil, even called on Arab world to impose economic sanctions against United States. But while Bassil loudly advocating liberation of Palestine, his attitude towards Palestinians is on a completely different hand. The Foreign minister has recently repeatedly provoked controversy. It not only rejects naturalization of Syrians who have fled to Lebanon in recent years, but also Palestinian refugees who have been living in Lebanon for decades. Bassil even opposes allowing Lebanese women to transfer ir citizenship to ir children when y are married to a Palestinian or Syrian.
Bassil is certainly an extremely bigottes example. But tendency to proclaim his attachment to Palestine on one hand, but to reject Palestinians on or, is a widespread phenomenon in Lebanon. This was also evident when furious demonstrators clashed with police in Beirut before US embassy in chanted, and US was an "enemy of Palestine."
Nearly half a million Palestinian refugees are registered in Lebanon and call country ir home. But many of m live in poverty and experience social and economic exclusion. Most of m still live in one of twelve Palestinian refugee camps – under extremely precarious circumstances.
In Syria, Yarmouk was completely destroyedLebanon has integrated some of Palestinians well, but majority do not. This omission is partly due to fear that existing power structure could get out of balance with integration. The distribution of power in small Mediterranean state is highly complex and has grown over many decades. Some Lebanese also deliberately reject idea of integrating Palestinians. They fear that it can act like a signal that peace process and struggle for status quo of Palestine are no longer necessary. But for this attitude Palestinians pay a high price.
On a protest march in Beirut a few days ago, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called on Palestinians to rise against Israel. He swore that "Jerusalem and Palestine and Palestinians and Palestinian resistance in all its forms" would now be top priority for Hezbollah. If so, it is necessary to ask why Palestinians who live in Syria have not had a special priority for Nasrallah so far – on contrary.
His Hezbollah militias have massively supported regime around Syria's rulers, Bashar al-Assad, and made sure that a large part of country is now in ruins. Just like Palestinian refugee camp Yarmouk in south of Damascus, which was first blocked by Syrian regimes, n came under control of IS and was finally reconquered by Syrian government. Yarmouk was almost completely destroyed by fights.
Date Of Update: 15 December 2017, 12:02
