[9mm_fan]

How come the Lebanese students who recently talked about Israel's "war crimes" in the Gaza Strip during Israel Apartheid Week on many North American college campuses had nothing to say about the fact that tens of thousands of Palestinians have been massacred in Lebanon over the past four decades?

Dozens of refugees were killed and hundreds wounded in the three-month offensive that also destroyed thousands of houses inside the refugee camp. Reporters said it was the worst internal violence in Lebanon since the civil war that hit the country between 1975-1990. And just three years ago, the Lebanese Army used heavy artillery to bomb the Nahr-al-Bared refugee camp in north Lebanon.

Yet who has ever heard of a United Nations resolution condemning Syria or Lebanon for committing horrific atrocities or discriminating against the Palestinians?

The Lebanese, Syrian and Jordanian students and professors who took part in the anti-Israel events on campuses have clearly "forgotten" that their regimes probably have more Palestinian blood on their hands than Israel. In the early 1970s, the Jordanians slaughtered thousands of Palestinians in what has become known as Black September. Can somebody point to one United Nations resolution condemning that massacre?

And where was the United Nations when Kuwait and several Gulf countries expelled more than 400,000 Palestinians in one week? The exodus took place in March 1991, after Kuwait was liberated from Iraqi occupation. Ironically, the first week of March is being celebrated on university campuses as Israel Apartheid Week with no reference to the mass expulsion of Palestinians from the Gulf.

Although there are more than 400,000 Palestinians living in Lebanon in twelve refugee camps -- which human rights organizations and Palestinians say have the worst living conditions of all the refugee camps in the Middle East -- as in most of the Arab countries, these Palestinians have been assigned the status of "foreigners," a fact which has deprived them of health care, social services, property ownership and education.

Even worse, Lebanese law bans Palestinians from working in many jobs. This means that Palestinians cannot work in the public services and institutions run by the government such as schools and hospitals. Unlike Israel, Lebanese public hospitals do not admit Palestinians for medical treatment or surgery.

Can somebody imagine the outcry of the international community if Israel's parliament, the Knesset, passed a law today prohibiting Arabs from working in certain professions or receiving medical treatment? Ironically, the Arab citizens of Israel enjoy more rights in the Jewish state than their Palestinians brothers do in any Arab country.

The same applies to Palestinians living in most of the Arab countries. While Israel has never stripped its Arab citizens of their citizenship, Jordan has begun revoking the Jordanian citizenship of thousands of its citizens who are of Palestinian descent. Jordan was the only Arab country that has ever granted Palestinian Jordanian citizenship. In recent years, however, the Jordanians appear to have regretted that decision.

As for the rest of the Arab countries, Palestinians can only dream of obtaining citizenship. It is almost impossible to find a Palestinian with Egyptian or Moroccan or Kuwaiti citizenship.

Is it not absurd that Jordan and Egypt have been arresting Palestinians who demonstrate in support of their brothers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip or collect donations for them while Israeli citizens hold almost daily protests inside Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians?

And is it not ironic that the government of Binyamin Netanyahu is doing more to boost the Palestinian economy in the West Bank than any Arab country? .

At first glance, it looked as if the students who were distributing leaflets and posters that depicted the suffering of Palestinians inside Israel and the Palestinian territories, particularly those living in refugee camps, were actually talking about the suffering of Palestinians in their own countries - Lebanon and Egypt.

How come there was no talk on these campuses about the plight of Palestinians living in most of the Arab countries, where they have been subjected to discrimination, massacres and intolerance?

Perhaps the time has come to start paying attention to the plight of the Palestinians in the Arab world.

Perhaps the time has come for these students and professors behind Israel Apartheid to consider holding not Arab Apartheid Week, but a year-long seminar to discuss repression and discrimination against Palestinians living in various Arab countries. Of course one week would not be enough for this topic and that is why there is need for a whole year.

We have heard enough how "awful" Israel is. Let us take a look now at what is happening to the Palestinians in the Arab world. Or is something the organizers of Israel Apartheid Week do not want to hear about Khaled Abu Toameh is a Palestinian Arab journalist who dares to tell the truth and point out Arab and UN hypocrisy.

What About The Arab Apartheid?

[Paul Bunyan]

Even the Herald newspaper seems to recognize the hypocrisy of Arabs about the Palestinians ...

''I'm not looking for work any more. I have given up,'' al-Issawi told the Herald this week. ''What's my dream job? Who cares, who has dreams in a place like this?'' A resident of the notoriously squalid Sabra and Chatila refugee camp in southern Beirut, he is one of an estimated 250,000 Palestinians still living in Lebanon. Until recently, Palestinians such as al-Issawi have been legally barred from working in all but the most menial of jobs, as well as being prevented from owning property or getting access to Lebanon's health and social welfare system. In August, after years of heated debate, the Lebanese parliament finally passed new laws formally lifting the restrictions on Palestinians to work.
''It meant that for the first time we are close to being recognised as human beings,'' says Leila El-Ali, executive director of Najdeh, a Palestinian advocacy group that has long campaigned for equal rights for refugees in Lebanon. ''And to actually be allowed to work legally in other jobs, the new law says you need specific guarantees from your employer - things that in the end make it very difficult for Lebanese to employ Palestinians.
''Despite [our] being refugees in an Arab country that is overall sympathetic to the cause of Palestinians, the truth is that Lebanese don't want us here.'' Lebanon's laws pay only lip service to Palestinians' plight

[9mm_fan]

Well, the Lebs are not PC-softies like us, they don't give a damn about the refugees. PArticualrly remembering how nicely their country changed since the palestinians moved in and brought peace and prosperity.
But I woudl not be surprised if it's also part of a larger Arab conspiracy where the ordinary people are used as pawns in the bigger anti-Israel game. Amasing that the all-educated Euro-idiots keep buying this!

[Drugmachine]

Well, it's not really news. Also, with the exception of Jordan (up to some extent), the Arab countries who have most refugees (Lebanon, Jordan and Syria) have not addressed the refugee's statelessness even though according to their own laws, they should have given them nationality...

[9mm_fan]

What is amazing though, or at least should be ... Is the deafening silence of the usual bleeding hearts who bemoan the fate of the Palestinian Arabs and who constantly point the finger of blame on Israel.

The silence of Teyyip Erdogan about the treatment of Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon, is deafening. What about Ahmedjinaclown? Do we hear a peep ou of him about it? Is he preaching to Lebanon's Shiites about their treatment of Palestinian Arabs who happen to be mostly Sunnis? And what about the usual Western suspects, the bleeding hearts? Are they bleating about the treatment of Palestinian Arabs in Arab countries? Where are the flotilla organizers to help the Palestinian Arabs of Lebanon?

H-Y-P-O-C-R-Y-T-E-S The lot of them ...

Oh and I nearly forgot good old Jimmy (Jummy) Carter, the biggest hypocrite of them all. Always pointing at Israel and crapping on about "Apartheid" in Israel ...

[brraverishhh]

On a side note I still have contacts in West Africa. One thing that strikes many of these people involved in development issues is how the UN has essentially abandoned them. The UN in fact the totality of the 'world community' bailed out of West Africa years ago. They left the salvage job to anyone who felt like doing it. They are very angry that the UN has an insane focus on the Palestinians. And the result is savagery and death that would give any sane person pause. Ask any educated Nigerian and they will tell you that their problem is a failure of leadership. The elites steal everything and leave the people with nothing. And Nigeria is considered a success, compared to Sierre Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Guinea Basseau millions died.

[brraverishhh]

with the exception of Jordan (up to some extent), the Arab countries have not addressed the refugee's statelessness ...

Oh, Jordan addressed it all right, in September 1970.

[NeroASERCH]

Any thinking person already realises that this ongoing war against Israel has very little to do with the Palestinian Arab people who are just pawns. They are pawns in the hands of the rest of the Arab nations (their leaders to be more exact). They are pawns in the hands of the extreme left and the extreme right (the Nazi types). They are pawns in the hands of Iran's Ahmedinaclown and lately Turkey's Erdogan ...

None of the above have real interest in the welfare of ordinary Palestinian Arab people. What they care about is the ongoing war against the Jewish people under the guise of their hostility to the "Evil Zionists". Many leading western intellectuals are beginning to wake up to this. Only today I listened to a radio interview in which a leading left leaning philosopher admitted to as much even though he remained critical of some of Israel's actions. Critics like that I don't mind, it's the rest of the anti Israel robots who are on auto-pilot mode in their vilification and demonization of Israel, that I find scandalous ...

[Big A]

with the exception of Jordan (up to some extent), the Arab countries have not addressed the refugee's statelessness ...
Originally Posted by Kachah Oh, Jordan addressed it all right, in September 1970.

Yeah, King Hussein slaughtered thousands of Palestinian Arabs after the PFLP hijacked several international airliners, landed the planes in Jordan and blew them up ...

And more recently, his son, king Abdallah has been revoking the citizenship of thousands of Palestinian Arabs.

Can one imagine the international outcry if Israel would ever try to do things like that?

[S.T.D.]

Oh, Jordan addressed it all right, in September 1970.

Indeed. But a good chunk of Palestinians did get Jordanian nationality during its occupation and annexation of the West Bank.

[Fegasderty]

...annexation of the West Bank.

Which the rest of the Arab world and the international community didn't recognize. It would still represent the best political solution today instead of the two state solution. Israel should keep the large settlement blocs including parts of East Jerusalem, the rest should revert to Jordan. The Palestinian Arab people would be better off and so would Israel and Jordan, at least in the longer term after some initial pain ...

[Fegasderty]

Arafat attempted a civil war in Jordan in 1970. It resulted in 20 - 30,000 casualties and the PLO's expulsion to Lebanon. A few years later the PLO attempted the same thing in Lebanon resulting in the years long Lebanese civil war.