Nearly 70 years after the exodus of the Palestinians, the same refrain about the fear of resettlement has been picked up again but this time against the Syrian refugees flooding in.
Undoubtedly, concern in Beirut is fully justified considering the Palestinian precedent, which had triggered the civil war, especially that the number of the newcomers is incomparable with that of their predecessors. But do we have the right to rewrite the same story? Lebanese leaders are without equal in putting the blame on others by obscuring their own dereliction. At the time, they had allowed the gangrene of politics infiltrate Palestinian camps, tuned a blind eye to weapons of all caliber entering the camps under the pretext of the fight against Israel, watched in indifference the rise of groupuscules that loathed one another... until they formed a true State within the State, shamelessly meddling in all the intricacies of Lebanese politicking.
Today, our leaders appear set on playing the same hand, repeating the same derelictions and violations against the displaced Syrians: chaotic registration of newly arrived displaced persons, impossible conditions for obtaining residence permits, cronyism and influence peddling, not to mention the strategic error of digging their feet in refusing to establish clearly organized refugee camps similar to what has been done in Jordan and Turkey. The result is perfectly clear: mushrooming of wild camps, lack of hygiene and inexistent infrastructure, helpless refugees without the right to assistance from the UNHCR disappearing into thin air.
And herein lies the danger of resettlement! It is the sum of all these errors that will lead to making this transplantation take root and become permanent over the years. It will obviously not happen as part ofan improbable conspiracy of an official ceremony for handing out Lebanese passports and offering Lebanese sweets to celebrate.