This problem is not the only headache with which Zaki must deal. A few days after he returned home, Abu Mazen set off another bomb. In a television interview, he requested that the Arab states grant citizenship certificates to the Palestinians living within their borders. He does not plan to have the refugees resettle in the countries of their residence; he simply wants them to be registered as citizens in the various Arab states to secure an improvement in their living conditions.
Abu Mazen does not believe that the formal granting of citizenship will hurt the cause of promoting the Palestinian right of return or will erase the Palestinians' collective memory of their history and roots. There are Palestinians living in the United States, France or Israel who are citizens of those countries, yet they have not forgotten about the right of return.
Nevertheless, Abu Mazen's rationale is understood in a totally different light in the Arab states, especially Lebanon. Any proposal for changing the status of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, which is extremely sensitive about its ethnic structure, or in Jordan, which fears becoming a second Palestinian homeland, is regarded as a threat to the host country's very existence.
The PA chair immediately came under attack. Leading Arab television stations, like Al-Arabiya and Al Jazeera, quickly conducted public opinion polls in which more than 80 percent of the participants expressed the view that the granting of citizenship to the refugees would ring the death knell of the right of return. However, when the two TV stations began to interview Palestinians living in the various Arab states, it soon became evident that the polls did not reflect the thinking of Palestinian refugees, the vast majority of whom very much want to become citizens in the countries of their residence.
Abu Mazen had a very good reason for the timing of his citizenship proposal. When the PA leadership became convinced that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan was going to be carried out in earnest, they realized that Gaza's liberation would place the ball in their court as far as the refugee problem and the right of return are concerned. Until now, it was Israel that was preventing Palestinian refugees residing in other countries from entering Gaza; today there is nothing to prevent any Palestinian who wishes to do so from taking up residence there. Whereas Israel was afraid of having Palestinians leaving Gaza clandestinely, the PA fears their entering Gaza. From both the ideological and practical standpoints, the PA can no longer tell Palestinians interested in doing so that they cannot enter the Gaza Strip because there is no work or because the PA cannot support them financially. Were the PA to convey such a message, it would be violating a sacred right. [..](There is much more in this article)_
Intriguing to say the least
Abu Mazen's lot is not a happy one
By Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz
For more than a week now Abbas Zaki has been in a flurry of activity in Beirut, meeting members of Lebanon's old and new leadership, explaining Israel's disengagement plan and trying to obtain one goal: Improvement in the status of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.
In the Palestinian Authority's cabinet, Zaki holds the portfolio for the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, and he is responsible for the continued implementation of the understandings PA Chair Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) reached with the Lebanese government and with Syrian President Bashar Assad during Abbas' visit to both countries last month. The promises were a significant step forward for the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon: an increase in the number of professions in which they can be employed, a slight easing of restrictions on movement in the refugee camps and residential construction permits. Similar promises have, however, been made in the past.
Unfortunately, the optimism that could have been sparked by Abu Mazen's visit was considerably dampened by the assassination attempt on former Lebanese defense minister Elias Murr. The evidence seemed to point the finger of guilt at the Palestinians, specifically, a radical Islamic group whose members reside in the Ein el Helweh refugee camp. Ever since the assassination attempt, the promises have not gone beyond the declarative stage and, in fact, the lives of the refugees in Ein el Helweh and other camps have become even more difficult. Searches conducted by Lebanese soldiers at roadblocks at the entrance of each camp have become much longer and more stringent, and the residents now have to spend at least half a day at the entrance to their respective camp when they leave and when they return.
This problem is not the only headache with which Zaki must deal. A few days after he returned home, Abu Mazen set off another bomb. In a television interview, he requested that the Arab states grant citizenship certificates to the Palestinians living within their borders. He does not plan to have the refugees resettle in the countries of their residence; he simply wants them to be registered as citizens in the various Arab states to secure an improvement in their living conditions.
Abu Mazen does not believe that the formal granting of citizenship will hurt the cause of promoting the Palestinian right of return or will erase the Palestinians' collective memory of their history and roots. There are Palestinians living in the United States, France or Israel who are citizens of those countries, yet they have not forgotten about the right of return.
Nevertheless, Abu Mazen's rationale is understood in a totally different light in the Arab states, especially Lebanon. Any proposal for changing the status of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, which is extremely sensitive about its ethnic structure, or in Jordan, which fears becoming a second Palestinian homeland, is regarded as a threat to the host country's very existence.
The PA chair immediately came under attack. Leading Arab television stations, like Al-Arabiya and Al Jazeera, quickly conducted public opinion polls in which more than 80 percent of the participants expressed the view that the granting of citizenship to the refugees would ring the death knell of the right of return. However, when the two TV stations began to interview Palestinians living in the various Arab states, it soon became evident that the polls did not reflect the thinking of Palestinian refugees, the vast majority of whom very much want to become citizens in the countries of their residence.
Abu Mazen had a very good reason for the timing of his citizenship proposal. When the PA leadership became convinced that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan was going to be carried out in earnest, they realized that Gaza's liberation would place the ball in their court as far as the refugee problem and the right of return are concerned. Until now, it was Israel that was preventing Palestinian refugees residing in other countries from entering Gaza; today there is nothing to prevent any Palestinian who wishes to do so from taking up residence there. Whereas Israel was afraid of having Palestinians leaving Gaza clandestinely, the PA fears their entering Gaza. From both the ideological and practical standpoints, the PA can no longer tell Palestinians interested in doing so that they cannot enter the Gaza Strip because there is no work or because the PA cannot support them financially. Were the PA to convey such a message, it would be violating a sacred right. [..](There is much more in this article)_
Posted by Ted Belman at August 21, 2005 06:21 AM