BBC News ignores Palestinian protests in Lebanon

The issue of discrimination against Palestinians living in Lebanon continues to be one the BBC apparently prefers to avoid.  

The BBC generally avoids telling its audiences about the treatment of Palestinian refugees living in Arab states and why they have not been resettled by their host countries four generations on.

In October 2018 the BBC’s Paul Adams produced a report titled “After 70 years, who are the Palestinian refugees?” in which he visited Burj Al-Barajneh refugee camp in Beirut. Viewers saw one interviewee state that Palestinian refugees in Lebanon “don’t have the right to work or to own properties” but no further information was supplied.

In the past we have seen that the BBC’s presentation of the number of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon has been inaccurate.

In recent days protests have taken place in Lebanon.

“A couple of hundred Palestinian refugees protested Tuesday in the streets of Beirut against Lebanon’s labour ministry cracking down on businesses employing foreign workers without a permit.

They and dozens of demonstrators in Palestinian refugee camps in the capital, as well as the south and east of the country, denounced the move as “unfair”. […]

In Beirut, security forces prevented the protesters from reaching parliament, where this year’s much delayed state budget was under discussion.”

Khaled Abu Toameh explains the background to those protests.

“Lebanon…has launched an unprecedented crackdown on illegal foreign workers, including Palestinians, thereby triggering a wave of protests among Palestinians living there.

The Lebanese authorities say the crackdown on illegal foreign workers is directed mostly against Syrians who fled to Lebanon after the beginning of the civil war in Syria in 2011. As part of this campaign against illegal workers, several businesses have been closed and many Palestinian and Syrian workers have been suspended from their jobs.

The Palestinians…launched protests in different parts of Lebanon against the crackdown on illegal foreign workers. Protesters burned tires at the entrances to a number of refugee camps, and some Palestinian factions and officials, condemning the campaign, have asked the Lebanese authorities to halt their measures against Palestinian businessmen and workers. […]

Lebanese law restricts Palestinians’ ability to work in several professions, including law, medicine and engineering, and bars them from receiving social security benefits. In 2001, the Lebanese parliament also passed a law prohibiting Palestinians from owning property.”

Apparently several days of protests eventually prompted changes to the Lebanese government’s policy.

BBC audiences saw no reporting on those protests and the issue of discrimination against Palestinians living in Lebanon continues to be one the BBC apparently prefers to avoid.  

Related Articles:

Unravelling years of BBC statistics on Palestinian refugees in Lebanon

 

 

 

 

More from Hadar Sela
More evidence of BBC News double standards on use of the word terror
BBC coverage of the ongoing wave of Palestinian terrorism against Israelis which...
Read More
Join the Conversation

2 Comments

Leave a comment
Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *