President Abbas

by Stuart Littlewood
….Which, in case you’ve forgotten, is to remove your gunslingers and squatters from the West Bank and East Jerusalem (including the Old City), lift the illegal blockade of Gaza, ensure free movement of goods and people between the Palestinian territories, end interference with the Palestinians’ right to trade with and travel to the outside world, return to them the resources Israel has stolen and allow those refugees who wish to return to do so.

There is a tragic irony in the flight from Syria where Palestinian refugees, unlike those in Lebanon, could hold passports, own property and get jobs. Lebanon’s inhumane denial of civil, social and political rights has sentenced generations of Palestinian refugees to unbearable lifetimes of social isolation, poverty and mental torture.  

 

Image: PA President Mahmoud Abbas (left) and chief negotiator Saeb Erekat (photo credit: Uri Lenz/Flash90