Evaluating the “Palestinian-Lebanese relationship” from a Palestinian perspective

The political writer and analyst Mustafa Al-Sawaf confirmed to ‘Islam Times’ correspondent in Palestine that the Palestinians need a positive relationship with the Lebanese government, and that there is a Palestinian consensus regarding how to manage the relationship with the Lebanese government and how to have steps forward to serve the Palestinian refugee.
 
As for the writer Ahmed Jaber, he saw that the issue is not separated from what happened and is happening in Syria and that it is based on Iran’s allies and the Iranian policy, which dealt with different parties and organizations without respecting any legitimacy or sovereignty, what breached the Lebanese and Palestinian political balance, and this falls within the new arrangements that are arranged for the region. 

For his part, the journalist writer Rasim Obaydat praised the opinion of the analyst Sawaf, adding that everyone is aware of the size of the suffering of the Palestinian people in Lebanon, where their situation is very tragic, and they are prevented from working in more than seventy professions, as well as the Palestinian camps are being besieged by the Lebanese security forces. 

He considered that the process of improving the Lebanese - Palestinian relationship is linked to the Palestinian non-interference in the Lebanese affairs and interior situation, where the Palestinians have refused to be dragged into and to participate in the battles that took place in Sidon and in more than one area, despite of the radical Islamic forces’ attempts to drag them to participate with them in the battles that took place on the backdrop of the ongoing fighting in Syria between the regime and the terrorist and takfiri groups therein. 

Obaydat explained that the Lebanese government considered that the Palestinian position requires developing and improving the relationship with the Palestinian authority in order to adjust and stabilize the security situation in Lebanon, and to ensure not to drag the Palestinian refugee camps to participate in the internal Lebanese conflict, as well as to lift the restrictions on the Palestinian refugee camps and on the Palestinian people there, and to put an end to the siege of the camps. 

He believed that this would serve the people of Lebanon, the Lebanese government, and the Palestinian people there, since the case of positive neutrality for the Palestinians would continue, and thus they would distance their selves from participating in the internal Lebanese battles. Moreover, according to him, the Lebanese State would also improve the conditions and circumstances of our people in the camps, and this improvement would serve the interests of the two peoples. 

The Palestinian vision did not stop at these perceptions, where the Secretary General of the Third Power Samih Khalaf presented a vision related to the Lebanese-Palestinian convergence between the Palestinian Authority and the Lebanese government on the backdrop of the visit made by Abbas earlier to the Lebanese territory and what has followed it of visits made by delegates as Azzam Al-Ahmad and Faraj, the director of the intelligence. There is no doubt that there is a consensus between the Palestinian president and the Lebanese government regarding the security file aiming at disarming the camps and letting the Lebanese security forces enter into those camps, and maybe in the future it would be Abbas’s desire to let the Lebanese government enter into those camps to address his opponents therein and to disarm the resistance, and this is a security ground preferred by the Zionist occupation authorities. This consensus is reflected also in the security mediation carried out by the authority between the Syrian regime and the Syrian opposition, which resulted in the release of a group of the Lebanese detainees kidnapped in Syria by the opposition. 

Khalaf had a vision compatible with the previous opinions that say that the secret of the convergence between the Palestinian Authority and the Lebanese government is represented in the compatibility and the security cooperation in many of the files and it is for the sake of both parties to cooperate on them and on top of them the file of refugees and the arms of the resistance. 

Also, the director of the Department of Statistics at the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners, Abdel Nasser Farawana, praised the Palestinian-Lebanese relationship, considering that such a relationship is fraternal, solid and strong and this is normal, and if it were not so, this means that there is an imbalance that must be addressed, especially since Lebanon has attitudes that support and back the Palestinian people and their cause over the past decades and in different vital stations. In addition, there is a unity of spirit, heart, blood, fate, and resistance, emphasizing that Lebanon is the country that hosts thousands of Palestinian refugees, is embracing the Palestinian revolution, and is always in the heart and is appreciated by our people and their leadership. We will respect its privacy and will not interfere in its internal affairs, and our Palestinian brothers living there in it are but only guests until they return to their homes in Palestine.