Lebanon gives up implementation of a decision concerning Palestinians
Lebanon-Syria, Politics, 8/20/1999

Former chairman of the Palestinian National Council Khaled al-Fahoum told the Kuwaiti daily al-Rai al-Am that the Lebanese government has recently given up a decision which was taken by the end of last June which permitted, according to it, the Palestinians who carry Syrian documents to enter Lebanon, having the same treatments as the Syrians, without needs for prior security measures.

Al-Fahoum told the paper that the decision to permitting the Palestinians to move freely lasted only for three weeks, after which the Lebanese suspended it upon finding out that during this three weeks period some 12,000 Palestinians who carry Syrian documents entered to Lebanon, a situation which raised Lebanese fears of a huge migration of the Palestinians from Syria to Lebanon.

Al-Fahoum, who was in person, behind the approval of the Lebanese President Emile Lahoud for the decision of free movement, did not ask any explanations from the Lebanese government for its new measure, but he will try in the future to know about that.

For its part, Palestinian sources explained the reasons behind this "previous" flow to the second half of the border and told the Kuwaiti daily that the Palestinians existed in Syria and Lebanon are in general belonging to the same families and they are linked to strong kinship ties and that it is natural to see such an influx towards Lebanon in the first weeks after being banned from seeing their relatives since the year 1948.

Previous Stories:
  Syrian - Lebanese joint decision on the Palestinians   (7/6/1999)
  Al-Fahoum: Campaigns halted between democratic front, Fatah- Intifada   (4/13/1999)
  Lebanon lifts visa requirements for Palestinians   (1/19/1999)

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