From Gaza to Beirut: All not Well With Palestine

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It's heartening to see the world sympathize with Gaza.

Gaza is the underdog.
Gaza is the "third world country" fighting a Western colonial nuclear superpower. Gaza is the victim of collective punishment and way disproportionate response of Israel to the ineffective and futile missiles of Hamas.

Gaza is clearly the victim of war crimes.
Human beings are made in the image of God- that is true for Gazans as well as Israelis. Israel is acting as if only Israelis are created in the image of God. 485 Palestinians have been slaughtered- 4 Israelis died in the Hamas missile attacks.

Gaza is besieged, outgunned, bombed ruthlessly. The goal of Israel is to break the will of Gaza to fight.

Good luck. No, no good luck.

But Gaza is not the only place were Palestinians are suffering.

In many Arab countries they are suffering as well. No one has forgotten that Nahr al Bared was destroyed due to a murdereous gang having taken it hostage. Until now the Al bared's refugees are refugees in other camps.

Life for the refugees is made miserable by Lebanese laws that discriminate against them and deny them the most basic of human rights- mainly economic rights and civil rights.

The camps are miserable places of poverty and hopelessness. It is simply a crime against humanity to treat human beings the way the Palestinians are treated in Lebanon. This reality is only made uglier when the pretext is said to be the delicate mythical sectarian balance that the overwhelmingly Sunni refugees would allegedly distort by being able to work and feed their children instead of living on international handouts.

Mind you human rights organizations have been asking Lebanon for a floor of rights and not the ceiling of citizenship. The refugees themselves do not want citizenship neither.

Let this love of Gaza and sympathy to the plight of the refugees and residents of Gaza translate into momentum for decent treatment of the Palestinian refugees in all the Arab and Muslim world- especially in the worst offending state of Lebanon. There is no justification for waving the Palestinian flag and shedding tears when these countries' and their citizens have their own refugees that are treated very poorly.

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