Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, speaking at a conference in New York for Lebanese expatriates, said that he believes that children of Lebanese women should become Lebanese citizens just like children of Lebanese men can.
With two exceptions.
“We heard applause in this hall when requesting a bill to grant citizenship to children of Lebanese women married to foreigners, and I also applaud it, and say that this is right, because women do not differ from men,” he said. “But, because of our Constitution, (and biology?) and so on, we cannot give citizenship to 400 thousand Palestinians. We know that for Lebanon to survive there must be exceptions”.
He reiterated his position on Twitter, saying “I support granting citizenship to children of women under the law with the Syrians and the Palestinians as the exception to preserve our land.”
Many on social media are calling Bassil racist. Even Lebanese who are against the naturalization of Palestinians who have lived there for three generations say that if they are children of Lebanese women they should become citizens. Only a few support him.
Children of Palestinian women who marry Lebanese men do become Lebanese citizens, so his statements are being interpreted as misogynist as well as racist.
Bassil is a Maronite Christian the head of the Free Patriotic Movement which is allied with Hezbollah.
Official Lebanese discrimination against Palestinians rarely makes it into Western media, and this case is no exception. The only English language site I’ve seen that mentions this is The New Arab blog. Sky News Arabic reported this story but not its English version.
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