Bringing Palestinians back into the workforce

Employment integration: a political economic threat or a deserved right? The recent decree issued by the minister of labor, Trad Hamadeh, allowing Palestinians born in Lebanon to work in a range of private sector jobs previously restricted to Lebanese citizens is a positive development in the provision of human rights but one which needs further research, infrastructure and regulation before it is fully implemented. After 20 years of banning over 70 jobs to Palestinian refugees, work at around 50 unspecified manual and clerical jobs in the country is now allowed. Seventeen professions – such as medicine, engineering and law – remain banned, a ruling no doubt based on the fear of permanent settlement and a subsequent sectarian imbalance. These Palestinian refugees, the majority of whom are now the descendents of the generation that fled their homes after the creation of Israel in 1948, have, as well as being denied employment,