Now that work restrictions on Lebanon’s estimated 400,000 Palestinians have been eased, though this is still a small step and should not be seen as an end to the plight of Lebanon’s Palestinian Diaspora, maybe it is time to explore what should be done with the roughly 150,000 Palestinians in Lebanon under the age of 18.
The only passport they have to escape the misery of the camps is proper healthcare and, more importantly, a decent education. But the Lebanese should not have to shoulder such an initiative alone – we were not a signatory of the Sykes Picot Agreement which, nearly a century ago, laid the foundations for the region’s current woes.
No, the world’s wealthy nations must do at least as much to ameliorate the problem as they have done to cause it, and play their part in molding the Palestinian youth into genuine global citizens. They could create 50 schools in Lebanon with around 3,000 students in each establishment. These would sharpen students’ minds 12 months of the year with sciences and arts of an authority unavailable to them through the United Nations classrooms, and empower their personalities to graduate as a generation of Palestinians who would throw off the label of global pariahs. As highly developed human beings, they would have all the necessary tools to be offered the opportunity to attend universities in London, Paris, Berlin, New York, etc.
Given the wealth of human capital this would instill, it is not inconceivable that the Lebanese would want to employ their knowledge and skills to Lebanon’s advantage; education could perhaps even be the untried key to opening doors back to Palestine. If not, then at least they can take their equity abroad.
It would be nothing short of a program for dignity, one that would cut the cycle of decades-old violence that has seen children without hope reach for the gun rather than the laptop, as they realize they are condemned to a life without pride and self-worth in the refugee camps of Lebanon.
It would also be affordable. Building schools and providing an education is relatively cheap and would produce some very high returns. Education for Palestinians is an initiative that the entire world can get behind and, once started, it might stimulate similar donations from wealthy Palestinians from within the wider diaspora. The world would be creating a cycle of prosperity rather than a cycle of misery. In the age of corporate social responsibility, the battle against carbon emissions and the era of smart solutions, surely this is the smartest solution of them all, and one that could eventually put an end to over half a century of misery.
