حقوق الجنسية والمواطنة للفلسطينيين في المشرق العربي مع التركيز على لبنان

Abstract EN

This study addresses Palestinian nationality and citizenship rights in the countries of the Arab Mashreq to generate an in-depth, multi-faceted understanding of this complex issue in context.

The study begins with a historical review of Palestinian nationality, starting in the Ottoman era, passing through the British Mandate, and continuing on to the 1948 Nakba and the dispossession and displacement of Palestinians that followed.

At that time, Palestinians became stateless in the legal sense, but did not lose their national identity.

The paper thus distinguishes the concept of citizenship from the concept of nationality and its significance for Palestinians.

The study sheds light on international legal protection mechanisms for Palestinian refugees and on the components of the Arab regional system of protection for these same refugees, identifying gaps in these two systems and how they can be addressed.

It also presents the disparities in the legal status of Palestinian refugees in the Arab Mashreq countries (Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Lebanon) and, with a focus on Lebanon, how this affects Palestinians' basic rights, including the right to residency.

Furthermore, the study explores the legal capacity of the Palestinian state to grant nationality to refugees residing within its territories and to those living in the diaspora, within the framework of the National Authority's repeated attempts to formulate a Palestinian nationality law.

The study concludes with specific recommendations for treating some of the cases under study.