On 30 April, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told Sky News Arabia that Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas had raised the issue of disarming Palestinian factions in Lebanon’s refugee camps at the emergency Arab Summit in Cairo in early March.
It was a remarkable revelation. The emergency summit’s goal was the reconstruction of Gaza. But Abbas had other priorities. Both before and in the weeks since the Arab summit, Abbas has criticized the armed resistance by Palestinian factions on several occasions, especially by Hamas, notably demanding that what he called the “sons of dogs” release the remaining Israeli captives in Gaza.
For decades, the Lebanese authorities have treated the Palestinian camps in Lebanon as armed hotbeds that could explode at any moment and have ignored Palestinian refugees’ human rights.
Instead of transcending this narrow approach, Abbas’ visit reduced the Palestinian presence in Lebanon to only a security matter.
Why, and why now?
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