Walaa Kayyal, a researcher living as a Palestinian in Lebanon whom we interviewed for this report in October 2022 gave the following explanation regarding Palestinians’ access to property:
“All Palestinians who bought houses before 2001, they can register it and it legally belongs to them. But after 2001, Palestinians were forbidden to own any property. [...] And it is in the Lebanese law, it’s written this way: Palestinians are not allowed to. Currently I do not know of any steps taken to improve this situation for Palestinians.”
(Source: Walaa Kayyal, interview record, 31 October 2022)
In a series of written responses to questions sent by Asylos for this report, Dr. Jasmin Lilian Diab, Director of the Institute for Migration Studies at the Lebanese American University indicated in October 2022 that:
“There are no actions in this regard – nor in the areas of access to bank accounts as well. This is the main issue here associated with property ownership. On a broader level, the “temporary” nature of the Palestinians’ stay in Lebanon (as the Lebanese government insists) prevents them from attaining their property rights. The Lebanese government views this possibility as grounds for them staying more “permanently”, and for this reason, this right will not be negotiated nor extended to them in the near future.”
(Source: Dr. Jasmin Lilian Diab, written communication with Asylos, 6 October 2022)