"No legitimacy for the occupier", "no negotiation, no dialogue" or even "the agreement of the century will not pass", chanted several dozen people - Lebanese and Palestinian refugees - Sunday February 2 near the American Embassy, ​​in the locality of Awkar, north of the Lebanese capital.

Waving Palestinian or Communist Party flags, protesters gathered on an avenue leading to the embassy, ​​cordoned off with barbed wire and a riot police barrage, an AFP photographer said.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday unveiled a peace plan based on a "two-state" solution but granting Israel a number of concessions, including recognition of Jerusalem as "the indivisible capital." The initiative was rejected by the Palestinians and the Arab League.

The call to demonstrate that circulated on social networks in Lebanon denounced "the shame agreement announced by the American administration".

"We will not agree to give up our land," said Itab, a Palestinian refugee from the Bekaa region (east). "I came here to defend my rights and the rights of my children as Palestinians," she added.

Right to return

Abdallah Mahmoud, an 18-year-old protester, said the plan was doomed to "failure" and that it "will not pass until the Palestinian people remain determined." "The right to return to Palestine is an individual and collective right", could be read on a sign, referring to the demand of Palestinians driven from their lands by the conflict over the right to return there after several decades.

At the press conference at which the Trump plan was unveiled in Washington, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Palestinian refugees would not have the right to return to Israel.

In total, more than 174,000 Palestinians live in Lebanon, according to a census of authorities released in late 2017. A figure much lower than the estimates circulating in the country, which sometimes go up to 500,000.

The first waves of refugees date back to 1948, the year of the creation of the State of Israel. Most of them live in destitution, in camps which have become, over the decades, working-class neighborhoods with failed infrastructure.

With AFP

The France 24 week summary invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Download the app

google-play-badge_FR