Palestinians no longer welcome, says Lebanese Mufti
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
LAST UPDATED: 06/16/2011 16:50
"You’re trash, you’ll never be victorious," Sheikh Qabbani tells stunned Palestinians reps.
Hassan Nasrallah, left, Sheikh Qabbani, right Photo: Reuters
The mufti of Lebanon, Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani, was quoted this week as
saying that Palestinians are no longer welcome in his country. He also condemned
Palestinians as “trash,” and said that he’s not afraid of their
weapons.
Sheikh Qabbani’s remarks were made during a meeting he held in
his office in Beirut with a Palestinian delegation, representing refugees and
various Palestinian factions in Lebanon.
The furious mufti later kicked
the Palestinian representatives out of his office.
More than 400,000
Palestinians live in Lebanon, most of them in extremely harsh conditions in
refugee camps.
The meeting was called to discuss Palestinian “assaults”
on state-owned and Islamic Wakf lands in Lebanon.
“We’ve hosted you and
no longer want you,” the mufti told stunned members of the Palestinian
delegation.
Accusing Palestinians of “usurping” Wakf lands to build
houses, Qabbani told his visitors: “I will defend Wakf lands – even if that
costs me all what I have.”
Attempts by the Palestinian representatives to
muzzle the mufti further enraged the top religious official, who at one point
shouted at them: “You are trash. You [Palestinians] will never be victorious.
Nor will your cause. I’m no longer afraid of your weapons.”
The
Palestinian delegates said they were extremely shocked by the mufti’s abusive
language and threats.
“He called us trash,” one of them said. “He didn’t
even give us time to respond to his allegations.”
Samir Abu Afash,
Secretary- General of the PLO in Beirut, said he sent a report to Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas about the mufti’s remarks.
Abbas
instructed the Palestinian representatives to refrain from a confrontation with
Qabbani out of fear that such a move would escalate tensions between the two
sides.
Former Lebanese prime minister Fuad Saniora later phoned Fathi Abu
al-Aradat to apologize on behalf of the mufti.
The mufti lost his temper
following complaints that Palestinians living in refuge camps in Lebanon had
illegally seized lands belonging to the state and the Islamic Wakf
Trust.
Sheikh Tayseer Tamimi, former head of the PA religious courts,
strongly condemned the mufti of Lebanon, saying his statements were unsuitable
for a man of his status.
He said Qabbani had a long history of
instigating sectarian strife between various communities in Lebanon, and
demanded that he apologize to all Palestinians.