Lebanon Today. The Phoenicia of Yesterday

Authors

  • Fernando Ayala

Abstract

This article is originally published in Wall Street International Magazine, 21 April 2019.  Reprint with Author permission.
https://wsimag.com/economy-and-politics/52570-lebanon-today.

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Author Biography

Fernando Ayala

Former Ambassador of Chile, is a graduate economist at the University of Zagreb in Croatia and holds a
master’s degree in Political Science from the Catholic University of Chile. He is currently consultant for
FAO in Rome headquarter, on South-South cooperation, academic and parliamentary issues. For almost
for decades, he worked for the Chilean Foreign Service, since 2004 in the rank of Ambassador. He quit
the diplomatic career on March 10, 2018. As a Foreign Service official, he served in Ecuador, South
Korea, Sweden, the United States and Italy. He was Chile’s Ambassador to Vietnam, Portugal, Trinidad
and Tobago, Italy and to the UN agencies based in Rome: FAO, IFAD and WFP.

References

Líbano registra un incremento de su población.

There were then 875,252 inhabitants, where Christians constituted 51% and Muslims 49%. This determined the distribution of the highest political positions in the State at the time of independence. So, the president is Christian, the Prime Minister Sunni Muslim and the president of the Parliament is Shiite Muslim. All demographic projections indicate that Muslims today reach about 64% against 36% of Christians, and this is the reason why a new census has not been carried out since it would significantly alter the distribution of power.

The United Nations notes in a 2016 report that there are 504,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. It states: “The Palestinians are deprived of certain basic rights. Lebanon excluded Palestinian refugees from 73 job categories, including professions such as medicine, law and engineering. They are not allowed to own property, and they even need special permission to leave their refugee camps. Unlike other foreigners in Lebanon, they are denied access to the Lebanese health care system. The government refused to grant them work permits or permits to own land. The number of restrictions has been increasing since 1990”.

Both the United Nations and Israel proved the responsibility of the intelligence services of the latter country through the so-called Kahan commission, which meant the dismissal of the defense minister Ariel Sharon, who later, in 2001, would become Prime Minister.

Yuval Noah Harari, De animales a dioses, Santiago: Penguin Random House, 2014, page: 399.

Party of God created in Lebanon in 1982 in response to the Israeli invasion. Participated in the elections for the first time in 1992, winning 12 seats. In the last elections of 2018 it increased to 13, that is, it obtained 15.8%, being the country’s greatest political force.

Survey conducted by Statistics Lebanon Ltd. for Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS).

Published

2019-05-06

How to Cite

Ayala, F. (2019). Lebanon Today. The Phoenicia of Yesterday. Journal Transition Studies Review, 26(1), 95-98. Retrieved from https://transitionacademiapress.org/jtsr/article/view/253

Issue

Vol. 26 No. 1 (2019)

Section

Opinion

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