The 18th Sect We Don't Talk About

This post from the Lebanese Inner Circle reminded me of one of my previous posts on the Jews in Lebanon.

Apparently, the Minister of the Interior, Ziad Baroud, submitted a proposal to be discussed by the cabinet on Apr. 28 that proposed "the Cabinet amend the legislation that currently labels Lebanese Jews as 'Israélite' to 'Jewish Lebanese'."

Currently, Lebanese Jews are identified as Israelites on their IDs (I thought this was taken off post-Taif along with everyone's religion??) and on electoral lists.
According to the Daily Star:

Baroud's proposal asked the Cabinet to adopt a draft law to differentiate between a sect "whose rights are legal and protected by the Constitution and between the subjects of an occupying entity."

I think it would be worth going back to my previous post and looking at the NowLebanon article I link to that interviews a Jewish woman named Liza living in Lebanon and how she has been struggling her whole life to be considered Lebanese. Might help to get a better perspective of what this legislation, if it is put into effect (how likely this is I have no idea) would mean.

Also, I love how in Lebanon we like to show off and say "we are so diverse, we have 18 different religious sects that all live together in this one tiny nation," except no one likes to say that that Jews are absolutely unaccepted and probably have to hide their religion or face prosecution. Yey diversity!!

So finally, someone is taking a step forward and is doing something to get rid of this ignorant notion that all Jews are Israelis.

Now to tackle women's and gay rights...

~LZ