Daoud Rammal, “Akhbar al-Yawm” agency
The priority is to grant citizenship to those who deserve it and take it back from those who neglected it in several countries
As the end of each presidential term approaches, the issue of issuing a decree to naturalize a number of people, often exceeding dozens, who had and still have qualitative and outstanding contributions to supporting and assisting Lebanon at all levels, is raised.
The constitutional text gives the president of the Republic the right to grant citizenship to those he deems worthy of it, and the decree is issued only after the signature of the relevant ministries and the head of government.
The current Tenure has not hidden the issue of granting citizenship to those who deserve it, especially the restoration of citizenship to Lebanese whose grandparents emigrated, while grandchildren neglected to prepare the necessary papers at Lebanese embassies and consulates to obtain a Lebanese identity.
Currently, the issue of the possibility of issuing a new decree has come to the fore in light of what was published by the French newspaper "Liberation" and denied by the official references mentioned in the article, but this does not mean closing the file. A well-informed source revealed that "political and spiritual authorities began to prepare to raise the file of naturalization issued in the year 1994 which caused a great sectarian imbalance, especially that the decisions issued by the Shura Council of the state, which ruled to revoke the decree in whole or in part, were not implemented, because the implementation of the decisions of the Shura Council is carried out only according to political goals and if they serve the forces of the powerful and dominant authority over the decision in the state, so the content of the decree became a fait accompli.
The source explained that "according to official statistics conducted by official departments on how to distribute the beneficiaries of the decree of the Year 1994 to sects, to find out the size of the imbalance in time, noting that in front of the name of each naturalized the phrase "and his family" appeared without specifying the number, which made the numbers double".
The source explains to the "Akhbar al-Yawm" agency how to "distribute naturalized sectarian, as it turned out that the number of naturalized Sunnis reached 108 840 persons with their families. And the number of naturalized Shiites reached 30 281 with their families. The number of naturalized Alawites reached 7 541 with their families. The number of naturalized Druze reached 4 267 with their families.
As for christians, the number of naturalized from Orthodox reached 11314, the number of naturalizations of the Armenian Orthodox reached 10548, the number of naturalizations of the Melkite catholics reached 7166, the number of naturalized Maronites reached 4199, and the number of naturalized syriac reached 7212, the number of naturalized under the title "different" reached 10613 ".
The source pointed out that "it is clear from the above that the number of naturalized Muslims reached 150929, while the number of naturalized Christians has not exceeded 40439, in addition to the total number of Muslims and Christians who are in the "different" category and their number is 10613, which means a scandalous imbalance in the sectarian balance”.
"The aim is to re-raise this file by political and spiritual authorities to show the right of thousands of Lebanese origin and constitute the backbone of the Lebanese spread and have positions and roles politically, economically and financially at all levels, and Lebanon is in urgent need to reconnect them to their motherland because they are the most capable to invest in various productive sectors, including services”.