Change and Reform Rejects 'Collaborators' Label for Lebanese in Israel, Says Vacuum Doesn't Forbid Passing Electoral Law

The Change and Reform parliamentary bloc on Tuesday stressed the need to approve a new electoral law while maintaining efforts to elect a president, rejecting the “collaborators” label for the Lebanese who had fled to Israel in 2000.

“All parliamentary blocs had promised to prepare an electoral law so that we don't resort to another extension but nothing has happened until the moment,” MP Ibrahim Kanaan told reporters after the bloc's weekly meeting.

“We're witnessing a presidential vacuum because there is a defect in the constitution, but what prevents us from working on an electoral law for the parliamentary elections?” Kanaan wondered, warning that “we risk resorting to another extension or deepening the defect of representation in terms of the needed equal power-sharing between Christians and Muslims.”

“This reform is needed at the presidential and parliamentary levels and the electoral law is one of the extraordinary laws that the parliament is allowed to approve during the period of presidential vacuum,” Kanaan noted.

He added: “Are we supposed to maintain the defect indefinitely? Why don't we implement real partnership in the political system? There are laws that were referred to parliament and do not require a meeting of the joint committees.”

On Sunday, Change and Reform bloc MP Alain Aoun said the country should head to parliamentary polls in order to prevent a protracted presidential vacuum.

Turning to the issued of the exiled Lebanese in Israel, Kanaan said "a draft law proposed by General (Michel) Aoun had refrained from calling them collaborators, and we considered them Lebanese citizens who had sought refuge in Israel."

He urged an end to the current controversy because "the issue was resolved at the legislative level,” adding that “the memorandum of understanding (with Hizbullah) and the 2011 legislation are well-known” by all parties.

Hizbullah, which spearheaded military resistance against Israel's occupation of south Lebanon, has stressed that only the state can acquit or condemn those who fled to Israel while emphasizing that “we do not want collaborators in Lebanon.”

The party's remarks came in response to a statement on Friday by Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi from the Israeli village of Isfia near Haifa, during which he rejected that the Lebanese in Israel be considered “traitors and criminals” and called for their return to Lebanon without an amnesty law.

“We will press on with the bill that was approved in 2011 regarding those who fled to Israel and we will follow up on the approval of the needed decrees. Overbidding is not appropriate and the criticism against us is unjustified,” Kanaan said.

Separately, the MP said the issue of the stalled new wage scale requires "an extraordinary legislation that would provide stability at the political level."

"We have given a chance for consensus over this issue but this does not mean forsaking the plan," he added.

"The issue of the new wage scale will not be at the expense of the treasury and we hope the file will be finalized," Kanaan went on to say.

Y.R.