The labor minister's decision potentially expands access to a range of professions to non-Lebanese, including Palestinians. (Credit: Aziz Taher/Reuters)
BEIRUT — President of the Maronite League, Nehmatallah Abi Nasser, announced that the association had filed an appeal Tuesday to the labor minister’s decision allowing non-Lebanese residents to work in professions from which they had been barred, the state-run National News Agency reported.
Here’s what we know:
• Abi Nasser said that the Maronite League sent the appeal, which claimed that the ministerial decision has “formal” flaws and “violates constitutional bases and Lebanon’s high-level policies preventing nationalization,” to the State Shura Council through its attorneys Rizk Zougheib and Antoine al-Houweis.
• Abi Nasser’s statement continued, linking the league’s objection to its goals of “reinforcing the bases of national belonging, emphasizing a national consensus built on freedom, justice, democracy and coexistence” and blocking attempts to “change the modern and historic face of Lebanon and attempting to impose a new demographic status quo.”
• On Nov. 25, Labor Minister Mustafa Bayram issued a ministerial decision removing restrictions on professions, particularly those that required union membership, that had been exclusive to Lebanese citizens.