(25 Jun 2019) LEADIN:
Hundreds of Palestinians have gathered in Beirut to protest against a conference in Bahrain.
The workshop aims to kick off US President Donald Trump's administration's plan for Mideast peace - a deal which Palestinian leaders have rejected.
STORYLINE:
Palestinian flags wave in the air outside the UN headquarters in Beirut.
Around 500 people have turned out for this Hamas-organised demonstration.
They are chanting against the US-sponsored Middle East economic workshop in Bahrain.
The conference kicks off the Trump administration's plan for Mideast peace.
The proposal calls for $50 billion for investment and infrastructure projects: $6.3 billion for Palestinians in Lebanon, as well as $27.5 billion in the West Bank and Gaza, $9.1 billion in Egypt and $7.4 billion in Jordan.
But the Palestinian Authority has already rejected the plan and is boycotting the Bahrain workshop.
Other Palestinian factions have also come out against it.
"This message coincides with the Manama workshop and the 'Deal of the Century' that seeks to cancel the national rights of the Palestinians," says Ahmed Abdulhadi, deputy Hamas representative in Lebanon.
"We as Palestinian refugees are sending a message that confirms our commitment to the right of return and we reject all the projects that will cancel the rights of the Palestinian refugees."
The demonstrators reject calls for being naturalised in Lebanon.
Many of the 175,000 Palestinians in Lebanon live in squalid camps where they suffer from limited employment opportunities and no right to own property.
Naturalising Palestinians, the vast majority of whom are Sunni Muslim, would disrupt the very delicate sectarian balance between the country's 18 religious sects.
The large sums of money earmarked for Jordan and Lebanon, countries with substantial Palestinian refugee populations, were an apparent attempt to have them absorbed into these nations, rather than allow them to maintain their refugee status and the hope that they could someday return to their homeland in what is now Israel.
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