Palestinian travel documents are to be treated the same as passports. After 1995, Lebanon had required Palestinians once living in Lebanon to obtain visas to return. Palestinians are denied citizenship rights. Palestinian gunmen were thought to be responsible in June for the shooting deaths of four judges in a Sidon courtroom. Palestinian suspects were in the courtroom at the time awaiting trials on drug and murder charges.
Women suffer legal and social discrimination.
Although women commonly work in fields such as medicine, law, journalism, and banking, they are severely underrepresented in politics. Women council members constituted only one percent of the newly elected municipal councils. All workers except those in government may establish unions, strike, and bargain collectively. Foreign domestic workers are routinely abused by employers who pay them little or nothing and confiscate their passports to prevent them from leaving. Women are most vulnerable to brutality or sexual abuse.