The Unwanted Refugees Of The Iraq War

Palestinian-Born Iraqis Lived Well Under Saddam, Now Many Are Homeless, And Politically Untouchable

(CBS)  Iraqis usually point to the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra in February 2006 as the beginning of open sectarian strife in Iraq. The bombing was blamed on Sunni insurgents, and Iraqis of all ethnicities stepped up what had been a more gradual exodus to surrounding countries and beyond. But even in relatively better times, just after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, the Palestinian community, numbering roughly 30,000 before the war, could already see the beginnings of sectarian tensions.

One reason is that Palestinians received subsidies and other favors from Saddam Hussein's government. Their lives were not much better than that of other Iraqis, but the perception lingers that they somehow supported the former Iraqi president.

"Yes, Saddam helped us a lot," says Miriam. "He gave us assistance, and after Baghdad fell, many Iraqis threatened us, asking us, why are you still here?" She reels off the names of several family members who have been killed, including a cousin whose body parts were returned to the family, she says, in a plastic bag.

"I think the scale of the violence and the attacks on the Palestinian community make it absolutely unacceptable for them to return," sayd UNHCR's representative in Jordan, Robert Breen. No other Arab country has offered to take them in.

Any Arab country in the Middle East that agrees to take in Palestinian refugees is making a political statement. First, they are saying the door is open for other Palestinians to come and settle. The possibility of Palestinians getting too comfortable in their adopted Arab countries could diminish their desire to pursue the right to return to their country of origin. The image of complacency on the right of Palestinians to a homeland of their own is one that Arab countries are not eager to espouse.

But Miriam and her family have lived their entire lives in Iraq. She worked in a beauty salon, speaks in an Iraqi dialect, and has never known any other place as home. Her parents fled Haifa in 1948 and headed for Baghdad.

"All our lives we've been refugees," she says with a laugh. "My family fled, we fled. My family stayed in tents, they saw similar war, now we're sitting in tents, seeing war and not knowing what the future will bring."

The twelve hundred other Iraqis who've passed through these camps have been repatriated. But homeless Palestinians are a political problem in the Arab world, and Jordan is the only country to ever offer them citizenship. Jordan's policy now is that it will not accept another Palestinian refugee on its soil. The UNHCR has an agreement with Jordan that these last refugees can stay in this camp until a third country takes them in.

Miriam says she and her family can no longer afford to live in the past. Or even, in a sense, to live in the present. They look to the future, which is still unknown, but she is sure it will be better. It's that hope, she says, which keeps her depression at bay, which sustains her, and which allows her to tell her children to hang on a little bit longer.

"We hope to go somewhere and settle down and live our lives as a family, as human beings."

[lars008-2009]

anneselden

the Universal Declaration of Human Rights- it applies to all equally, as should all law- and all mercy.

name one islamic country that grants that to non muslims??? let alone muslim women???

END PISSLAM APARTHIED NOW!!!
"Entrance into Muslim territory by infidels of foreign lands under the pact guaranteeing protection to the tolerated peoples is permitted only for the time necessary to settle their business affairs.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/1772-jewsinislam.html
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[jabberwock11]

"Strange how one sided the pleas for mercy are. About 1500 years ago, when the ancestors to these Arabs invaded the palestine territory, nobody cried then. They scattered the remaining Jews across the region, without any regards for right."

We can always keep going back in history to look ant who owned what when. What about the Canaanites? In any case it doesn't matter. We have to look at the situation as it stands now. That not only means the current Jewish state but several million Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank. As far as I%u2019m concerned both sides are guilty of propagating this conflict. IMO we should just cut off all money to everyone concerned and let them settle it one way or the other.

[formrusmcsgt]

pwrslm-

Why am I not surprised that you would argue against a Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

Only xenophobes could take such a position.

[anneselden]

pwrslm you are way off base- there is nothing one-sided about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights- it applies to all equally, as should all law- and all mercy.

The Nazi Holocaust was an evil ugly bigoted crime against all of humanity... we know better now and it is crucial for everyone's sake that when any one says NEVER AGAIN it applies to ALL!

Jews have been legally free to make their homes in many places, and they do. The fact that many Israeli Jews have freedoms and rights and opportunities in both America and in Israel while millions of impoverished Palestinians are stuck in statelessness in concentration camps is abhorrent.

[pwrslm]

This mess of massive homelessness started with political Zionism and the country called Israel- that is where it needs to stop.
Posted by anneselden at 10:10 AM : Feb 18, 2007

Strange how one sided the pleas for mercy are. About 1500 years ago, when the ancestors to these Arabs invaded the palestine territory, nobody cried then. They scattered the remaining Jews across the region, without any regards for right.

Now, when the decendents of those very same Jews want to come home, and do come home, how blatantly we ignore thier rights to uphold some imagined right of Arabs who would be called "palestinians".

There never was a people or a nation called palestine for a palestinian people to exist. Its propoganda, duely noted by Arab leaders, and spread worldwide for nothing more than to garner the popular sympathies of the nations of the world. Before they became "palestinians", these same people slurred this name as an insult, to indicate the degrading culture of the Jews.

What is the use of it all? To deny a Jewish home for a peoples whom the Arab Muslim culture could not totally consume, as they have so many others? To deny the truth, that so many people in so many nations would be foolish enough to take the words of the Arab Muslims, unquestioned, after 1400 years of thier blood lust?

[jenniferfry]

Thanks Grumpas. I couldn not have said it better.

[anneselden]

I am grateful that you brought up the subject of the Palestinian refugees, so long denied full and equal rights and respect in the land of their birth.

I think this is a difficult situation for everyone. 60 years of being pawns pushed around by any one with an agenda has helped make life hell for many vulnerable Palestinian families and children... our highest priority should be to make sure the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is fully respected by every nation on earth- with the highest priority being to making sure the Palestinian refugees who want to return can return to their original homes and lands all through out historic Palestine.

Israel started this problem and Israel needs to take full responsibility for its sovereign actions. Instead Israel, has been rewarded for pushing millions of Palestinians into abject poverty and despair. Adding insult to original injury, Apartheid Israel has blithely continued to create Palestinian refugees, with many Palestinians forced into 'voluntary' exile.

Palestinians, like all people on earth, should be free to leave- and free to return... free to live with full and equal rights no matter where they might be. I applaud Jordan for being " the only country to ever offer them citizenship" - and I can certainly understand why after 60 years Jordan has been forced to now say no more : This mess of massive homelessness started with political Zionism and the country called Israel- that is where it needs to stop.

[grumpas]

kba78: That is a rather calloused attitude to take to other people's suffering! Why don't you go outside and build a sandcastle for George? Put the jerk in it and let the tide wash him out to sea! We have enough crimes to answer for as a nation without adding a lot of hapless refugee's to the long list!

[kba78]

Ahh Boo HOO on ur Tent, Things dont happen over night!go outside and build a sand castle.

[hsinco-2009]

How many refugees has the Bush regime created?

Yet another example of Compassionate Conservatism. Create a need and turn their back. Much like the coming VA crisis.