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Jordan and Syria Refuse to Accept Refugees Expelled from Iraq
22:39 Jan 21, '07 / 2 Shevat 5767
Arabs forcibly expelled from their homes in Iraq are stranded in a no-mans land as both Syria and Jordan refuse to accept them.
The Arabs, who the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) refers to as Palestinian refugees, were forced out of Iraq by rival militias. They are 735 people living in two tent camps called the Al-Hol and Al-Tanaf camps
Almost 150 people have been living for over three years in the Al-Ruweished refugee camp on Jordan’s border.
Though most are far younger than the State of Israel, their status as descendents of Arabs who left or were transferred from the fledgling Jewish state during the War of Independence has seen them labelled Palestinian refugees by aid organizations and the Arab states who refuse to rehabilitate them.
Despite the fact that these Arabs were just expelled by fellow Arabs and denied entry or aid by the Arab regimes bordering their camps, the UN, as well as NGOs writing about their plight focus on their status as Palestinian refugees.
“Largely as a consequence of their expulsion from their own homeland by Zionists upon the imposition of the state of Israel in 1948, about thirty-four thousand Palestinian refugees lived in Iraq,” an organization called al-Awda, which works to win return for Arabs who left Israel and all of their descendents and relatives, wrote. “According to the UNHCR, a total of about 19,000 Palestinians have left Iraq since 2003, and only 15,000 remain.”
In the years following the War of Independence, more than 600,000 Jews were forcibly evicted from Arab countries. Israel accepted the Jewish refugees, gave them citizenship and rehabilitated them.
The Syrian and Jordanian US embassies can be emailed at:
Syria: gh1@syrembassy.net
Jordan: HKJEmbassyDC@aol.com |
