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| Iraq |
| Rough Exit From Iraq |
| 2003-05-06 |
| Baghdad - In recent years, no Arab country has been as supportive and welcoming of Palestinians and their cause as Iraq. That is all over now. "I was kicked out [of Palestine] with my mother and father 55 years ago - now I've been kicked out [of Iraq] with my wife and children," said Ahmed Kadoura, 60, sitting in the shade of one of many tents pitched on a soccer field in Baghdad. Like hundreds of other Palestinians in Iraq, Kadoura is facing the wrath of an Iraqi population that sees the Palestinians in Iraq as collaborators with the regime of Saddam Hussein. "We're going in circles," said Kadoura, whose neighbor stabbed him twice with a long knife to encourage him to leave his Baghdad home. "It's pointless to stay in an Arab country." Hussein created a militia devoted to liberating Jerusalem for the Arabs. He sent thousands of dollars to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, allowed Palestinian militant groups to operate training camps in Iraq and recruited many for his security services, and he gave many ordinary Palestinians in Iraq free housing while paying their unwilling Iraqi landlords as little as $5 per year in compensatory rent. As the only Arab head of state to attack Israel in recent decades - in 1991 - he was a hero to many Palestinians. The moment Hussein fell from power, the Palestinians lost one of their most important and influential allies. The wider ramifications of this sudden loss of a major ally are still unclear, but it certainly will not strengthen the morale of Palestinians around the region. The loss also comes at a particularly sensitive time in the push for a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. The United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations last week presented their "road map" for a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, a proposal that is unacceptable to many Palestinians. With Iraqi support suddenly gone, Syria under pressure from the United States and many of the Arab states in the Persian Gulf allied firmly with the United States, an increasingly isolated Palestinian leadership could find itself under enormous pressure to accept a plan that so many of its people oppose. It has been a stated aim of the architects of the Iraq war in the Bush administration to create a new political balance in the Middle East that would help bring about an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For many of those pro-Israel officials, weakening support for the Palestinians around the Middle East would likely be seen as a step in the right direction. It is too early to tell how Hussein's disappearance from the Middle East political scene will influence the Palestinian leadership but, for the Palestinians in Iraq, the consequences have been immediate. The most obvious result is the wide-scale eviction of Palestinian families from homes owned by Iraqis. Peter Bouckaert, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, which is due to release a report on the Palestinian issue this week, said at least 320 Palestinians are now living in a refugee camp just inside neighboring Jordan. Another 350 are in tents pitched on a soccer field or in communal buildings in the Baladiyat neighborhood of Baghdad, where the Iraqi government built apartment blocks especially for Palestinians in the 1970s. Bouckaert said the U.S. and British military, as occupying forces, are obliged under the terms of the Fourth Geneva Convention to provide protection for all of Iraq's residents, including the Palestinian minority. Finding themselves once again homeless, living in tents, is a source of particular pain for the Palestinians, especially for those old enough to have lived through the exodus of 1948. Fifty-five years ago, 5-year-old Kadoura fled with his family from their home near Haifa as the nascent Israeli army fought to establish the state of Israel. After a hellish journey, the boy arrived in far-away Iraq and found himself living in a refugee tent. Three thousand Palestinians made it to Iraq after the 1948 war. There are no accurate statistics about the population now, but estimates vary between 35,000 and 70,000. Now, Kadoura is nursing his chest wounds under canvas and wishing he could leave the country that has suddenly turned hostile. Like all Palestinians in Hussein's Iraq, Kadoura found himself both courted by the government and manipulated by it. Until about a year ago, for example, it was illegal for Palestinians to own a home or a car. At the same time, the government allocated them housing and paid their reluctant landlords negligible rent. Kadoura lived in a house belonging to a Shia Iraqi, many of whom were persecuted under the Hussein regime. The government paid the owner $5 per year on Kadoura's behalf. "Two days after the American forces entered Baghdad, he gave me three days to leave," said Kadoura, a former member of Hussein's ruling Baath party. After 15 years of being forced to accept the insulting rent, the landlord told Kadoura he'd better be gone or he and seven of his armed friends would be around to facilitate Kadoura's move. On the third day, as Kadoura packed, a Shia neighbor who no longer could hold back his resentment came to Kadoura's front gate with his ceremonial Shia knife. He "came with his big knife and kicked the gate and stabbed me twice," Kadoura said. "I don't think he has any humanity. I am an old man. I never did anyone any harm." But the Iraqi man's words to Kadoura left little doubt about why he was treating his Palestinian neighbor to such a goodbye: "You have no protection now." |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #3 Gee, I can't imagine why Iraqis would have a problem with a group of people who worshipped Saddam. Collaborators? Say it ain't so...I'd also hate to be a Syrian "volunteer" in Iraq these days...bad juju... |
| Posted by: R. McLeod 2003-05-07 03:59:05 |
| #2 The Israelis tried to get the local Arab population to stay in Israel, but their leaders told them they needed to leave. They promised them they would return "in a few days, once Israel is crushed". It's been 55 years, and the Arabs are still trying to crush Israel. The biggest share of guilt belongs to the Mufti of Jerusalem in 1948. The Paleostinians also deserve a large share of the blame, for never even attempting to integrate into local communities. The only difference between the Paleos and the other Arabs in the region is their place of birth. Now, only about one in ten was born in Palestine before 1948. They need to stop this constant delusion of "return" and get on with living. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-05-06 18:56:14 |
| #1 Tough noogies, guys! What goes around comes around. (I shouldn't feel this way, really, but I remember the Palestinians cheering on 9/11. Can't get the sympathy meter off zero, I really can't.) |
| Posted by: Mike 2003-05-06 16:06:48 |