Wednesday, February 08, 2017

Plight of Palestinians in Iraq



http://www.unhcr.org/3ebb85184.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3015739.stm
9 May 2003: "About 1,000 Palestinians have already been driven from their homes in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, the UNHCR said in a statement."

http://www.bostonreview.net/nir-rosen-no-going-back-displaced-iraqis 
2003: One [Palestinian] family’s daughter was kidnapped by the Badr Corps (a Shia militia linked to the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, formerly the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the exile party established in Iran). She was gang raped and murdered on film, which was then delivered to them as a warning.
  


http://www.irinnews.org/report/26167/iraq-palestinians-targeted-unhcr
5 Mar 2006: “Over the past week, we’ve received reports that up to 10 Palestinians have been killed in Baghdad and several have been kidnapped,” UNHCR spokesman in Geneva, Ron Redmond, said.

https://www.hrw.org/report/2006/09/09/nowhere-flee/perilous-situation-palestinians-iraq

9 Sep 2006: Many of the Iraqi Palestinian families interviewed by Human Rights Watch in 2003 said that threats, harassment, and violence during rent disputes were the primary reasons for their departure from Baghdad or their internal displacement within Baghdad. Expulsions of Palestinian refugees from their homes began almost as soon as the U.S.-led invasion began. In many cases, armed Shi`a landlords expelled their Palestinian tenants, while in other cases, armed Iraqis attempted to expel Palestinians from government-subsidized homes in order to seize the homes for themselves.


https://www.hrw.org/news/2006/10/05/iraq-palestinians-targeted-death-threats 
5 Oct 2006: A new leaflet obtained by Human Rights Watch and bearing the name of the Al-Bayt Revenge Brigade – Rapid Response Units states that “there is no place for Palestinians in the Iraq of Ali, Hassan, and Hussain.”



http://articles.latimes.com/2006/nov/26/world/fg-iraqpals26

26 Nov 2006: The civil war convulsing the country has raised worries about the fate of the approximately 20,000 Palestinians in Iraq, who are targeted by kidnappers and Shiite Muslim death squads because of what many Iraqis see as the group's favored status under former President Saddam Hussein.  Community leaders say more than 60 Palestinians have been killed since early last year, and thousands have left the country. Many of the Palestinians who have stayed behind, mainly in Baghdad, have been chased from their homes and taken refuge in a largely Palestinian neighborhood here called Baladiyat.  "We are living in a state of fear," said Lena Shaheen, 27, who fled the mainly Shiite Dora neighborhood with her family in September after gunmen announced through loudspeakers that Palestinian residents had 72 hours to get out.


http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Palestinians-Ethnic-cleansing-in-Iraq

2 Jan 2007: After 18 members of her family were brutally murdered by Shi'ite militiamen in Baghdad, Nadia Othman, a 36-year-old Palestinian mother of three, finally managed to escape to Jordan together with hundreds of Palestinian families that had been living in Iraq for decades. In 2006, more than 600 Palestinians were killed in the Iraqi capital in what Palestinian leaders and political activists are describing as a "systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing." Thousands of Palestinian families have been forced to flee Iraq since the downfall of Saddam Hussein, but many still have no place to go to. Iraq's Arab neighbors, Syria and Jordan, have imposed stringent restrictions on the entry of the refugees, leaving many of them stranded along the border in harsh and inhuman conditions. Until three years ago, the number of Palestinians living in Iraq was estimated at 30,000. Under Saddam, Palestinians enjoyed many privileges that only a few Iraqis were entitled to: free accommodation, free health services and free education. Today, Nadia said, "There are less than 10,000 Palestinians living in Iraq and most of them are afraid to walk out of their homes. My sister, who stayed behind, told me this week that she hasn't left her apartment in the Baladiyat suburb of Baghdad for the past three weeks for fear of being killed by Shi'ite militiamen. I'm very concerned for the safety of my mother and five brothers who have still not been able to escape from Iraq." Nadia's decision to leave her home came shortly after one of her brothers, Muhammad Rashid, was killed by Shi'ite gunmen as he was on his way to the school where he worked as an Arabic language teacher. "The murderers stopped him in the street, asked for his ID documents, and when they saw that he was a Palestinian refugee, they immediately fired three bullets at his head," she said. "


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/24/AR2007012401888_pf.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1540127/Shias-order-Palestinians-to-leave-Iraq-or-prepare-to-die.html
21 Jan 2007: Palestinians living in Iraq have been warned that they will be killed by Shia militias unless they leave the country immediately.
Iraqi police say the immigrants, who are mostly Sunni Muslims, are the target of a backlash by hardline Shias, including members of the Mehdi Army led by the Shia preacher Moqtada al-Sadr.
More than 600 Palestinians are believed to have died at the hands of Shia militias since the war began in 2003, including at least 300 from the Baladiat area of Baghdad. Many were tortured with electric drills before they died.
Now the Shia militias are stepping up their campaign to drive out Iraq's 20,000 remaining Palestinians – half the estimated 40,000 living in the country at the start of the war, all of whom were welcomed by Saddam Hussein and provided with housing, money and free education.
Hundreds of Iraqis were forced to leave their homes to make way for the migrants, many of whom joined the ruling Ba'ath party.
Sheik Mahmoud El Hassani, a spokesman for the Mehdi Army, said the Palestinians had brought their suffering on themselves. He said Shias believed they were in league with Sunni extremists and al-Qaeda.
"We are sure that all the Palestinians in Iraq are involved in killing the Shia people and they have to pay the price now," he said. "They lived off our blood under Saddam. We were hungry with no food and they were comfortable with full bellies. They should leave now, or they will have to pay."
Kareem Zakia, 61, said his son, Yeha Ahmed, was kidnapped and killed in the Karada area of Baghdad two weeks ago. "The kidnappers called me and told me that they had taken my son because he came from Palestine and all the Palestinians support the Sunni terrorists. I found my son's body the next day with many holes in his belly made by a drill."
He ordered his two other sons to leave with his wife and two daughters, but neighbouring Jordan refused to allow them to cross the border – as it has with many Palestinians trying to flee Iraq.


http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2009/0708/p02s04-usgn.html

8 July 2009: ATLANTA — The State Department confirmed today that as many as 1,350 Iraqi Palestinians – once the well-treated guests of Saddam Hussein and now at outs with much of Iraqi society – will be resettled in the US, mostly in southern California, starting this fall.  It will be the largest-ever resettlement of Palestinian refugees into the US – and welcome news to the Palestinians who fled to Iraq after 1948 but who have had a tough time since Mr. Hussein was deposed in 2003. Targeted by Iraqi Shiites, the mostly-Sunni Palestinians have spent recent years in one of the region's roughest refugee camps, Al Waleed, near Iraq's border with Syria. 


https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2016/5/25/palestinian-kidnapped-by-militias-found-dead-in-iraq 
24 May 2016:  A Palestinian resident of Iraq who vanished near a local municipal building has been found dead in a police morgue on Wednesday.
Iraqi security sources revealed that the kidnapping of the Palestinian resident was likely to have been carried out by affiliates of Hizballah in Iraq. The attack took place outside the main local government building in east Baghdad's Baladiyet district.
....
At least 234 Palestinians were killed between 2003-2008 in Iraq at the hands of Iranian-backed militias. Most of the victims were killed in Baghdad.


http://almon.co/2z9q
20 Dec 2017:
Iraq strips Palestinian refugees of rights such as tax exemption, opportunities to work in government departments, and access to education and health care services. 
...
The Arabi21 news website revealed Dec. 20 that Iraqi President Fuad Masum had approved Law No. 76 of 2017, which stripped Palestinian refugees living in Iraq of their rights and classified them as foreigners. The law came into effect after being published in the Iraqi Gazette.
The new law replaced Law No. 202 of 2001, issued by former President Saddam Hussein, forcing the Iraqi state to treat Palestinians as equals to Iraqis, with all privileges and citizenship rights, such as tax exemption, opportunities to work in government departments, and access to education and health care services.
....
Until the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, roughly 43,000 Palestinians resided in Iraq since they arrived as refugees in 1948; their numbers decreased as they were targeted, killed and hundreds were arrested by US forces. Thousands suffered from organized killings, expulsion and displacement at the hands of armed Shiite militias. There are no precise figures on the number of Palestinians residing in Iraq today, yet some estimate less than 4,000 remain, some of whom live among Iraqis while others reside in refugee camps.
....
Issam Adwan, the head of Hamas’ Division of Refugee Affairs, told Al-Monitor, “The new law falls in line with the repressive circumstances suffered by the Palestinians in Iraq, because some Iraqi government parties have always accused them of supporting Saddam. In addition, they are marginalized because of their sect; those parties are against Sunni Muslims, especially since Iraq is known for its Shiite majority.”
 


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