How about guilt-tripping Muslim countries for a change? Why aren’t the wealthy Muslim countries in the Middle East resettling Palestinian refugees generally and this group in particular— stranded in camps on the border of Iraq and Syria? I know the answer, it is better to continue to make the Palestinians the poster children for all the evil inflicted by the West and Israel.
Here is a story that is a real stretch. We have written before about the Iraqi Palestinians who had been favored by Saddam Hussein. When Saddam’s government was toppled, the Palestinians became potential targets in the sectarian turmoil that followed. However, when they attempted to escape Iraq and their fellow Muslims they were not allowed into Syria (a Muslim country!).
Tragically a nine-year old Palestinian child died just recently when a truck backed over him in the camp, and the incident that happens throughout the world every day becomes a reason for a major news story from Reuters entitled, “Death of Palestinian boy highlights dangers at Iraq border refugee camp.” Huh? He was killed by an unfortunate truck accident. Would you see a headline in your town about a vehicle accident, “Death of Anytown boy highlights dangers of Anytown?” No, of course not.
I’m not saying that life in a camp is anything but awful, however, does this warrant a major news story?
DAMASCUS, Syria, September 10 (UNHCR) – The death of a nine-year-old boy in a road accident on the Iraq-Syria border has focused attention once more on the extremely dangerous and harsh living of hundreds of Palestinian refugees stranded at a makeshift desert camp.
It’s just an excuse for the UN to once again beat the drum over resettlement of this group of Palestinians:
“This is a terrible tragedy,” said Laurens Jolles, UNHCR’s representative in Syria. “The present area is not at all suited as a location for accommodation of hundreds of Palestinians. This proves once again how important it is to find a way to relocate this group to a more suitable area.”
So, why isn’t the UN pressuring Syria to let them in, or how about neighboring rich Saudi Arabia, they haven’t resettled any Iraqis yet. I thought Muslims were supposed to be charitable to other Muslims. The Palestinians should be right up Saudi Arabia’s alley. No, its always the West. This boy and his family were scheduled to leave for Sweden, or so says the UN. Although apparently they would be among the first of these Palestinians to go to overloaded Sweden.
Few Palestinians in the border camps have been accepted for resettlement or offered shelter in third countries. Only some 300 Palestinians have gone to non-traditional resettlement countries such as Brazil and Chile. A group of 29 vulnerable women and children from Al Waleed arrived in Iceland on Tuesday this week to start new lives.
What? Muslim countries are “unwelcoming” to Palestinians?