Well, well, this story inspires more questions about the issue of Iraqi Palestinians efforts to get into the West. We reported a few weeks ago that approximately 1350 Palestinians from Al Waleed would be coming to the US. Now those at Al Tanaf are holding a sit-in demonstration to demand resettlement in Italy?
BAGHDAD, (PIC)– Palestinian refugees in Iraq taking refuge in Tanaf refugee camp on the Iraqi-Syrian borders on Saturday staged a sit-in before the UNRWA tent demanding their immediate evacuation from the desert camp.
The 168 refugees asked for immediate mechanism by which they could be transferred from the desert to Italy that announced readiness to accommodate them.
The protestors, who included men, women and children, handed the UNRWA representative a protest note, asking for an immediate end to their tragedy that has been ongoing in the open desert for years.
They said that their sit-in would continue until their demands were met, adding that escalatory steps would be adopted in the event those demands remained unrealized.
I thought these Iraq/Syria camps were administered by the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) not UNRWA. The latter is the UN agency specially set up and specially funded that keeps the whole Gaza Palestinian mess going for decades. If UNRWA is in Al Tanaf, then why aren’t they processing these Iraqi Palestinians to Gaza? Why aren’t the Palestinians demanding they go back to their Muslim brothers in Gaza?
And, how did Italy get into this issue? I thought Italy was having enough problems with Muslim immigration?
Then this next part really ticked me off! The Palestinians living in Iraq were friends of Saddam Hussein and living there at his invitation. Once Saddam met his end, the Shiites who were forced to accomodate the Palestinians took their revenge. There has NEVER been any suggestion that Americans participated in persecution of Iraqi Palestinians!
Hundreds of Palestinian refugees in Iraq had fled their homes in the wake of the American occupation of Iraq after sectarian militias and the American occupation forces detained and tortured many of them leading to the death of tens of refugees.
Maybe we should re-think admitting 1350 Palestinians if they are promoting the lie that Americans persecuted them in Iraq! Maybe they aren’t such a safe security bet?