Palestinians in Iraq: Life on edge
The recent gruesome murder of Palestinian female doctor, Layla Ali Taha and her young daughter in Baghdad, this past Friday (4/5/2008) at the hands of Shia death squads, who murdered them in cold blood hacking them with kitchen knives then burning their bodies into charred remains shows not only the grave danger Palestinian face in Iraq, but it also shows a trend of a slow but simmering religious persecution and extermination of Palestinian Arabs at the hands of Iraqi Shias supported by Iran.
According to sources in Iraq, over 260 Palestinian were murdered in Iraq at the hands of Shia government soldiers and religious militias many of those victims were women. Among those killed was Shiekh Tawfiq Abdel Khaliq one of the most respected and honorable local Palestinian Imams, who happened to be traveling to an area of Baghdad and was stopped by a checkpoint manned by government shia soldiers and upon learning that he was a Palestinian, he was killed in cold blood.
Palestinians are being targeted because they are mainstreaming Muslims, they are not Shias and they are not Iraqis. Shia militias, receiving religious blessing from their Ayatollahs and supported by Iran military and financially, are orchestrating a campaign of murder and genocide against the helpless Palestinian refugees.
Shias hold that those Palestinian refugees whose numbers were less than 25000 before the war, were living better than the entire 30 million Iraqis and that they were Saddam’s spoiled cronies and lived better life style, while ordinary Iraqis starved.
The truth however is anything but that. Palestinians never had it better than any average Iraqi, true that under saddam they were not persecuted simply because they kept to themselves, and did not intervene in politics, for they were not Iraqi citizens to begin with despite living there for generations.
Palestinian refugees in Iraq lived in a government built system of buildings, a Ghetto that consists of 16 huge old elongated buildings, each building has 4 entrances, and each entrance has three floors and each floor has 4 apartments. That puts number of apartments in each building to 48 apartments and the grand total of apartments in the whole system would be 768 apartments all belong to the government. By law, Palestinians cannot own a property in Iraq, not today under Shia rule, not under Saddam and not before that.
Despite living in Iraq for generations, the only documentation they had was a government issued ID stamped with the word “ Palestinian” and sometimes issued travel documents if they needed to travel.
Caging the Palestinians in this ghetto, in the Baladiyat area is not an indication of a community that lived the life of riches and leisure while Iraqis starved to death so claim the Shia Iraqis and several of their holy Ayatollahs. The Ghetto consists of small apartments and shacks built in buildings courtyards and on rooftops, in order to accommodate natural growth. Any visitor to the Baladiyat area would not see wide tree-lined boulevards filled with mansions or nice villas for the Palestinians to live in.
The Palestinians true crime is that they are Arabs and more, they are Muslims in a country that has been transformed into an exclusively Shia country and looks more Iranian than Arab.
Iranians in Najaf and Karbala, Basra, and Baghdad already number in the millions according to Iraqi reports. Iranians live in Iraq freely without noticing any difference between Tehran and Baghdad or Karbala or Najaf. Persian has become a dominant language in Basra and other southern cities. Iraqi Shia Arabs feel more kinship and closer to Iran in terms of their religion and belief system than other Arabs.
As for Palestinians, the key to survive and to avoid an agonizing death at the hands Shia death squads is to never show any traces of Palestinian accent for it will for sure make them marked for death. Speaking Arabic in pure Iraqi Baghdadi accent is one way to survive on a day-by-day basis.
Another way to survive is not to venture outside the Ghetto unless it is absolutely necessary. The Ghetto has its own small business, doctors and other basic services needed to maintain a meager but precious existence. The local mosque, however, was not spared from Shia militias attempts to either burn it to the ground or from firing their guns inside it.
But for older Palestinians of the original generation that made Iraq home after 1948, perfecting an Iraqi accent could be a tricky adventure, for they still retain traces of their accents of villages and town in Palestinian cities they fled some sixty years ago such as Haifa, and Yafa. Luckily however, those older Palestinians who speak a Palestinian flavored Iraqi accent can be mistaken of being Iraqis from the northern city of Mosul, a city that looks and feels closer to greater Syria and its accent sounds closer to the Shami Arabic accent.
Most Palestinian professionals, doctors, lawyers, engineers and others have managed to leave the country by paying their way out, the same trend goes for Iraqi educated class. Iraq has seen most of its professional class especially doctors and scientists either killed off or fled the country forever.
Today, Palestinians numbers in Iraq had shrunk into 14000 thousands, almost half of what it was before the war. 2000 thousands of those are living in camp of Al-Waleed camp in the desert between Iraq, Jordan and Syria. No Arab country is willing to admit those hapless refugees or assist them. They are stranded in the desert under the care of UN higher commission for refugees and an Italian humanitarian agency, which work to arrange medical treatment for sick Palestinian children and place them along with their families in European countries that are willing to take them. Another 300 Palestinian refugees were taken in by Syria and placed in the middle of the desert in camp in the Hasakah province. Brazil had already accepted some of those refugees, and Chile also agreed to take a number of them. The only Arab country agreed to accept the Palestinian refugees is Sudan.
For Palestinians, to live in the Arab world, is to live a schizophrenic life style. Palestinians have to get accustomed to Arab governments and leaders rhetoric and speeches with words like “We support our Palestinian brothers” “ Israel is the enemy” long live free Arab Palestine” and death to Israel” the reality for Palestinians however is that they are the only ones who are doing the dying, thrown in the middle of desert, thrown in Arab government jails, getting killed, burnt to death, or hacked to pieces by the same “ brothers” who were chanting long live Palestine in the yesteryear.
Even Iranian president Ahmadi Najad whose militant pronouncements against Israel threatening her of death and destructions, rings hollow giving that only Palestinians are being killed and destroyed with his money and weapons on his behalf at the hands of his henchmen and subordinates in Iraq.
For those Palestinians in Iraq, life has been suspended and can only resume in another, more peaceful land.
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The Palestinians true crime is that they are Arabs and more, they are Muslims in a country that has been transformed into an exclusively Shia country and looks more Iranian than Arab.
Iranians in Najaf and Karbala, Basra, and Baghdad already number in the millions according to Iraqi reports. Iranians live in Iraq freely without noticing any difference between Tehran and Baghdad or Karbala or Najaf. Persian has become a dominant language in Basra and other southern cities. Iraqi Shia Arabs feel more kinship and closer to Iran in terms of their religion and belief system than other Arabs.
I hate that there are people in the world that think like you.
For clarity’s sake the cleansing that’s happening to Palestinians in Iraq right now is abhorrent and needs more attention, but criticizing the militias and political parties is one thing, characterizations of the people as a whole like this can’t be taken as anything but bigotry.
You’re a journalist? Jesus.
Freedumb to slaughter innocents in the name of a religion, just another freedumb brought to you by your lovable crusaders.
Jina, it is a freedom of sorts, it depends upon the people that exercise it. In the past only the Sunni tribes, sanctioned by the Govt, could steal property and commit crimes unpunished.
True, the war has allowed ‘freedom of sorts’ and an internal power stuggle.
I find it hard to blame the Sunni/Shia/Kurd issues on the Crusaders though.
I suspect your “freedumb’ to be applicable to the locals though.
The crimes that Mahdi Army and shiite militia are comminting, alongside the crimes of other militants from other sects in Iraq,is very dirty, I hate all the ones who back the milita at the time of war, for political reasons, because that contributes to the unrest and the pesonal attacks. If one day some shiites where being persecuted in Iraq at the time of Saddam, now that they have more power they are being as ignorant as Saddam. Religion has no role to play when people who find a position use it to take revenge and attack people who are not armed … Not all shiites were persecuted in Iraq at the time of Saddam. There had been many who served Saddam’s army and mourned Saddams downfall.
People who have started all this mess in Iraq, all the parties, not one, are responsible directly or indirectly for what is happening in Iraq. Palestinians as well had a better status in Iraq before the war. I even remember a Kurdish man from Bagdad who run an internet cafe. He said His bussiness was running and he had a moderate income and security at the time of Saddam, afterwards he never experiences security any more, he was shot a couple of times on the way to where he worked and his car exploded as it was parked by the street. As almost every one agrees that Saddam was not the right leader for Iraqis, from the time he had been chased and found and tried and hanged, many things which were moderately bearable in Iraq have been replaced by chaos and fundamentalism and tribal clashes and religious clashes and so on. With all the ugly news from Iraq I am very positive about people present at the moment in the country, from different religious backgrounds, who will try to help any one in need regardless of who they are. G-d give them the power and intergrity to help other Iraqis and help them have their normal life back, the decent life they deserve as Iraqis, children of a country with vast plains and huge river and tall and handsome plams and war striken people who patiently await calm for so long…
“The effect of liberty upon individuals is they may do what they please; we ought to see what it pleases them to do, before we risk congratulations.” Edmund Burke.
Jina, your ignorance and blatant bigotry are electrifying! Crusaders indeed!
I’m alarmed at how well you understand sarcasm. Your stupidity is unbearable.
First word in my sentence should have given it away, but hey… stupid people do exist.
And how is this bigotry? I know Americans are dumb but, you push stupidity to a new level with every comment you make. Isn’t English your first language?
I stand by my obsevation. Your vitrol is not amusing.
Amazing that no one seems to realize that it’s not about religion at all! It’s about who is going to be the “Big Kahuna”, the lead thug, the crime boss, the warlord of the area. It’s about replacing Saddam. There are many aspirants, and many seek the wealth and power that comes with the position. All the other crap is window dressing! Any sap that really believes religion is the real issue is an idiot. Religion is part of the excuse.
No Palestenians did not keep to themselves whilst they were being hosted in my country. Living, get educated and medically treated on our expense. We opened doors to them and gave them opportunities they did not get anywhere in the Arab world and they had the nerve to stand against the Iraqi people and side by our oppressors.
Palestenians were known to torture Iraqi women and men, Palestenians who were given a chance in my country did that to my people. So why on earth should they be treated well?
The problem with Palestenians is that they are hypocrites. They claim they are victims thrown out of their homes, murdered and left homeless. Well home many Iraqi families were left homeless whilst “Palestenian Saddam Lover Refugees” took over the Iraqi homes? Why is is legitimate that Palestenians misplaced and played a role in the torture and murder of many Iraqis in their own country whilst its unacceptable for the Israelis to do the same to Palestenians? Is it because they are muslims and arabs?
Coming across “educated, westernized, civilized, well read” Palestinians I always got the same response to me saying Saddam is a barbaric murderer… “Saddam, is the only man in the Arab worls, and he hasnt murdered anyone, he simply gets rid of Kurds and Shiites and they deserve it”
How many of you Palestenians can honestly say, you didnt support Saddam? How many of you Palestenians still support Saddam? Well if you have the right to hate Zionists, Israelis and their supporters (Americans) then you must understand Iraqis hostile sentiments towards you.. for you are our “Americans”
Funny thing is Palestenins in Iraq commited henious acts against Iraqis no different to what Israelis did to Palestenians. So in the end they can all burn in hell for all I as an Iraqi care…