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Iraq
Iraqis evict Palestinian refugees
2003-05-10
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has expressed concern that up to 90,000 Palestinian refugees in Iraq could be evicted from their homes. The Palestinian refugees enjoyed protection under Saddam Hussein, and Iraqi landlords were forced to charge them very low rents. But since the fall of the regime, landlords have begun to evict their Palestinian tenants demanding higher rents.
No reason they shouldn't pay the same rents as Iraqis. And eviction is usually what happens when you don't pay your rent...
About 1,000 Palestinians have already been driven from their homes in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, the UNHCR said in a statement. The agency also said that dozens of Iranian refugees had been turned out of their houses by local communities in southern Iraq. The evicted Palestinians are living on waste ground or in disused buildings around Baghdad, the UNHCR said, expressing fears of a growing backlash against the Palestinian community. "I have two wounds here in my head," one of the evicted Palestinians told the BBC Arabic Service. "A group of Iraqis attacked us. They said 'You're Palestinian.' They beat me and my father up. And we were about to leave our house because we had been given notice that we were evicted." But the UNHCR said Palestinians had received much less help from the deposed regime than people imagine.
That actually doesn't surprise me. The level of inefficiency in Sammy's Baath regime was breathtaking, even by Middle East standards...
It is sending an aid convoy — including tents, blankets and cooking materials — to Baghdad to help the homeless Palestinians. Many of the estimated 90,000 Palestinians in Iraq have been living there since the foundation of Israel in 1948.
Time for the Paleos to stop acting like footballs and start standing on their own feet.
Coming to a neighborhood near you: Ein el-Hilweh!
Posted by:Bulldog

#12  When you said,"stand on your own two feet". These people have been evicted from their homeland. What would you do? What would you suggest they do? Where do you suggest they go?

I support Israel and their right to their ancestral homeland, but they were not given the right, by Balfour or modern convention to displace these people. The pals are stuck. Early last century and esp. after WWII, the Jews had a problem. The world created a solution. What? So what if we break a few eggs? Damn the palestinians? Those people should, at the very least, have been compensated and a client country (prob. Jordan) been incentivized to home them.

How much has not doing that cost Israel? How much is it gonna cost us now? Instead, we poke fun at their being displaced again? That's b.s. Bull, and you know it. They are people. Trodden down and unwanted. Americans should understand that. But even Fred and Den Beste (partly) join the dance. WTF? I guess my old prof was right.
"Make sure all your idols have clay feet."
Posted by: Scott   2003-05-11 17:02:10  

#11  Scott, there's quite a difference between suggesting a people start behaving a bit more responsibly and putting them into incinerators. I've seen poverty, and I see the consequences of self-induced poverty every time Palestinians are on TV. Apologise on others' behalf all you like; it's time they started looking after themselves (and why on earth do you suppose that, by that I mean they should murder more Israeli civilians?).
Posted by: Bulldog   2003-05-11 04:19:32  

#10  Interesting though. Iraq is evicting refugee Paleos. Now if Israel did that....
Posted by: john   2003-05-10 20:12:12  

#9  If they've been "refugees" since '48, it's long past time they faced reality, lost the stupid head-towel and started being Iraqis in stead of Palestinians.

Since they couldn't or wouldn't do that, for whatever reason, they remain strangers in a strange land.
Posted by: mojo   2003-05-10 19:05:50  

#8  "stop acting like footballs and stand on their own two feet"

Bull, are you suggesting they become boomers?
Have you ever SEEN a refugee camp? Probably three fifths female, the majority very old or very young, those able to support are out trying to do it and those that can't are left in squalor.
Maybe they should just be incinerated, huh?
Posted by: Scott   2003-05-10 17:47:21  

#7  *taps sympathy meter* Nope. -5 DB and dropping...
Posted by: Ptah   2003-05-10 16:24:29  

#6  Good riddence to bad rubbish! Maybe their buddies in Syria or Soddi-land will take them in.

Payback's a bitch, ain't it?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2003-05-10 14:29:17  

#5  Jeez, no more boomer subsidies, no more rent subsidies, the neighbors are pissed at us. Things are tough all over. Payback sucks, don't it?
Oh well, the UN will take care of us. Why should we have to take care of ourselves?
Posted by: tu3031   2003-05-10 10:21:56  

#4  Guess that's what happens when you side with a loser.
Posted by: Raptor   2003-05-10 09:08:27  

#3  A lot of them already have. I gather that quite a few of the enemy combatants we killed in the war were actually Palestinians. Especially in Baghdad, a lot of those who were doing the fighting were non-Iraqi Arabs, and a good percentage of those were Palestinians.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste   2003-05-10 07:14:26  

#2  Saddam has supported the Palestinians for quite a while. The Palestinians helped him for years politically and also in Kuwait.

Its quite clear that now he is gone many of them will pay the consequenses for their folly.
Posted by: Bernardz   2003-05-10 06:23:58  

#1  When you said,"stand on your own two feet". These people have been evicted from their homeland. What would you do? What would you suggest they do? Where do you suggest they go?

I support Israel and their right to their ancestral homeland, but they were not given the right, by Balfour or modern convention to displace these people. The pals are stuck. Early last century and esp. after WWII, the Jews had a problem. The world created a solution. What? So what if we break a few eggs? Damn the palestinians? Those people should, at the very least, have been compensated and a client country (prob. Jordan) been incentivized to home them.

How much has not doing that cost Israel? How much is it gonna cost us now? Instead, we poke fun at their being displaced again? That's b.s. Bull, and you know it. They are people. Trodden down and unwanted. Americans should understand that. But even Fred and Den Beste (partly) join the dance. WTF? I guess my old prof was right.
"Make sure all your idols have clay feet."
Posted by: Scott   5/11/2003 5:02:10 PM  

00:00