After the 1948 war hundreds of thousands of Arab Palestinians ended up displaced. Many Arab countries refused to accept these refugees and the few who did treated them like second class citizens. Several Arab nations have had boycotts against the Palestinians, and many more have expelled Palestinians throughout the years. Many Arab leaders claim to support the "Palestinian Cause", yet they treat Palestinians like political pawns.
Treatment and Rights in Arab Host States
The status of Palestinian exiles in Arab host states has had a fraught history since 1948, and in the region today their lives differ dramatically depending on their place of residence. In Jordan, for example, most of the 1.5 million Palestinians have citizenship and are well integrated socially and economically, although some 278,678 are still living in camps. Unlike Jordan, Syria has maintained the stateless status of its Palestinians but has afforded them the same economic and social rights enjoyed by Syrian citizens. According to a 1956 law, Palestinians are treated as if they are Syrians "in all matters pertaining to...the rights of employment, work, commerce, and national obligations". As a consequence, Palestinians in Syria do not suffer from massive unemployment or underemployment, and only about 111,208 refugees live in camps. At the same time Palestinians, like Syrian citizens, remain under a powerful state system in which basic civil and political rights -- such as freedom of expression and association -- are tightly controlled, and a state of emergency, in force since 1963, grants broad, unchecked powers to a vast security apparatus. In Lebanon, in sharp contrast, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are stateless and over half live in overcrowded camps. The right to work is severely restricted, and massive poverty has become the norm. The situation of the Palestinians in Lebanon deteriorated steadily in the wake of the expulsion of PLO guerrillas following the 1982 Israeli invasion. By some accounts, of the 375,218 Palestinians registered as refugees with UNRWA in Lebanon, only some 200,000 remain; others have fled from the inhospitable conditions that successive Lebanese governments have sustained over the last two decades.
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Egypt is the only Arab host country that is a state party to the 1951 Convention Relative to the Status of Refugees. However, in September 1965 the council of foreign ministers of the League of Arab States formally acknowledged certain rights for Palestinians by signing the Protocol for the Treatment of Palestinians in Arab States, known as the Casablanca Protocol. This brief document called upon member states to "take the necessary measures" to guarantee to Palestinians full residency rights, freedom of movement within and among Arab countries, and the right to work on a par with citizens.
But the protocol's good intentions clashed with subsequent developments on the ground. UNHCR notes that, "as the Palestinian nationalist movement came into conflict with the governments of the Arab states, the legal status of the Palestinians diminished. As a result, few Palestinians in the Arab world now enjoy a secure right to remain in their country of residence."
For example, as the Palestinian liberation movement gained momentum, this created political and sovereignty tensions within some host countries. This was further exacerbated by attacks on Israel and Israeli citizens carried out by Palestinian guerrillas from the territory of those host countries which then bore the brunt of reprisals from Israel - often resulting in deaths and injuries to the local civilian population. In Jordan, Palestinian fighters clashed several times with the Jordanian army and were finally expelled in 1971. In Lebanon, they became embroiled in a civil war, and their attacks on Israel lead to an Israeli invasion in 1982 and their expulsion from Lebanon.
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Egypt
In Egypt, for example, Palestinians experienced worsening treatment after the signing of the peace treaty with Israel in 1978. According to one study, Palestinian students were, until 1978, "treated like the Egyptians who received free education in schools, universities and institutes." Then the government gradually began to impose hard currency tuition fees for Palestinians, treating them as foreigners, and "banned Palestinian students from joining colleges of medicine, pharmacy, economics, political science, and journalism." In addition, presidential decrees in July 1978 (No. 47 and 48) "canceled earlier decisions which treated the Palestinians like the Egyptians. The Ministry of Human Resources also prohibited the employment of foreigners including Palestinians in trade, particularly imports and exports, except those who were married to Egyptians for more than five years."
More recent and extreme examples of punitive treatment of Palestinians as a byproduct of regional politics include Kuwait's expulsion of tens of thousands of long-term residents in the wake of the 1991 Gulf war (leaving the Gazans among them who carried Egyptian travel documents with nowhere to go because the Egyptian government denied them entry), and the Libyan government's move in 1995 to demonstrate its displeasure with Arafat's peace negotiations with Israel by not renewing the one-year residency visas of some 30,000 Palestinians and beginning summary deportations.
Egypt again provides an illustration of the restrictions on freedom of movement of resident Palestinians. Under Law No. 28 of 1960, Palestinians were entitled to receive Egyptian travel documents, but these documents "did not grant the bearer the right to enter Egypt unless a visa is obtained from the Egyptian consulates abroad beforehand." Thus, holders of such documents who were born in Egypt or who have lived there for most of their lives have no automatic right to stay in or reenter the country, but must renew their visas every six months to three years. Human Rights Watch is aware of cases of Palestinians born in Egypt who have been trapped abroad because Egyptian consulates denied their entry visa requests in summary fashion, without providing reasons. Advocates of Palestinian refugees' rights cite these and other examples to underscore the fragility of the refugees' residency in host countries, and the pressing need for a more secure legal status that offers firm guarantees of freedom of movement.
Lebanon provides the clearest example of a host state's denial of rights, use of refugees as political pawns, and illegal discrimination. In Lebanon, many Palestinians are preoccupied with basic survival, overwhelmed by poor physical conditions in the refugee camps, pervasive poverty, high unemployment and underemployment, and inadequate medical services. Successive Lebanese governments have consistently opposed the permanent resettlement of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, and state policies reflect this stance, denying virtually all social and economic rights. In addition, the state has prohibited the expansion of existing refugee camps, which contributes to overcrowding and illegal and unsafe building of additional stories on existing structures.
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In addition, various legal barriers prohibit Palestinians from practicing in Lebanon as doctors, pharmacists, engineers, lawyers or journalists. Laws, decrees, and regulations of professional associations specify that members must hold Lebanese nationality for at least ten years or that there must be reciprocity of treatment for Lebanese professionals in the country of citizenship of the foreign professional applying to practice in Lebanon. For example, the journalists' syndicate restricts membership to those who have been Lebanese citizens for at least ten years, as does the bar association. Medical, pharmacy, and engineering associations in Lebanon all have regulations that require reciprocal treatment as conditions for membership, which by definition excludes Palestinians who are stateless. These rules open the door for exploitation of some Palestinian professionals, such as engineers, who have described to Human Rights Watch how they have obtained "illegal" jobs at Lebanese firms but have no benefits and cannot sign official documents for work that they have supervised.
On February 27, 2004, Reuters reported that people living in PA controlled areas are becoming increasingly critical of their leaders. This supports previous comments from the AP, late last year, that the Arab world is manipulating the Palestinian cause to the detriment of the people themselves. Reported again in the “LA Times”, on January 4, the article states that most Arab countries have denied citizenship, jobs and education to anyone claiming Palestinian ancestry. The article quotes 35-year-old Mohmoud Zahar: "We can't own a house, land or get a loan from the bank, despite the fact that I was born here (in Egypt) and have no idea what is Palestine”. A Cairo-based Palestinian writer, speaking in the same article says: "The language of the (Arab) governments and media is in one direction and the real practices on the ground are totally the opposite.”
Hisham Youssef, spokesman for the 22-nation Arab League, acknowledged that Palestinians live 'in very bad conditions,' but he said the policy is meant 'to preserve their Palestinian identity’. “If every Palestinian who sought refuge in a certain country was integrated and accommodated into that country, there won't be any reason for them to return to Palestine,” AP reported. Jordan would be a clear exception to this pan-Arab policy, where Palestinians are granted full citizenship and rights. As a result, except the 13% living in UNRWA camps, Palestinians are being progressively integrated into Jordanian society without international welfare subsidies. This would make sense because the Palestinians are Jordanians to begin with.
Col. Moammar Gadhafi's decision to expel 30,000 Palestinians from Libya has been greeted with dismay in the Middle East, where Arab countries have no intention of opening their doors to the would-be settlers.
Lebanon already has denied entry to several thousand Palestinians who arrived on two ships from Cyprus and Greece without Lebanese travel documents, and Friday it banned maritime transport from Libya in hopes of cutting off the flow of deportees. About 350 Palestinian from Libya with proper documents were allowed to enter.
Other Palestinians remained stranded at sea or at the Al-Saloum checkpoint on the Libyan-Egyptian border. Egypt has allowed Palestinians with Israeli permits for entry to Gaza or the West Bank to cross Egypt, under escort, to the Palestinian-ruled areas. Those without permits would be turned back by Israel, Egyptian officials said.
Gadhafi shocked the Arab world Sept. 1 when, speaking at a public rally to celebrate the 26th anniversary of the coup that brought him to power, he called on Arab governments to expel Palestinians and send them back to Gaza and to the West Bank as a means of punishing Israeli and Palestinian leaders for making peace. There are an estimated 4 million Palestinians living outside what was once Palestine.
"Since the Palestinian leaders claim they have now got a homeland and a passport," Gadhafi said, "let the 30,000 Palestinians in Libya go back to their homeland, and let's see if the Israelis would permit them to return. That's how the world will find out that the peace it's been advocating is no more than treachery and a conspiracy."
Gadhafi earlier had ordered hundreds of Palestinians, Egyptians and Sudanese out of Libya as a result of disturbances in the city of Benghazi in June. Reports from Libya at the time said those deported were Muslim fundamentalists. Gadhafi has referred to fundamentalists as heretics.
Exactly how many Palestinians have been expelled from Libya since Sept. 1 is unclear. Palestinian dissidents in Beirut, who do not support the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, place the number between 1,000 and 2,000. One Beirut newspaper reported last week that up to 15,000 Palestinians were preparing to leave Libya for Lebanon, but Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's government has made it clear it doesn't want them.
The Palestinian issue in Lebanon, where 300,000 Palestinians still live, is a sensitive one, as many Lebanese blame the heavy-handed tactics of the Palestine Liberation Organization for helping spark 15 years of civil war that began in 1975. The PLO operated as a state within a state here until being driven out of Beirut by Israel in 1982.
There is near-unanimous agreement in Lebanon against letting the Palestinian refugees here remain permanently. Many of them are refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and live in squalid communities on the outskirts of Beirut and in Sidon. They have no work permits and no citizenship anywhere.
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Iraq under Saddam Hussein was one of the few Arab countries that didn't mistreat its Palestinian population. Saddam Hussein took many Palestinians into his country and gave them a privlaged status that not even many Iraqis got. Once Saddam was removed from power, Palestinians lost many of the privlages they had and many Iraqi civilians turned against them. Some Iraqis refered to Palestinians as "terrorists". Many Palestinians have fled Iraq since the war.
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According to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are 42,000 Palestinian refugees and dozens of Sudanese nationals living in Iraq.
Sudanese and Palestinians were favoured and welcomed by Saddam Hussein because he had a policy of helping under privileged Arab communities, and these two groups in particular, due to the political circumstances in their respective countries.
However, many Palestinians were recruited into the Baath party as a result and felt obliged to participate in politics due to assistance they were receiving from the government.
Now, both groups complain of discrimination as US and Iraqi forces carry out strategic security operations to flush out foreign fighters.
"Many families from these backgrounds have been suffering from discrimination in Iraq and are being forced to leave their homes. Some have even been forced to leave the country," a senior official for the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS), who preferred not to be named for security reasons, said.
The official continued, saying that living conditions for displaced Sudanese and Palestinians were deteriorating and that urgent action was needed from the new government.
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Arabs of different nationalities, particularly Sudanese and Palestinians, received special treatment during Saddam Hussein's regime, mainly for political gain. This included free education, medical treatment and in some cases housing allowances.
However, following the conflict in April 2003, these benefits were stopped. Schools and universities started to charge them for education and most of the residents who were receiving housing allowances were evicted from their homes in Baghdad.
Aid agencies have been able to assist in some cases, but insecurity has hampered reconstruction and resettlement efforts.
"Palestinians are people who depend from the good heart of their Muslim brothers. Saddam was taking care of us because he understood our situation, but people now just know how to make us displaced again and accuse us of being terrorists," Muhammad Fadel, a Palestinian and father of five said.
He added that he was now squatting at a friend's house after being kicked out of his home. Palestinians were recruited into the Baath Party in large numbers during Saddam's time, some explained that they were obliged to do so in order to receive ongoing benefits from the government.
Others said that Iraqis started to accuse them of being responsible for the poor economy in the country, as Saddam was taking from the Iraqis to give to them and accused Palestinians of being part of his intelligence service.
"Many of my friends turned their backs on me after the recent war saying that money spent on us should be used for Iraqis. I tried to explain that it was help and nothing else and that we are brothers," Fadel said.
Aid agencies are concerned that continuing complaints of discrimination could lead to increased displacement in a country which already has some one million people uprooted from their homes.
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"We are not inside Iraq and this makes the situation more complicated for us to get the full picture of the Sudanese and Palestinians' situation inside Iraq as well as for other returnees," Verney explained.
"If the government does not take an initiative to help us, we will be victims of this violence against Arabs. I just want asylum in a country which will treat me as a human being and not an animal and criminal," Palestinian resident in Baghdad, Mariam Omar said.
Abbas to Iraq: Stop Killing Palestinians
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in Iraq by Iraqis belonging to various political and religious factions over the past few months, Palestinian Authority officials here told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
In the past week alone, three Palestinians living in Baghdad were kidnapped and brutally murdered, the officials said. A week earlier, gunmen kidnapped and murdered Nawaf Mussa, a Palestinian who was working as an imam in a Baghdad mosque.
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday phoned several Iraqi government officials and representatives of various groups in Baghdad, urging them to intervene to stop the killings.
The PA, according to the officials, has also requested the intervention of the US and the UN.
"Palestinian refugees in Iraq are being targeted on a regular basis," said Azzam al-Ahmed, a former PLO ambassador to Iraq. "We are doing our utmost to stop this vicious campaign."
Ahmed said US troops in Iraq had managed to thwart several attacks on neighborhoods where large numbers of Palestinians live, saving many lives.
Ahmed said Abbas had phoned Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and other government officials and asked them to provide protection for the Palestinians.
"The situation is very tense," Ahmed said. "Sadly, many Iraqis, especially the Shi'ites, see the Palestinians as allies of their rival Sunni brothers. The Palestinians are not involved in the conflict between the Shi'ites and the Sunnis."
The families of thousands of Palestinian refugees in Iraq appealed this week to the PA leadership to launch a worldwide campaign to stop the killings. The families demanded that the PA move all Palestinians from Iraq into other countries.
Ala Muhanad, a spokesman for the families, told the Post it was time that all Palestinians leave Iraq.
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The PLO's acting ambassador to Iraq, Dalil Kassous, accused elements of the Iraqi security forces of standing behind many of the attacks. He said members of the Dhi'eb (wolf) division in the Interior Ministry attacked a Palestinian community east of Baghdad with rockets and mortars last week.
He said gunmen also tried to storm a mosque frequented by Palestinians in the Baladiyat neighborhood in Baghdad. According to Kassous, Palestinian gunmen managed to repel the attackers and even took one of them prisoner.
In another recent incident, Iraqi militiamen kidnapped and murdered the two brothers of a former PLO diplomat. Their bullet-riddled bodies were discovered in the Thawra neighborhood.
Many in Lebanon blame Palestinians and the PLO for Israel's invasion in the 80's. Palestinians living in Lebanon are generally poor and regularly discriminated against by the government and the locals. Palestinians face very tough passport restrictions and many of them have been stranded outside of Lebanon for failing to comply with the complicated and freguently changing Lebanese passport rules for the Palestinians
With Palestine, Against the Palestinians
“We are against the settlement of the refugees in any country,
but the host countries should provide the refugees with
a dignified living.… The host countries should allow the
refugees to work, to live and to move in dignity until they
achieve their right of return.”—Palestinian Cabinet
member, Saeb Erekat, in December 2003.
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon live in some of the worst conditions outside the Occupied Territories -exiled to decaying refugee camps and barred from schools, hospitals, jobs, and city halls across the country. For more than 55 years, Lebanon has systematically imposed a host of draconian restrictions on resident Palestinians to prevent their integration and to signal to the international community that it considers Palestinian refugees to be an international, not a Lebanese, problem.The government of Lebanon rules out all discussion
of refugee rights by raising objections to the permanent implantation of Palestinians into Lebanese society. It argues that an implantation-tawteen in Lebanese political jargon-will tip the political balance of religious and ethnic groups in the country. The tawteen issue, however, involves naturalization of the refugees rather than interim rights pending a durable solution. Lebanon considers the issues to be one and the same, and treats the Palestinian refugees as a security problem, rather than a humanitarian crisis. In this paper, the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) examines the systematic denial of UN Refugee Convention rights to Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, a population that has been warehoused since 1948.
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"Crumbling buildings-their walls riddled with bullet holes-remain as testament to the wars of the past 50 years. Lebanon prohibits rebuilding camps damaged in war, enlarging existing camps, or building new camps. Armed soldiers monitor entrances, searching for materials the refugees might use to repair their homes."
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An April 2001 law does notallow "anyone who is not a national of a recognized State, or anyone whose access to property is contrary to the Constitution's provisions relating to 'Tawteen' to acquire real rights of any nature." This law also prohibits Palestinian refugees from inheriting property already in their family's possession. While the government of Lebanon freely issues travel documents to Palestinian refugees, it did not always guarantee their readmission. In 1994, Lebanon created a new law requiring Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon to obtain exit and re-entry permits. Five years later, the government lifted this requirement. According to the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the precedent discourages both Palestinian refugees from going abroad and other states from granting them visas, for fear that a new revision may suddenly require a return visa to Lebanon.
This is a great article discussing Arab treatment of Palestinians. The article is far too long to post the whole thing on this page, but I strongly recomend everyone read it. The whole article can be found here.
Shortly after the first Gulf war Kuwait expelled around 440,000 Palestinians living in the country due to Arafat and the PLO's support for Saddam Hussein and Palestinian support for the invading Iraqi army. This article goes into detail about the life of the few remaining Palestinians in Kuwait.
Kuwait: The Scars of War (this is a dead link. check out THIS one for now while i update this)
KUWAIT - For most of the world, the Gulf War is part of history, but not for the people of Kuwait who saw their country slip through their fingers and then miraculously returned thanks to an international military alliance led by the United States.
Most of the scars of the Iraqi occupation are wiped clean from the towns and villages of the oil-rich state except for a few shell-pocked buildings, hundreds of empty apartments once inhabited by Palestinians and a vast desert “museum” housing thousands of destroyed Iraqi tanks, artillery, rockets and patrol boats which act as a reminder of the nightmare.
But the physical aspects are minimal compared to the economic, social and even psychological impact of the war.
Seldom is a conversation with a Kuwaiti citizen or resident concluded without mentioning the Gulf War — sometimes more than once — and for good reason.
Imagine a country of only 1.4 million people where nearly half of its residents and 70 percent of its 600,000 labor force are foreigners. Also imagine that a large chunk of the specialized labor force consisted of Palestinians who have now been expelled from the country because of alleged collaboration with the invading Iraqi army.
No one insists that the Palestinians ran Kuwait’s infrastructure, however their departure has in fact had its impact on the economy.
“One of my best craftsmen was a Palestinian. I have not been able to replace him with the available Indian, Pakistani or Egyptian worker,” a Kuwaiti factory owner said recently. “No, do not use my name,” he added swiftly.
Palestinians were prominent in every aspect of Kuwaiti life. From regional police chiefs, to top government administrators and from the banking sector to skilled labor, Palestinians were a visible part of everyday life.
The so-called Palestinian elite was part of the social circle, while the working class made its marks on the marketplace and the once-active labor unions.
Today, the Palestinians are all but out of the Kuwaiti scene — discredited by citizens and government alike. The few “lucky” enough to be allowed to stay, maintain a low profile for fear of expulsion.
The Gulf War has also had a sobering effect on Kuwaiti citizens. They are more cautious and protective.
“There is a general sense of betrayal. It started with the Palestinians, but has quietly translated into similar reservations toward other Arabs in general,” a western diplomat said recently.
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This site notes:
The Government have been deeply concerned about the reports of the illtreatment of Palestinians following the liberation of Kuwait. It seems clear that there was a backlash from some Kuwaitis not only against suspected collaborators but against Palestinians in Kuwait in general.
Saudi Arabia has been known to discriminate against its non-Muslim citizens and against women. What many dont know is that Saudi Arabia also discriminates against Palestinians. Here is one example:
The IJ [immigration judge] recognized, based on Ahmed’s testimony, that Palestinians in Saudi Arabia are relegated to officially sanctioned second-class status incorporated into the legal and social structure of Saudi Arabia. Ahmed sought to portray this treatment as persecution providing grounds for asylum. He testified that although his parents have lived in Saudi Arabia for 50 years and Ahmed was born in the country, neither he nor his parents have been able to obtain Saudi citizenship because Saudi Arabia reserves citizenship for people of Saudi descent. To remain in the country, Palestinians must renew their residence permits every two years for a fee of 2,000 Riyals (about $530). Palestinians must also be "sponsored" by a Saudi Arabian citizen to own real property, work, or own a business. To illustrate the harsh effects of this requirement, Ahmed related that his father had successfully operated and
expanded a grocery store for 15 years, only to see his Saudi sponsor - the de jure owner of the store - take the business away once it became profitable. Each time a Palestinian wishes to change jobs, he must change sponsors for a fee of 6,000 Riyals (about $1,600).
Ahmed testified about his experience while growing up in Saudi Arabia. He was barred from certain activities during high school and initially was not allowed to attend a university because he was an alien. Although he was able to gain admission to King Saud University in Riyadh because of his talent for soccer and the connections of a family friend, he was forced to study political and administrative science at the university because aliens could not choose their own topic of study. After graduating from the university and searching for a job for more than a year, Ahmed was hired in 1993 to sell cars. He testified that he was paid one-third as much as his Saudi counterparts and had to work significantly longer hours.