Israel to allow Palestinian refugees in Iraq to return to the West Bank

Monday July 30, 2007 12:18 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News & Agencies

Israeli media sources reported on Monday that the Israeli government has agreed to allow 41 Palestinian refugees in Iraq to return to the West Bank as a goodwill gesture to the appointed Palestinian government headed by Dr. Salam Fayyad.

However, the request made by 10 Palestinian refugees in Iraq to return to their families in Gaza was denied by Israel, the Israeli online daily Haaretz reported.

Officials at the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert office confirmed the deal and said that after completing all measures set by the Israeli government and the army, the group of Palestinian refugees will be allowed into the West Bank. However, all of them have to go through a security check before being allowed in.

Israeli officials added that this action by the Israeli state is not connected at all to the Palestinian refugee situation that was caused by the creation of Israeli in 1948, and by the Israeli attack and occupation of the West Bank and Gaza strip in1967.

The Palestinian refugees in Iraq were refugees there since 1948 when Israel was created, causing 700,000 Palestinians to lose their lands and homes, and forcing them to live in refugee camp all over the Arab world.

Since 2003, when the United States invaded and occupied Iraq, the 30,000 Palestinians living in Iraq were subjected to attacks, death and forced transfer by both the USA-backed Iraqi Authorities and by the different militant groups in Iraq.

Most of those who were forced to leave Iraq are living in refugee camps on the Syrian Iraqi borders and the Iraqi Jordanian borders, along with 750,000 Iraqis. 1.5 million Iraqi refugees have managed to flee to Syria before it closed its borders. The Syrian government said that the country can't handle more refugees

The conditions in the refugee camps along the borders are very hard. Refugees are facing a lack of food, water and medical supplies in addition to repeated attacks by Iraqi armed groups. The refugees are being supported solely by the Red Cross, in a time when other Arab states have rejected repeated requests by the UN to absorb refugees.

King Abullah II of Jordan has offered a deal with Canada, through which Palestinian refugees stranded at the Iraqi borders will be given refugee camps in Canada in which to live.

bethlehem | refugees/immigration | news report ghassanb at imemc dot org