Washington Post article on Ruweished

Anthony Shahid interviews a Palestinian at Ruweished camp, Samir Abdel-Rahim, for the Washington Post. Robert Breen, the representative of the UNHCR in Jordan says of Ruwesihed: "I can't recall ever having seen this kind of situation in such a bleak environment. They can't go backward, and they aren't moving forward. They're literally stuck in the desert -- no way back, and nowhere to go."Abdel-Rahim's wife recalled the fate of her brother, Marwan Lutfi. Members of a Shiite militia, wearing police uniforms, entered his tailor shop on Baghdad's storied Rashid Street in April 2006, she said. His co-workers told her that the militiamen asked him to come with them for 15 minutes. "He walked with them," she said. For a moment, she was silent, tears welling in her eyes. "He never returned." Four days later, her brother's body was found in the street, covered in acid burns, she said. He had been shot 21 times.

Palestinians from Iraq in India

CNN in India reports on a family of Palestinian refugees from Iraq now living in India (see video). It focuses on 8yr old Jamal who's home in Iraq was bombed, his school shelled and his best friend killed. He says “I want to go to an Indian school and learn English. Children in the Iraqi school [in Delhi] do not treat me well. They call me a refugee." The report says the family has "been living off their savings and there isn't much left" as well as aid from UNHCR. The report says there are 160 refugees living Delhi, but it is unclear whether this refers to Palestinians from Iraq specifically, or refugees from Iraq in general.

Reuters report fro al-Tanf camp on Catch 22 for Palestinians

Reuters reports from al-Tanf camp: "Hameda Um Firas has lived most of her 70-odd years as a refugee - now she is stranded in a tent again at Iraq's border with Syria where hundreds of Palestinians have fled to escape violence in Baghdad. "We escaped in fear of our lives. My granddaughter was decapitated by a missile attack and our sons were killed, we fled Iraq to spare our lives," she said, barely able to contain tears of anger at Arab countries she said should be helping. "We are living in a miserable state in this camp," she said as children played in dusty lanes between white tents with clothes hanging to dry on the guy ropes. A 25-year-old who gave only his first name, Alaa, fled to the camp at the Tanaf border crossing after gunmen killed one of his brothers. "All my family are separated now, I know nothing about my brothers and where they are," he said... UNHCR spokeswoman Astrid van Genderen Stort said "The difference with Palestinians is they have nowhere to go," she said. "A lot of them have expired identity papers which the Iraqis are not extending because it's not their priority. They're in a Catch-22. They're targeted, they have death threats, they have these raids, but they can't flee and when they flee they either have to do it illegally or they are stuck at the border. Palestinians are seen as insurgents or trouble makers ... because they're Sunnis."

200 Palestinians from Iraq in Cyprus

The Cyprus Mail reports that 200 Palestinian refugees who fled from Iraq are in a desperate financial situation and claim the immigration authorities are not adequately helping them. The group’s spokesman, Abu Ahmed, told the Mail that the 40 families have been on the receiving end of stalling tactics designed to stop them applying for asylum. "Every time we go to the Larnaca immigration office, we are told to come back in a week. When we return in a week, we are told to go back again in ten days. This situation has been going on for the last two months now. No reason for the delays is ever given. The officers are so rude and aggressive and are constantly shouting at us. Because of their delays, we are now living in fear of being arrested, as we are technically on the island illegally." Ahmed also says that the group has not been given free legal advice, which is their right.

Ahmed said the group left Baghdad following attacks on the camp in which "At least 500 people were killed, kidnapped or arrested. With everything going on around us, we couldn’t stay at the camp and had to leave before it was too late. We couldn’t go to any other Arab country as we’re Palestinian and decided to come to Cyprus as many of us had been to the island before on holiday and found the people sympathetic to us. We felt we would be safe here as our people are similar to one another."

Doros Polycarpou, President of KISA, Action for Equality, Support and Anti-Racism, described the Palestinian’s plight as, “very serious”, adding that they are "being denied the right to apply for asylum, which they are entitled to. The law is very clear: From the first moment that they arrived on the island, they should have been looked after, not had life made difficult for them." The group’s lawyer said it was regrettable that they had experienced delays, but said that she had been in touch with the relevant immigration authorities, "who will now be accepting asylum applications from the individuals in question."

Interview with Fu'ad Ahmed

IRIN interviews Fu’ad Ahmed is a 47-year-old Palestinian father of two who has been living in Iraq for the past 18 years. "My children grew up here and we always had good relations with all Iraqis but in the past few years my situation in this country has become terrible. My daughter, Hanan was married to an Iraqi but was forced to divorce him because his family didn’t want to have Palestinian blood in their future children. My son Waleed and his wife were killed in July 2006 by militia men who accused him of participating in the insurgency, but he was a good boy. Since his death my wife has developed serious psychological problems. Because I am unemployed, I cannot afford medical treatment for her. I haven’t had a job now for the past three years. When employers learn that I’m Palestinian they just give me a silly excuse and tell me to look elsewhere. We fled our home in September last year and became displaced [because of the violence in the neighbourhood]. Since then, we have been constantly on the move, looking for a more secure place. But the violence is getting more dangerous day by day and with Palestinians targeted, no one wants us near them. I have to look after my sick wife, my daughter who is suffering from depression since her husband left her and my grandchild after my son was killed. I don’t have money to leave Iraq. All my savings were stolen by Iraqi soldiers when they raided my home in December 2005. I went to a police station to seek help to recover my money but the only answer I got was that I should be thankful to be alive because Saddam’s followers were being killed every day."

"I’m desperate. I have no job, no food, no home and no respect. I don’t want to become a beggar in Baghdad’s streets but if the situation continues like this, I don’t know if I can it stand any longer. I spend all day in the streets looking for a job. Sometimes I am hired to clear somebody’s garden because they don’t know I’m Palestinian and I can get a few dinars to buy food for my family. We try to cope with fewer meals so that we can survive for a longer time. Now, my food ration has been cut off and my son was expelled from dentistry college in his fourth year before he was killed. They told him that they were tired of giving free education to people who never helped to build the country. The situation got worse when we asked for psychiatric treatment for my wife in a public hospital. He [the doctor there] was rude and refused to attend to my wife and daughter saying that he is not paid to treat ex-regime supporters. Today, I’m living as a displaced person on the outskirts of Baghdad but tomorrow I might be in a grave if someone doesn’t help us soon."

Interview with Masawabi family in Gaza

Al Jazeera interviews a Palestinian family who escaped from Baghdad to Gaza: The Masawabi family fled Iraq and came to Gaza after the father was shot dead on his doorstep. Hanaa Masawabi, left, said in Iraq she live in fear of her children being kidnapped But though the trauma they lived through in Baghdad is still fresh in their minds, Hajja Haniya and her daughter Hanaa feel safe now. Haniya said: "We fled after my husband was killed. My daughter and her husband were also threatened. There was no place for us anymore. "We didn't flee from the people. Our neighbours cried for what happened to us." Like most Palestinians from Iraq, all they had were refugee travel documents that expired. Now, they have no travel documents and no passports. Hanaa went through a hellish journey to get to Gaza. In Cairo, Egyptian authorities would not admit her into Egypt while Iraq would not receive her back because her stay permit had expired. Caught between two countries she was deported back and forth for 19 days. Countless interventions later, she and her family were finally allowed to make it to Gaza. Hanaa said: "I'm finally settled. I used to live in fear that they would kill my husband or kidnap one of my children. Now I can sleep at night without fear."

An insight into life in Ruwaishid camp

CBS reports from Ruwaishid camp on the miserable conditions there, interviewing Miriam, who has lived there with her husband and two small children since 2003: "Thinking they would spend a few weeks in Jordan at the most, they left with the clothes on their backs and ended up in this tent 50 miles from the border with Iraq, surrounded craggy desert as far as the eye can see. They've been here ever since. The tents are of a thick canvas held together by steel poles and reinforced on the inside with plastic sheets and military-style blankets. Most don't have electricity. Residents bring buckets of water stored in raised communal tanks. Inside Miriam's tent, the smell of a small gas heater fills a room that's dark and stuffy, even in the middle of the day. Since the camp is in the middle of the desert, there's very little to do. "Just sitting here, we've become bored and mentally tired," Miriam says. People in the camp have stopped leaving their tents, she says, and the makeshift school and handicraft activities that kept people occupied have stopped due to a lack of will and lack of funding. "Even a prisoner knows how long his sentence will be," says Miriam. She says she fights depression, and her children frequently face infections and skin disorders from the harsh living conditions. Her three-year-old son, Maan, who was born in the camp, has lesions on his legs and his head was shaved due to a skin disorder. As Miriam speaks, the wind shakes her tent's soft walls. The floor is covered with heavy blankets, to soften the uneven terrain. The tent is not solid enough to keep out mice and scorpions, and the wind whips at the bottom edges of the tent. Still, the inside is spotless, with simple wood furniture neatly arranged. A crumpled page from a 2005 calendar is pinned to the blanketed wall. Miriam says she's afraid to cook during the winter. Two years ago, a six-year-old girl was killed in her tent when the wind blew the flames out from under the gas heater. Within minutes, several tents had burned to the ground. "I'm afraid a strong wind will come through and set the whole tent ablaze," she says. Miriam and her family had lived their entire lives in Iraq. She worked in a beauty salon, speaks in an Iraqi dialect, and has never known any other place as home. Her parents fled Haifa in 1948 and headed for Baghdad. She reels off the names of several family members who have been killed, including a cousin whose body parts were returned to the family, she says, in a plastic bag."

Iraqi official admits Palestinians are targetted

Gulf News reports that Iraqi Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Lubaid Abbawi, said: "I met with [Palestinian] Ambassador Kassous and informed him that the Iraqi government is willing to provide safer places for Palestinian residents than the ones they are living in, which makes them vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Targeting Palestinians is part of the daily situation in which Iraqis live, although some cases might be addressed to Palestinians in particular."

Mohammad Al Natur, a Palestinian resident of Baladiyat said: "I hid my true identity while moving from Baladiyat district to other districts. A friend of mine helped me carry an Iraqi sport ID which doesn't mention the nationality of its holder. I also have a perfect Iraqi accent. I was born in Baghdad and I have lived here for 40 years." The misery among the people of Baladiyat district is seen at a first glance. Families live in two-room apartments. The majority of Palestinian residents sell sweets or work in restaurants selling felafel, chickpeas and beans.

Refugees speak of horrors in Baghdad

An article by Khaled Abu Toameh in the Jerusalem Post today says:"In 2006, more than 600 Palestinians were killed in [Baghdad]." Extracts from the article are below:

Nadia Othman, a 36-year-old Palestinian mother of three who fled to Jordan after 18 members of her family were murdered, said: "There are less than 10,000 Palestinians living in Iraq and most of them are afraid to walk out of their homes. My sister, who stayed behind, told me this week that she hasn't left her apartment in the Baladiyat suburb of Baghdad for the past three weeks for fear of being killed by Shi'ite militiamen. I'm very concerned for the safety of my mother and five brothers who have still not been able to escape from Iraq." Nadia's decision to leave her home came shortly after one of her brothers, Muhammad Rashid, was killed by Shi'ite gunmen. "The murderers stopped him in the street, asked for his ID documents, and when they saw that he was a Palestinian refugee, they immediately fired three bullets at his head. On the same day, they kidnapped and murdered Farid Al-Sayed, chairman of the Palestinian-controlled Haifa Sports Club in Iraq."

Another Palestinian who fled Iraq and was recently reunited with his family in the West Bank told The Jerusalem Post. "This is a real genocide. Why isn't the international community doing anything to stop this? How come none of the Arab countries has even issued a statement condemning the atrocities?" He said Palestinians who were still living in Baghdad are so afraid that they are using forged documents to conceal their true identity. "It's very dangerous to be a Palestinian in Iraq," he said. "The murderers stop you in the street and ask you to say a few sentences. If they see that you have a Palestinian accent, they make you stand against the wall and shoot you. These are ruthless murderers." In the past few months, he added, he heard "horror" stories about Palestinians who were kidnapped and brutally tortured by the Shi'ite militiamen. "Some have had their ears and noses cut off," he said. "I saw them with my own eyes. The heads of some victims were severed and sent to their families. Many families have had their homes ransacked before they were forced to leave."

Zakariya Al-Agha, head of the PLO Refugees Department, said: "Just last week another four Palestinians were abducted and brutally murdered in Baghdad. Our people in Iraq are facing ethnic cleansing and this is a real tragedy." According to information gathered by Agha's department, some 100 Palestinians who were kidnapped in the past few months are still missing and presumed dead. In addition, the Iraqi authorities have arrested dozens of Palestinians for unspecified charges.

A Palestinian man who was released two weeks ago from prison in Iraq said his interrogators repeatedly accused him and all Palestinians of supporting Saddam Hussein's suppression of the Shi'ites over the past three decades. He had been kidnapped together with 40 Palestinians from the Amin neighborhood in Iraq. "When we arrived at the prison," he said, "the Shi'ite militiamen began shouting, 'We have brought the Palestinians, we have brought the terrorists!' After they beat us for hours, they took us for questioning. They kept asking, 'Why do you Palestinians love Saddam Hussein so much? Why did you take to the streets to protest against his execution? We want all the Palestinians out of Iraq or else we will finish off all of you.'"

Atef Udwan, minister for refugees affairs in the Hamas-led government, said his office was searching for a way to allow the Palestinians in Iraq to move to the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "This requires a political solution," he said. "We need to persuade Israel to give these poor people permission to enter our territories. This is a purely humanitarian issue that must be addressed urgently."

More interviews concerning Tuesday's incidents

IRIN interviews and Iraqi police officer concerning detention of 17 men in al-Batawyen district: "There was sniper fire against a government building from the rooftop of the al-Batawyen house in which they [the Palestinians] were staying. But police later released them when they found them innocent." As regards detention of 13 men in al-Amin district the police officer said. "The second incident was just to check their legal documents." UNHCR said on Wednesday that what happened to the men during their abduction was unclear.

IRIN spoke to Khalid al-Qudsi, a 55-year-old Palestinian who lives in the west Baghdad neighbourhood of Iskan and whose relatives were among those arrested on Tuesday and who were heading to the Syrian border on Thursday. "I heard from my cousin yesterday night and he was really terrified. He told me that they can't stand it any more and that they are leaving for Syria with other families. He told me that they would prefer to live under the harsh conditions at the Syrian borders than to meet instant death in Baghdad. I have not heard from my daughter and her three kids who are stranded at the Syrian border. I last heard from her two months ago when she sent me a letter with a taxi driver. They were in a very bad situation and she said that one of her sons, who is seven years old, was sick."

Panos Moumtzis, head of UNRWA in Syria, asked Arab countries to help the Palestinians who have been stranded for months at the Iraqi-Syrian border: "We appeal to their common sense and generosity to allow them in. Having pregnant women, children and newborn babies there under snow and rain is no solution."

Interview with man abducted yestarday

The Washington post interviews one the fleeing Palestinians: The shouting in his Baghdad apartment building woke Luay Mohammed seconds before intruders broke down his door. The men, some wearing police uniforms, entered before dawn demanding identification cards, Mohammed recalled. They tore the doors off the closet, threw the television on the floor and hauled Mohammed and his two barefoot brothers outside to be blindfolded. They and 14 other men were taken to what they thought was a government office, where a man others kept calling "sir" spoke to their huddled group. "You are Palestinians. Why are you still living in Iraq?" Mohammed recalled the man saying. "You have 48 hours to leave." Within 24 hours, Mohammed was gone. The 36-year-old was among dozens of people who loaded their meager belongings onto buses at dawn Wednesday inside Baghdad's main Palestinian enclave in the Baladiyat neighborhood. They drove north toward the Syrian border, joining a growing exodus of Palestinians now following their familiar story line: an unwelcome people searching for a home... Iraqi officials said 17 Palestinian men were detained Tuesday for "investigation purposes" because they seemed suspicious, according to Brig. Gen. Saad Abdullah of the Interior Ministry. During the detention, the officials discussed steps to "get the approvals for them to be refugees in other countries," he said. The article also interviews another Palestinian who's wife was injured by a mortar last Ramadan.

Differing accounts about role of Mahdi Army

Aqeel Hussein reports for the Telegraph: Sheik Mahmoud al-Hassani, a spokesman for the Mahdi Army, said: "We are sure that all the Palestinians in Iraq are involved in killing the Shi'ite people and they have to pay the price now. They lived off our blood under Saddam. We were hungry with no food and they were comfortable with full bellies. They should leave now, or they will have to pay." (al-Hassani seems to be the leader of a fringe movement that broke away from Muqtada Sadr, so the Telegraph may be mistaken in calling him a spokesman for the Mahdi Army, which is anyway very diverse. Another report attributes "the final warning" to Palestinians in Iraq to leave the country within a month, or "pay the price" to "Muhammad al-Husseini, spokesman for Muqtada Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army". It is unclear which name is correct.)

Kareem Zakia, a 61-year-old Palestinian, said his son, Yeha Ahmed, was kidnapped and killed in the Karada area of Baghdad two weeks ago. "The kidnappers called me and told me that they had taken my son because he came from Palestine and all the Palestinians support the Sunni terrorists. I found my son's body the next day with many holes in his belly made by a drill." Ahmed Mahmood, 26, a Palestinian in Baladiat, said he had paid a ransom of nearly $6,000 to free his brother, Murad, 38. The kidnappers in Sadr City, a Shi'ite area of Baghdad, told him where to collect his brother, but he arrived to find his brother had been killed. "We found him dead with signs of torture on his body," Mr. Mahmood said. "They called us the next day and said, 'We killed your brother because all the Palestinians in Iraq love Saddam Hussein and this is what will happen to you and all your families.' " Capt. Sary Farhan, a police spokesman, said people had been arrested for the killings but later released. "All these criminals belong to Shi'ite militias and were released a few days after. They have strong backing in the government."

However the Palestinian Authority's envoy, Dalil al-Qassus, denied that the Mahdi Army have threatened Palestinians: "The Mahdi Army wouldn't act this way, since it is a confessional Islamic army and hence wouldn't harm its Palestinian brethren." He said he had "many contacts with Sadr's faction, including several parliamentarians... The Palestinians in Iraq are suffering in the same way as Iraqi citizens mainly through the instability and security problems as well as acts of aggression carried out by unknown armed group."