Treatment Frustrates Palestinian Refugees...

[cantwealljustgetalong]

...

Palestinians in Egypt must tolerate restrictions on employment, education and owning property. When Egypt announced in September that it would grant nationality to children of Egyptian mothers married to foreigners, it did not include Palestinians.

In Lebanon, nearly 400,000 Palestinians live in 12 refugee camps, where crime is rife and clashes between rival Palestinian factions are common. Palestinians cannot own property or get state health care.

...

Things are better for Jordan's 1.7 million Palestinians, who are nearly one-third of the population and enjoy Jordanian citizenship. But relations have a tumultuous history. A Palestinian assassinated Jordan's king in 1951, and two decades later Jordan fought a war against Yasser Arafat and his Palestine Liberation Organization. In recent times the government has steadily moved to "Jordanize" jobs in the army and other sensitive areas, like state radio and television and the Interior Ministry.

The result, say Palestinians, is that they are discriminated against in getting such jobs, even though no law officially bans their employment.

...

Syria, with a population of 18 million, is a strong verbal supporter of the Palestinian cause, but refuses citizenship to its 410,000 Palestinian refugees.

Hisham Youssef, spokesman for the 22-nation Arab League, acknowledged that Palestinians live "in very bad conditions," but said the official 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," he said.

The PLO tends to agree with that line, while adding its voice to demands for better treatment of the refugees.

...

"We can't own a house, land or get a loan from the bank, despite the fact that I was born here and have no idea what is Palestine," Zahar said.

"It is an evil hypocrisy," said prominent Palestinian writer Mureed al-Barghouti, who lives in Cairo. "The language of the governments and media is in one direction, and the real practices on the ground are totally the opposite."

...

"All the Arab countries want to keep this problem looking like an open wound" to keep world attention focused on Israel's occupation of Palestinian land, said Ana Liria-Franch, regional representative in Cairo for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

...

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-adfg-palestine4jan04,1,6405678.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage

[Jim Sagle]

1. Let's see how many of the Palestine Firsters on this board care enough to

even post here.

[vierundzwanzig]

2. A message from a pro-Palestinian

Jordan killed 20,000 Palestinians in an uprising. The PA and the rest of the leadership is corrupt as it gets.

I am an ardent supporter (and recent visitor) of Palestine but these people get screwed from both ends.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see why militants march to Tel Aviv.

I have seen them and they don't come out of Arafat's compound.

[bluesoul]

3. Hey I care

I know their Arab brothers aren't treating them any better. But then it's Israel that's occupying their land, building a wall and not Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt or Syria...

[GabysPoppy]

4. And before that

I guess these peoples never claimed that parts of Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt or Syria were theirs also at previous times?

[Kayla]

5. Thank you

for the reality check.

:yourock:

[Kayla]

6. Computer turned into Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey

dupe

(or Hal really, really agrees with GabysPoppy as do I!)

[Gimel]

7. Egyptian discrimination

Is there a security reason for this discrimination? I see none. Yet who is raising any objections and claiming ethnic cleansing here?

Palestinians in Egypt must tolerate restrictions on employment, education and owning property. When Egypt announced in September that it would grant nationality to children of Egyptian mothers married to foreigners, it did not include Palestinians.