If the Syrians and the Saudis and the Iranians, etc. wish that the Palestinians could just be allowed to live quietly and raise their children to be good and faithful citizens, then why have they not allocated to them a small plot of land and given them the chance to rebuild their lives free from the fear of Israeli rockets? Is there more to this whole conflict than just the fight for Israel and Jerusalem? Is there prejudice in the Islamic world against this group of persons, and if so then what is the reason for it? Why is no one in the mainstream media asking why the Palestinians are being treated like the red-headed step children by their Muslim brethren?
I'm going to ask. Wish me luck. I'm going to go to Middle Eastern blogs and ask them why no one will grant the Palestinians sanctuary. Inquiring minds want to know.
Here's what I'm asking:
I would first like to plead at least partial ignorance of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict (war?). That’s why I’m here. I’m seeking information. I know that the media on both sides of this conflict is slanted in their reporting. It is from the people who have lived it and/or lived nearby that we can best find the truth as they see it.
Here is my question: Why are the Palestinians still in refugee camps after 60 years? By that I mean why have no other Arab countries offered them sanctuary? It is not a large number of people compared to the population of Saudi Arabia or Egypt, for example. These countries could easily absorb the additional population. I realize that many might not wish to go, but for those who would like to leave the fighting and raise their children in peace, is there a safe place for them to go. If not, then why not?
5 comments:
There are many things about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict that are omitted by the MSM.
1) The Muslims consider an independent state of not Muslims in the M.E. an affront to their religion, as any Muslim land (anything ruled by Muslims) can not and must not be surrender to kafirs (impure people). The only place of Jews and Christians is like second class citizen (dhimmi). The status of a dhimmi is comparable to the status of a person "protected" by a mobster or a slave "protected" by his master.
2) Jews lived in Israel by the biblical times. Jerusalem was a city with a majority of Jews before the migration of Zionist Jews from Europe. What changed was the sovereignty of the place, starting with the Babylonians, the Persians, then the Hellenic Kingdoms, Rome, Constantinople, the the Caliphate, then the Crusader's Kingdoms, then again the Turks Empire and then the UK.
The majority of the Palestinians went to the Palestine during the end of XIX and the start of XX century as migrants from all the M.E. Look at the faces of the Palestinians when they gate in large crowd. You can see there are many people with different skin color.
3) UNO gave a state to the Jews and a state to the palestinians (arabs). But the Arabs refused the partitions and waged war to "throw the Jews in the sea". They lose the first time, the lose the second time and only the third time Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza and the Golan Heights and Sinai
4) The Golan Height was taken from Syria. The West Bank was taken from Jordanian, the Sinai and Gaza from Egypt.
5) Egypt occupied Gaza in the 1949 like Jordanian occupied the West Bank. When they signed the peace with Israel, Israel gave back the Sinai, but they refuse Gaza and the West Bank because they didn't want the palestinian.
6) In the 1970, during the Black September, Arafat tried to take overthrow the government of Jordanian. The king and the Army fought back and killed around 3-5.000 Palestinians and force Arafat to flee in Lebanon for his life.
7) After Arafat and his men moved to Lebanon they brought the Lebanon in a civil war lasting ten years and not completely ended until now.
8) When, after the Oslo Israel allowed Arafat back in the West Bank and Gaza, with his men (Fatah), they taken the control of the civilians there and used the schools and the TV to air propaganda and inciting the hate against the Jews. From there the standard of living of the Palestinian in Gaza and the West bank fell because of the attacks and the reactions of the Israelis.
9) in Iraq, the Palestinians are loathed and hated, because many of them used to work for Saddam as enforces.
10 ) the same is true for Iranians, because Khomeini needed to import Fatah people to start the firing squads at the beginning, because Iranians refused to shoot to their countrymen whatever the political differences. After, the Palestinians force the Iranians to shoot in the firing squads or be shot by the firing squads.
11) In the Gulf War, when Iraq invaded Kuwait the Palestinians (Arafat) sided with Saddam Hussein against the Kuwait. Many Palestinians lived in Kuwait for long years before of this. They were kicked out after.
The Arabs and the Muslims in the M.E. will never accept the Palestinians in their middle as peers (this is a Christians things) and they consider them only when they are killed. Given their past, I can not disagree too much with the Arabs on this.
The Arabs kicked out many Jews after the WW2, that were force to go in Israel. But these Jews where accepted and welcomed in Israel, adapted, and thrived. They never are objects of compensation for what they leaved.
I don't have a good answer, other than that it's how it is; I think it sucks.
extropolitca was pretty accurate (except a few minor mistakes).
a part I copied from another place I posted:
The UN security council decided in 29 Nov. 1947 to establish 2 NEW states, arabic and jewish, on a area that was not a independent country for thousands of years. The jewish people accepted the "verdict" (although some of them thought it was not fair the arab country was bigger). The arabs, well, as a whole started murderous attacks the very next morning. Nonetheless, The Jewish state was declared 6 month later (may 1948) only on the land the UN declared as belonging to the jewish state. At the same time, 5 arab armies came to fight the new state of ISRAEL (Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq). Thank the lord, Israel won. During these battles Israel conquered areas previously designed by the UN to be in the arab state, but it did not conquer it from the arab state because it was never established - they were conquered from Jordan, Iraq and Egypt. Mind you, that state was never established until 1993, because Jordan and Egypt Liked the remaining areas (called today west bank and Gaza strip) so well they did not allow them to be independent. only after 1988 when Jordan officially removed their claim on the west bank did the Palestinians start to talk with Israel about a independent state and only by a agreement with Israel did they ever establish it.
And MOM,
the refugee camp are kept by the arab roulers to keep the palestinians remember never to stop fighting Israel (that is why they do not have a citizanship in any of the "hosting states" except Jordan. As for the Israeli part, the Israelis (along with foreign aid) built in the seventies (long before the Intifada, when all was well) a new neighborhood in Jericho, right along the refugee camp, to replace it. The palestinians refused, and it is still rotting away there, unoccupied till this day.
More than that - The Palestinians are the only nation on earth having a whole UN organization to themselves (UNRWA) - this organization is financed by the wealthy arab countries to keep the refugee problem alive and well.
Johnathan
If what Johnathan says is true, I don't see how this situation could EVER be resolved. You have a posed a very good question, Mom.
Laura,
It was the nagging question that would not leave me alone as I watched the news. "Where are the other Arab nations? Why are they not helping the Palestinians?"
I asked a friend of mine who is Iraqi/Turkish and she said, "Because they are thugs." I wanted to know if that was the general consensus in the Middle East or if it was her personal opinion. It was the opinion I got everywhere except the blog of a Palestinian mother who ranted at me about wanting her people to disappear. She completely ignored the original question even when I rephrased it and asked it again. I am giving her the benefit of the doubt and going to say that she is too stressed to think straight. I know I would be.
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