A rchive Date
[ 01-02-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Palestine ]

http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/jacobs.html

Arab world mistreats the Palestinians

By MINDELLE JACOBS

-- Edmonton Sun

February 1, 2003

The Arab world regularly denounces Israel for its mistreatment of Palestinians while espousing undying support for the world's largest group of refugees. The sympathetic rhetoric and vows of solidarity, however, haven't been matched with concrete action, with the possible exception of Jordan.

Unlike other Arab countries, Jordan is the only Muslim state that has tried to integrate Palestinians into society. Most of those Palestinians (who make up more than half the population) have Jordanian citizenship and the same rights as other Jordanians.

As the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) noted in its 2002 world refugee survey, Palestinians in Jordan "appeared the most secure economically and legally of any of the Palestinian refugees (in the region)."

They still suffer widespread discrimination in Jordan, mind you. Palestinians are shut out from many government and teaching positions. But they lead immeasurably better lives than their fellow Palestinians elsewhere. Life in Lebanon, for instance, is abysmal for about 400,000 Palestinians who have been left languishing in refugee camps for more than 50 years.

The 2002 USCR report chronicled a long list of restrictions Lebanon has placed on its impoverished Palestinian population. They're prohibited from working in skilled professions and are unable to compete with cheaper Syrian labour for unskilled jobs. They're denied Lebanese health care and other social services and most are unable to attend Lebanese schools and universities.

Under a law passed last year, Palestinians are banned from buying land in Lebanon and aren't even allowed to inherit property already in their family's possession. In fact, Lebanon's constitution explicitly forbids the permanent integration of Palestinians.

Lebanon doesn't want to upset the demographic balance of the country by assimilating hundreds of thousands of Sunni Muslims, explains USCR policy analyst Ahmed Jabri. The 400,000 Palestinians in Syria haven't been granted citizenship but at least they're allowed to work and have access to government services. But many of them remain in refugee camps, which have simply morphed into permanent substandard housing.

Egypt has refused to integrate its approximately 50,000 Palestinian refugees, treating them as foreign residents.

The government-controlled media routinely demonize Israel, but it was Egypt that abandoned the Palestinians in the first place. Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip for two decades, until 1967, and made no effort to help the Palestinians establish a state. Likewise, Jordan, which controlled the West Bank until the 1967 war, did little to assist the Palestinians.

In contrast, the per capita income of the West Bank Palestinians skyrocketed after Israel won the territory in 1967.

"The Palestinians have felt the boot from the Arab world," says Kenneth Stein, professor of Middle Eastern history at Emory University, in Atlanta. "The Palestinians have been living in everyone else's urinal," he adds. "The Arab world just has not made the Palestinians part of its everyday agenda."

That rejection is not just because Arab states are using the Palestinians as pawns to pressure Israel, Stein says. The region's disdain for Palestinians grew out of a complex mixture of political, social and economic reasons, he says. Stein's colleague, Kristen Brustad, associate professor of Middle Eastern studies at Emory, agrees.

Arab countries are intimidated by the Palestinians' high education levels, their drive to succeed and their yearning for a democratic state, she says. "In general, Arab governments have not had the best interests of the Palestinians at heart."

The repressive Arab world actually finds the idea of a Palestinian state threatening because it could be a democracy, she adds. Some friends. Pity the poor Palestinians.

Mindelle can be reached by e-mail at mindy.jacobs@edm.sunpub.com. Letters to the editor should be sent to letters@edm.sunpub.com

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Cross-Indexed:

Arabs Hold The Key To Peace

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