The United Nations refugee agency said Friday it was concerned about deteriorating conditions for Palestinians in Iraq, citing death threats against Palestinian families in one Baghdad neighborhood.
The UN's High Commissioner for Refugees said it did not know who was behind the threats, but in the sectarian strife that has roiled Iraq, many Shiites and Kurds have come to view the Palestinians living in Iraq as sympathetic to the Sunni-dominated insurgency. There is also resentment over privileges they received under Saddam Hussein's rule.
The threatening messages were found Thursday on the doors of about 100 Palestinian families' homes in the Hurriyah neighborhood of Baghdad. The threats accused Palestinians of collaborating with the ‘Nawasib,’ a derogatory term for radical Sunnis, and with followers of Saddam.
‘In the Name of Almighty God: warning, warning, warning to the Palestinian traitors,’ read an unofficial translation of the threats obtained by the UN agency. ‘We warn you that we will eliminate you all if you don't leave the area for good within 10 days.’
Besides the threats, some Palestinians who fled this week to the border with Jordan said that at least 15 Palestinians were murdered recently in the Iraqi capital.
‘They are feeling increasingly trapped, and for security reasons, many have stopped going to work and have taken their children out of school,’ said UNHCR spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis.
Another spokeswoman for the Geneva-based agency, Astrid van Genderen Stort, said they have asked the Iraqi authorities to provide increased protection for Palestinians in Iraq, adding that attacks against Palestinians appear to have increased in recent months.
There are no exact figures for the number of Palestinians who lived in Iraq before the fall of Saddam's regime, but some estimates put the number at about 50,000. UNHCR estimates about 34,000 currently live in Iraq. Many of them came to Iraq as refugees of the Arab-Israeli wars.
Under Saddam, who was eager to be seen as a champion of Arab causes,
Palestinians living in Iraq were provided with privileges like free housing, state stipends and government jobs. The largesse he showed them enraged many Iraqis in times of widespread shortages.
Scores of Iraqis attacked Palestinian homes in Baghdad in the wake of Saddam's overthrow, taking over their homes or looting their properties. That wave of attacks forced many of them to flee the country or go into hiding.
Pagonis said the agency also was concerned about 88 Palestinians who fled
earlier this week to Iraq's Jordanian border, where they were denied entry into Jordan.
The group, which has been relocated to Trebil, back inside the Iraqi border, told UNHCR that ‘the killings, disappearances and hostage-taking affecting their families, neighbors and friends had become intolerable,’ Pagonis said, adding that UNHCR is trying to provide assistance but is having difficulty reaching them.
Jordanian border officials refused entry to the Palestinians and have said the country will not take any refugees from Iraq, fearing another exodus to a country already burdened by Palestinians displaced in wars with Israel over the past six decades.