A new mark of disgrace for the Arabs

On October 19, the Palestinian-owned Al Quds Al Arabi daily carried the following lead editorial: “The last batch of Palestinian refugees left the Ruweished camp on the Iraqi-Jordanian border and headed to Brazil, after the Brazilian government agreed to host them for humanitarian reasons following the interference of the UNHCR.
These refugees spent over four years in a camp that was built in a haste inside the Jordanian territories following the war waged by the US on Iraq, to host many of those who fled the country to save their lives.
All the other Arab nationalities which fled to the camp went back to their countries or to other Arab and foreign countries except the Palestinians, after all the Arab countries refused to host them including Jordan.

“They also weren”t able to go back to Iraq because their patriots who stayed in the country following the occupation… were killed, kidnapped and tortured by hateful sectarian militia.
These Palestinians lived in difficult circumstance in the heart of a desert area where the winters are very cold and the summers very hot, without the minimum level of human services. They had done nothing wrong and their only crime was being Palestinian. For four years the latter”s children lived without schools, hospitals or the necessary food substances.

“They were neglected by the entire world and especially by the Arab countries as though a few hundred Palestinian refugees were going to affect the demographic structure of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon or the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Some countries, such as Syria and Jordan, hosted over four million Iraqi refugees but refused to open their hearts to a few Palestinians.
We do not understand these positions and can”t accept all the pretexts being formulated to justify them.
We don”t think that a state like Brazil that has nothing to do with Islam or Arabism and is over 10,000 miles away from the Arab region, has more compassion toward these refugees than the people of their own nation and creed…

“The problem of the Palestinian refugees, whether those who went to Brazil or those still trapped on the Syrian-Iraqi border, adds yet another [element of] proof to the size of the Palestinian refugees” tragedy and corroborates the necessity to include the right of return of the Palestinian refugees on the agenda of the upcoming peace conference which was called for by American President George Bush…
This is due to the fact that this point is at the core of the Palestinian cause which will not be solved permanently and in a fair way unless it is solved in an acceptable, legal and equitable way.”