The Arabs, to whom the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) refers as Palestinian refugees, were forced out of Iraq by rival militias. They are 735 people living in two tent camps called the Al-Hol and Al-Tanaf camps
Almost 150 people have been living for over three years in the Al-Ruweished refugee camp on Jordan’s border.
Most are far younger than the State of Israel. Even so, their status as descendants of Arabs who left or were transferred from the fledgling Jewish state during the War of Independence has seen them labeled "Palestinian refugees" by aid organizations and the Arab states that refuse to rehabilitate them.
Despite the fact that these Arabs were just recently expelled by fellow Arabs and denied entry or aid by the Arab regimes bordering their camps, the UN, as well as NGOs writing about their plight, focus on their status as Palestinian refugees.
“Largely as a consequence of their expulsion from their own homeland by Zionists upon the imposition of the state of Israel in 1948, about thirty-four thousand Palestinian refugees lived in Iraq,” writes an organization called al-Awda, which works to win return for Arabs who left Israel and all of their descendents and relatives. “According to the UNHCR, a total of about 19,000 Palestinians have left Iraq since 2003, and only 15,000 remain.”
In the years following the War of Independence, more than 600,000 Jews were forcibly evicted from Arab countries. Israel accepted the Jewish refugees, gave them citizenship and rehabilitated them.
The Syrian and Jordanian US embassies can be emailed at:
Syria: "gh1@syrembassy.net"
Jordan: "HKJEmbassyDC@aol.com"