Region | Palestinian Territories
'I can't believe I've been here so long'
Since 1948 Palestinian refugees in Iraq have dreamed of returning to their homeland.
- By Basil Adas, Correspondent
- Published: 00:41 May 14, 2008
Baghdad: Since 1948 Palestinian refugees in Iraq have dreamed of returning to their homeland.
They believed their presence in Iraq would take only days or weeks and then they would return to their villages in Haifa, which was occupied by Zionist gangs along with other Palestinian cities to establish the state of Israel on May 15, 1948.
Speaking to Gulf News, Khadra Abdul Basset, a Palestinian resident in the Hurriyah district of Baghdad, said: "I cannot believe I have been here for 60 years. When I was seven years old my parents came to Baghdad. I was 16 when I heard my father say that he would never have thought of leaving his homeland if he knew we would be staying so long here."
Dream
For Palestinian ref-ugees in Iraq, especially in Baghdad, no one imagined that one day Palestinians may leave Iraq and migrate to another country instead of returning to their motherland.
Abu Jaber Al Askari, an elderly Palestinian living in the Al Ghadeer district, told Gulf News: "I live in Iraq and nothing separates me from my homeland but Syria and Jordan. My son Jaber and his family left Iraq and emigrated to Brazil because of the poor security conditions and the targeting of Palestinians by militias. My son and I used to dream of going back to our village in Haifa, it was an illusion. My son left but not to his homeland but to a strange country. He left me and left his beloved country, Iraq."
Since 1948 the Palestinian population in Iraq has been estimated at 33,000. New generations of Palestinians do not speak with a Palestinian accent.
Zuhair Al Madhi, a Palestinian living in the Karada neighbourhood, told Gulf News: "After 60 years, thousands of Palestinians headed to the Iraqi-Jordanian and Syrian borders then ended up in New Zealand, Brazil, Chile and Sudan."
The Palestinian experience in Iraq has been distressing; hundreds have been killed by militias since 2003. Many young Palestinians living in the Baladyiat district say they have realised that establishing residential camps for Palestinians was in order to restrict and deprive Palestinians from being granted citizenship.
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