After being forced from their homes, Palestinian refugees living in Iraq find themselves in a living hell, while Palestinian volunteers suffer the after-shocks of fighting on the Iraqi front. Rasha Saad reports from Baghdad "Do you think that when we die and go to heaven we will be also living in tents?" a Palestinian woman asked me. "We were displaced in 1948 and now we have been displaced again, as if tents are our fate. I tried to rent another flat, but when the owner found out we were Palestinian, he told me to go and rent a tent instead." Soha, not her real name, was sitting in her tent with her only daughter and husband in the Al-Quds camp in the Haifa sports club, one of 300 tents which are occupied by Palestinian refugees forced from their homes just days after the fall of Baghdad on 9 April. Each tent houses about eight people and the camp is supervised by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the Palestinian Red Crescent and the Iraqi Red Crescent. "My name is not important, just record the fact that I am a Palestinian woman. The important thing is that our sufferings reach everybody." Soha had been embroiled in a legal battle with the landlord of her house years before the war started. He filed several law suits against her and even obtained eviction orders. According to her, the owner was not able to oust her family because the Iraqi regime prevented him from doing so. "Three days after the US entered Baghdad, the owner of the house attacked us with some members of his clan. I was more afraid when they attacked us than when the Americans did. Without law and order or a government, they were ready to even kill us." Palestinians have been in Iraq since 1948, when 5,000 people were brought to Basra and Baghdad with Iraqi troops after the defeat of Arab forces in Palestine. The Palestinians are originally from Gab', Ain Ghazal and Egzem in Haifa; many inhabitants of this area volunteered to fight with the Iraqi troops which were stationed near their villages. Since 1948, various governments have constructed purpose-built homes in Baghdad for Palestinian refugees. The crux of the problem, however, lies with the apartments which Saddam's government rented from Iraqis at a low rate, for the purposes of letting them out to Palestinians. With the fall of the Iraqi regime, the house owners grabbed the opportunity to take matters into their own hands. Soha attacked the Arab leaders who remain oblivious of their plight. "We are a thorn in every Arab leader's side. The Israelis can go to any Arab country -- Egypt, Jordan -- but Palestinians can't. My mother lives in Jordan and has a Jordanian passport, but I am unable to enter the country," Soha said, her face turning red, as much from anger as from the high temperature, which is hitting 48�C. Soha is proud to say that the Palestinians resisted the coalition strikes for four hours in Al-Baladiyat at the beginning of the war, and she is very bitter towards the Iraqis for not taking the same stance. "Our young men resisted the strikes, while the Iraqis welcomed them with sherbets." "We [the Palestinians] had a great hope of defeating the Americans. I was born in Iraq and have been living here for 36 years and I feel betrayed by the Iraqis who laid down their arms and clapped for the Americans. Bush wasn't lying when he said they would greet them with roses." Soha feels personally betrayed as her Iraqi neighbours turned their backs on her in her time of need. "My neighbours, with whom we've lived for many years and with whom we often spent the whole day, suddenly disappeared. They didn't come to comfort me or even offer to take my luggage into their houses." Soha, like most of the Palestinians in the camp, has relatives living in the buildings opposite the club, in whose apartments they have stored their personal belongings. The relatives try to ease their ordeal by preparing food, drinks, and washing clothes. "The Iraqis accused Saddam of being disloyal, but they are all disloyal -- each in his own way. We don't want to live with people who surrendered their homeland either. If they were honest they would have ousted Saddam with their own hands, but they are cowards and hypocrites." Soha contends that Iraq is dearer to her than it is to the Iraqis. She said she was sick for three days, unable to eat, after the fall of Baghdad. "My young daughter was worried to death about me and said, 'mum you'll die. This is not our homeland anyway.' I told her I had never seen Palestine, and felt that Iraq was my homeland which is dear to me." Farouk Ali, a 40-year-old Palestinian living with his mother and nine-year- old son -- who is very obviously malnourished -- was trying to be more objective. He has seen the better side of the Iraqi nature. According to Ali, who's wife is from Iraq, the actions of the Iraqis are a result of social as much as political pressures. "The owner of our building is a Jordanian of Palestinian decent. After the end of the war, to escape the embarrassment of ousting us himself, he sold the house to an Iraqi so he could do it instead." Ali admits that the house owners were unfairly paid, and that the amount of pressure placed on them resulted in the explosive situation. The timing, he said, was critical. "They have the right to take their flats back, but not in hard times like this when we find ourselves on the street. They should have been more considerate in light of current circumstances. It was totally unfair and cruel." However, Ali still has a glimmer of hope. There are many Iraqis who are sympathetic to their plight, who visit the camp and apologise for what has happened, offering help as much as they can. "The owner of the workshop where I work as elevator technician gave me 25,000 dinars (approx $25) as a gift. He even told me to search for a flat and to pay as much rent as I can afford and he would pay the difference." Ali does, however, accuse the Iraqis of placing the blame for the many hardships they suffered under Saddam on the shoulders of the Palestinians, many of whom were accused on a regular basis of being agents of Saddam's regime. "Sweeping generalisations are to blame for this. Yes, there are some Palestinians -- mainly those who came to Iraq after the 1967 defeat -- who joined the Ba'ath Party and were subsequently recruited as security agents of the regime." He said that none of the Palestinians who came here in 1948 followed that path. "Unlike me, my brother joined the Ba'ath Party, as did most Iraqis. He fought in the war against Iran, and in the Al-Quds army, and had nothing to show for it at the end. He's as broke as I am." Ali explained that Palestinians who collaborated actively with the regime are now living in fancy buildings in the up-market districts of Al-Karradah and Al-Mansour. "Iraqis also heard about the $25,000 which Saddam offered to the families of martyrs of the Intifada, and envied us for it, but we didn't take anything here." Many Iraqis were disgruntled about the alleged privileges enjoyed by the Palestinians during Saddam Hussein's rule, in addition to the free housing. They spoke about monthly government grants, in addition to the money offered to the families of martyrs and those injured during the Intifada. Another bone of contention is the fact that Palestinians were granted passports, while ordinary Iraqi citizens had to pay roughly two million dinars, as well as obtain a recommendation from a high- ranking official, before being granted this document. Ahmed Al-Hassan, communication officer of the Palestinian Popular Committee which runs the camp, believes that the picture is a lot grimmer. He explained that Palestinians in Iraq, unlike other Palestinian refugees, are not registered with the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA), which provides relief, health and educational services to the Palestinian refugees. The Iraqi government of the 1950s, as well as subsequent governments, promised to provide welfare and services for the Palestinians, who now, according to UNHCR estimates, number 90,000. According to Al-Hassan, these services failed to meet the minimum standards of the UNRWA. He also explained that Saddam's government refused to deal with the house owners' requests to increase the rents, and the tragic situation in which the Palestinians now find themselves is a consequence of this. He also added that the Iraqi governments of Abdel-Karim Qassem in 1959 and Ahmad Hassan Al-Bakr in 1970 were responsible for constructing the bulk of Palestinian housing in the Al- Salam, Al-Horeya and Al-Baladiyat districts of Baghdad. Saddam's contribution, he said, was to build three buildings in the Al-Baladiyat area. "His statements about Palestinian rights were simply empty slogans. We, as Palestinians in Iraq, had to go along with Saddam's political agenda, which was based on Palestinians returning to their homeland; we suffered under these social injustices in order to achieve this goal." Al-Hassan argued that while an Iraqi has the right to work and live in his country, a Palestinian has no right to ownership, even if he has money. He does not own a house or even have a telephone line in his name. "There are some places in which Palestinians live, such as Al-Za'faraneya and Al- Horeya, in which the living conditions are worse than those of animals." In one corner of the camp, 64-year-old Darwish Al-Fateh was talking to his daughter in Jordan on a satellite phone. The call service was offered to the camp's inhabitants by a relief agency from the United Arab Emirates. "She wants me to travel to Al- Rweishid refugee camp on the Jordanian border [which houses hundreds of Palestinians who fled Baghdad]. Why should I take all the pain? After all, it's like going from one hell to another." Al-Fateh is pessimistic, sure that even if he went to Al-Rweishid, he would not be allowed to enter Jordan. He has two daughters there, whom he tried to visit a couple of years ago. "Only the International Committee of the Red Cross was able to let me into Jordan. I don't think it will be easy this time. I don't know why the Arab countries are rejecting us," he pondered. "My son has lived in Spain for 12 years. He called me for the first time last week after he saw me on one of the international satellite channels, and kept on crying about our conditions," Al-Fateh, who suffers from kidney problems and asthma, said sadly. Al-Fateh was nine years old when he was displaced from Haifa in 1948. "I feel like I am still nine years old. These were the years I lived in Palestine. The rest don't count for me. I still remember the place and can smell the air." Al-Fateh wears a chain with an icon of the Dome of the Rock. "I will die with it. But even if I'm not wearing the chain, Jerusalem is in my heart." In a file wrapped in the Palestinian flag, Al- Fateh keeps his 1939 birth certificate and his parents' marriage certificate, issued by the state of Palestine. "I am hopeful that one day we will be able to go back. But until then, this is all I have left from the good old days." Tale of an Arab volunteer ARAB volunteers joined Al-Quds Army to fight against the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq, but, as one of them told Rasha Saad, they ended up being scorned by the very people they believed they were defending. "I cannot believe that I am alive. I was in hell and God brought me back," said Abu Khaled, who joined other Arab volunteers in the battle at Baghdad's airport in early April. Abu Khaled's -- not his real name -- story begins one month earlier. It was back in March that Abu Khaled, a Palestinian, was deported from Jordan. Unable to immediately return to the West Bank, he had to travel to a third country. Since Iraq was the only Arab country that would allow Palestinians to enter, Abu Khaled found himself in Baghdad nine days before the Anglo-American war in Iraq. "I arrived in Baghdad and felt lost. I did not know anyone there or even what to do or where to sleep. I was later assisted by a kindly Iraqi man who paid my $100 visa fee, helped me find a room in a hotel and even paid for my stay." As the ultimatum for war approached, Abu Khaled decided to join the Iraqi resistance along with hundreds of other Arab volunteers. They were trained in Al-Sadeer district in Baghdad along with members of Al-Quds Army and the Fedayyin Saddam militia. "My group was composed of a couple hundred Arab volunteers with the majority Palestinian and Syrians of Palestinian origin. The rest were Sudanese and Yemenis. We were assigned to defend the [Baghdad] airport." Asking whether he found the training adequate for such a task, Abu Khaled said that he and all the Arab volunteers had training prior to joining the resistance. "We were all trained in military tactics. We were better trained than Fedayyin Saddam." Even though Abu Khaled was unable to determine whether the order came from Saddam Hussein or some other military leaders, he is positive that "there clearly was corruption and collusion to lose the war". According to him, logistical was inefficient and nearly half of the military hardware did not functional. While these facts were indicative of corruption and inefficiency in the Iraqi military, it was only later that Abu Khaled found cause for serious alarm. At the beginning of the war, Abu Khaled says he was shocked at the sense of panic that seemed to pervade among the Iraqi troops. "The Iraqi soldiers were scared to death, with some even fainting. I did not understand their attitude then." Now, Abu Khaled believes that the soldiers must have sensed there was a conspiracy. "It seems that they knew better than us that they were going to be sacrificed. The Iraqi leadership has indeed betrayed and killed them," he contends. Though Abu Khaled cannot accurately tell how many Iraqis joined the airport battle, he believes the number was in the thousands. "From where I was standing in the airport, I saw not less than 6,000 soldiers -- so there must have been more all over the airport." Abu Khaled cited US President George W Bush's self- confidence about how the coalition forces would capture Baghdad in 72 hours as proof of treachery in the Iraqi leadership. "No one speaks with such confidence unless there is something prearranged with some Iraqis." The feeling that something was not right intensified as the volunteers moved to the airport. Abu Khaled believes that there was no military strategy to defend the airport. "I knew one of Saddam's Republican Guards, who told me that the orders he and his division were given was to take their positions in the airport and hold their positions, even if they were fired at. This man was the only one in the division that got out alive." Thousands of Iraqi soldiers were deployed in exposed positions on the airport's runways, says Abu Khaled, appalled at such horrendous disregard for the ABC of military tactics. Referring to the burnt Iraqi tanks lying crippled along the roads surrounding the airport, Abu Kahled believes treachery in Iraqi high command as the only explanation. "If you intend to fight, you do not position tanks and guns exposed in the streets -- you hide them." Abu Khaled and his Arab companions, however, rebelled against their deployment orders. They were moved to the airport hours before the first military strike, where Iraqi troops were already amassed. "We were the last to arrive at the airport and were ordered to take front-line positions, which would have left us completely exposed. We refused the order and accused the Iraqi military commanders of placing us in unnecessary danger. We asked them to let us choose the positions that we find appropriate. To avoid a confrontation, the military commanders agreed we could take a position within the trees surrounding the airport." The first strike on the airport by the coalition forces left thousands of soldiers dead. "I went to the site where my friend Ziad was stationed and found it full of corpses." At this point Abu Khaled's eyes filled with tears, "this is his watch," he said as he waved his hand towards me, while wearing Ziad's black sports watch. Abu Khaled also explained that there were some losses on the US side. "We were able to destroy some jeeps and carriers. The weapons we had were not appropriate to destroy a tank." The second strike was even more devastating, according to Abu Khaled. "There was a division 50 metres away from me, after the strike I saw nothing -- they were erased." Abu Khaled decided, at that moment, to desert the battlefield. "I told myself I would not die in this way. I was then convinced that treachery was afoot, and thought it unacceptable to sacrifice my life for nothing." As he flew from the airport area, Abu Khaled could find no trace of the tens of thousands of troops that were positioned around Baghdad -- now all that could be seen were crushed and deformed corpses. Abu Khaled's problems were far from over, however. He had to walk 20 kilometres to reach Baghdad. "Exhausted, tense and with almost no food or drink for several days, I reached a house where I thought I could finally find shelter." An Iraqi man opened the door and asked Abu Khaled about his identity. The Palestinian fighter answered proudly that he is an Arab volunteer. "The man slapped the door in my face and said 'go away we do not want you in our country.' Not only did he refuse to let me into his house, he wouldn't even offer me a glass of water." It was then that Abu Khaled realised that the Iraqi people had a different agenda. To his astonishment, he was later told that the Iraqis wanted to get rid of the dictatorship and oppression of Saddam Hussein at any cost -- and in this context the Arab volunteers were regarded by them as supporters of the regime, who are cashing dollars, only to prolong the Iraqi suffering. "I do not defend Saddam's regime. I joined the resistance to defend the Iraqi people." I wanted to take part in the war against our brethren in Iraq. I came to defend the dignity of the Arab nation," said a shocked and bewildered Abu Khaled. After walking several hours, Abu Khaled finally found some people who offered him water and informed him of the whereabouts of Palestinians in the Baladiyat district, a few kilometres from the centre of Baghdad. There he joined fellow Palestinians in resisting intensive coalition strikes. He recalled, "The Palestinians' resistance delayed the coalition forces' capture of the centre of Baghdad for a whole day. I saw one Palestinian kill five Americans with one missile." The realisation that many Iraqi civilians did want to see further resistance to the invasion forces was to strike Abu Khaled even more staggeringly. " While we were defending ourselves from the coalition strikes, I saw an Iraqi in a nearby building shooting at us.. I had to protect myself and my people so I fired an RPG missile at his house. While he was not killed, the second floor of the house was destroyed." After the US captured the centre of Baghdad on 9 April, Abu Khaled decided to return to his hotel. He discovered, however, that he was no longer welcome. "They welcomed me as a Palestinian before the war because they feared Saddam Hussein; now that he is gone they do not see any reason to give me shelter. They told me that they need the room, because they have other people who offered more for the room." Abu Khaled is now without shelter and is dependent on the generosity of others "for food, tea or coffee". I left him as he prepared to head home, leaving the country which now had no space for him. "I avoid being alone or recalling what happened to me, because whenever I remember what happened at the airport, how I was abandoned -- I feel betrayed and devastated."
