IRAQI PALESTINIANS COMPLAIN OF PERSECUTION,

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BAGHDAD 001068 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/25/2017 TAGS: PREF PHUM PGOV PREL KPAL KDEM YE IZ SUBJECT: IRAQI PALESTINIANS COMPLAIN OF PERSECUTION, CONTINUE TO SEEK THIRD COUNTRY RESETTLEMENT REF: A. 2006 BAGHDAD 4748 ¶B. STATE 23276 ¶C. BAGHDAD 880 ¶D. BAGHDAD 640 Classified By: Acting Pol Counselor Robert Gilchrist for reasons 1.4 (b ) and (d) ¶1. (C) Summary: Palestinians in Iraq continue to fear and experience persecution on account of their nationality. A police raid in a Palestinian compound on March 14 resulted in the death of a Palestinian guard, possibly the death of a Palestinian detainee, and allegations of abuse and torture by police. According to the PLO refugee manager in Baghdad, Mohammed Abdel Wahed, no place in Iraq is safe for them. While many Arab countries have expressed concern for the situation of Palestinians in Iraq, no country has offered to host them. If unofficial reports that Yemen may offer them asylum are confirmed, many Palestinians in Iraq would move there. According to Abdel Wahed this would be preferable to living in camps in Kurdistan or moving to Salah Ad Din. Abdel Wahed also stated that many Palestinian families are concerned about losing their homes because they can not afford the rent or because of property disputes over the apartments they occupy. He added that the rent subsidy that UNHCR had started to pay directly to some families was not sufficient to afford an apartment in Baghdad, and that many Iraqi landlords would not accept Palestinian tenants regardless. End summary. -------------- In search of a safe haven -------------- ¶2. (C) Embassy Refugee Coordinator (RefCoord) met with Abdel Wahed on March 18 to discuss the ongoing persecution of Palestinians in Iraq (reftel A) and to seek his opinion about possible ways to address their plight. RefCoord briefed Abdel Wahed about USG efforts to assist the Palestinians (reftel B and C),and asked him about the possibility of relocating the community (estimated to number 15,000) outside of Baghdad. Abdel Wahed responded that no place in Iraq would be safe for Palestinians. He added that, while it was true that the governor of Salah Ad Din had publicly stated that Palestinians are welcome in that province, they would not want to move there because even if this Sunni governorate is free of sectarian violence, Iraqi insurgents are very active in the area (Note: The governor confirmed to Salah Ad Din PRT officers his willingness to host Palestinians, see reftel D). Abdel Wahed also pointed out that the insurgents would try to recruit young Palestinians to join them, but quickly added that Palestinians take no side with any of the Iraqi warring factions. He stated that moving to Tikrit --Salah Ad Din's capital and Saddam Hussein's hometown-- would be perceived by many Iraqis who already distrust Palestinians as "proof" that Palestinians are Saddamists. In this regard, Abdel Wahed complained that Iraqi media continue to associate Palestinians with terrorists. This association dates back to the arrest in May of 2005 of four Palestinians in connection with a bombing at a Baghdad market that killed fifteen people. At the time, the Ministry of Interior paraded the arrested Palestinians as terrorists on national television. Abdel Wahed claim the four were later released, but that Palestinians continue to be viewed with suspicion. 3, (C) Abdel Wahed advocated for a solution to the plight of all Palestinians in Iraq, not just a relatively small number that could benefit from programs to resettle specific cases in third countries. RefCoord noted that focusing on specific cases would assist the most vulnerable. This would require, however, a safe location where these cases could be processed for possible third country resettlement, and a willingness on the part of potential beneficiaries to live in camps set up for this purpose. Abdel Wahed responded that all Palestinians in Iraq are vulnerable, and that a program that resettles a few dozen Palestinians a year hardly addresses the fear of persecution of the community as a whole. He also stated that the Palestinians did not look forward to living in camps and have their movements restricted, but that, if their encampment was temporary, they may agree to it. (Note: Palestinians are mostly concentrated in specific compounds in several neighborhoods in Baghdad, not camps, and enjoy freedom of movement. End note). Abdel Wahed stated that, if any country in the region --including Yemen-- would host Palestinians, the community would leave (Note: Yemen has been recently mentioned in humanitarian circles in Washington as a possible host country for Iraqi Palestinians. End note.) He lamented that the plight of the Palestinians in Iraq has been discussed twice in the past three months in Arab League meetings in Cairo, but that no country had BAGHDAD 00001068 002 OF 003 offered to host them. Instead, he said, Arab countries had stated that the Palestinians should be allowed to return to Palestine, and that --if this failed-- they should defend themselves in Baghdad. -------------- -------------- New incident and allegations of abuse and torture -------------- -------------- ¶4. (C) In a separate meeting on March 18, three Palestinian residents of the Baladiat residential compound --where it is estimated that up to 10,000 Palestinians live-- told Embassy PolOffs that an Iraqi Police (IP) and National Police (NP) raid at the compound on March 14 resulted in the death of a Palestinians guard and possibly that of a Palestinian detainee as well. (Note: The reasons for the raid are unclear. In similar, past incidents, the police have justified them as part of an investigation or in response to shootings against police officers. End note). Shaheen Gazee and Hasam Musbah (strictly protect) provided first hand accounts of the behavior of the IP and NP during and after the raid. Gazee said that five IP officers arrested him, along with at least 40 other Palestinian men, as he was leaving the compound to pick up his children. The IP officers pulled the bottom of his shirt over his head and beat him with rifle butts and cables as they dragged him through the alleyways to the Al-Rawshad police station, 400 meters away. Gazee noted that when U.S. forces approached, he heard the police say they should pull down his shirt and leave him alone. He stated that U.S. forces photographed him and other detainees from the same raid at the station, and that the IP feigned concern for the detainees' well-being when U.S. forces were present, but slapped and punched him when they were not watching. Gazee reported that when he was dragged to the police station, he heard women yelling "kill the Saddamists", and that police officers harassed him by telling him that Saddam gave homes to the Palestinians while Iraqis suffered. ¶5. (C) Hasam Musbah stated that the NP arrested him inside his home, handcuffed and blindfolded him, and then beat him on the way to NP's 4th Public Order Brigade headquarters building in Baghdad, where they held him for four hours. Musbah said the NP behaved properly while a U.S. soldier questioned him outside of the headquarters building, but that once inside the building, the NP threatened him. When he was released, two NP officers gave him their telephone numbers and said they would send a police car to arrest him at his home if he did not report back the names of Palestinians who had allegedly shot at Iraqi forces during the raid. Musbah did not call, and moved with relatives to a different part of Baghdad instead. Ghassan Mohamed (strictly protect),also a resident of the Baladiat compound, told PolOffs that he bribed an NP officer for information on the location of the 13 men that reportedly have not been released since the raid. The officer told him the men were held in different facilities in Baghdad: three at Al-Rawshad police station; six at the NP 4th Public Order Brigade Headquarters; and four at the 2nd Division NP command detention facility in Khadamiya district. Mohamed and other Palestinians believe that one of the four at Khadamiya may have died from torture. (Note and comment: Embassy has reported on past evidence of torture at Khadamiya. Post will press GOI contacts for further information regarding the status of any Palestinians arrested on March 14 who may still be in custody. End note and comment.) -------------- Housing pressures -------------- ¶6. (C) Abdel Wahed raised concerns about UNHCR's decision to stop transferring funds to the Ministry of Displacement and Migration (MODM) to lease buildings housing Palestinians. He explained that in 2003, Iraqi landlords who had been previously coerced by the former regime into below-market contracts to host Palestinians as tenants took advantage of the fall of Saddam to cancel the contracts. Over four hundred Palestinian families lost their homes and briefly established a makeshift camp. The government of Iraq and the Palestinian mission in Iraq asked UNHCR to care for these families. UNHCR and the GOI agreed that UNHCR would transfer funds for MODM to lease apartment buildings to house these Palestinians that year, and the camp was dismantled. UNHCR continued to transfer about USD 700,000 a year to MODM for this purpose. Abdel Wahed stated that UNHCR was frustrated with MODM's failure to properly account for the use of the funds, and recently decided to terminate the arrangement. Instead, he added, UNHCR is now working with the NGO Italian Consortium of Solidarity to provide a monthly rent subsidy of BAGHDAD 00001068 003 OF 003 $135 directly to each of the four hundred and forty seven families for whom MODM was leasing houses. Abdel Wahed complained that UNHCR's subsidy is too small. RefCoord commented that the measure gives some Palestinians the flexibility to choose where they want to live, to which Abdel Wahed replied that Iraqi landlords do not want to rent to Palestinians because they are afraid of militias, but may rent their buildings to the GOI. (Note and comment: RefCoord was aware of UNHCR's concerns about MODM's management of the program. While Abdel Wahed opposes the new arrangement, it is not yet clear if his prediction that these Palestinian families will go homeless will materialize. End note and comment). Without elaborating, Abdel Wahed lamented that UNHCR, and not UNRWA, is responsible for Palestinians in Iraq. RefCoord pointed out that the GOI is responsible for refugees within its borders, to which Abdel Wahed responded that the GOI will do nothing for Palestinians, and hoped that the US would intervene instead. ¶7. (C) Abdel Wahed also stated that another fifty Palestinian families are at risk of losing their homes because the Ministry of Finance was demanding from MODM the return of an apartment building that the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (who was in charge of the Palestinian portfolio until MODM was established) had appropriated to host Palestinian families. According to Abdel Wahed, the Iraqi Council of Ministers has sided with the Ministry of Finance, and the families have received eviction notices. He said that some of these families may join the approximately 500 Palestinians camped in Al-Waleed, on the Iraqi side of the Iraqi-Syrian border (Note: another 350 Palestinians are camped in At-Tanf, on the Syrian side of the border). -------------- Comment -------------- ¶8. (C) The Government of Iraq is not fulfilling its obligation to protect and provide housing for Palestinian refugees in Iraq, although the situation for many Iraqis has also worsened. This obligation to ensure the welfare of the Palestinians was assumed in 1948 --years before Saddam Hussein came to power-- when the GOI accepted these refugees displaced by the first Arab-Israeli war. While many in Iraq perceive the Palestinians as a minority favored by Saddam, housing and exemption from military service are legitimate privileges of refugee populations in general. Palestinians in Iraq had little control over the way in which Saddam dealt with landlords, but benefited from it in the form of free housing. (Note: During most of Saddam's reign, Palestinians were not allowed to own property. End note). At the same time, Palestinian websites criticizing the trial and execution of Saddam Hussein have done little to change Iraqis' view of the Palestinians as Saddamists. Many Iraqis resent what they perceived as a culture of entitlement among Palestinians in Iraq. They also recall and resent the Palestinians' enthusiastic support for Saddam's belligerent foreign policy: while Palestinians danced in the streets to celebrate Saddam's foreign aggressions, poor Shia and Kurds drafted into the Iraqi army were dying in the fields. ¶9. (C) The weak UNHCR presence in Iraq --particularly in Baghdad, where there is no UNHCR international staff and only one local staff-- limits its effectiveness to advocate and provide for the needs of the Palestinians. RefCoord has observed that, despite UNHCR's assertions to the contrary, there is little cooperation between UNHCR and the GOI. UNHCR's recent decision to terminate its leasing arrangement with MODM, while legitimate, will further strain their relationship. UNHCR does not have strong relations with the Palestinian mission either. In this context, the Palestinian community in Iraq sees the USG as its best -- and often only -- hope. From Palestinian refugees' perspective, their persecution in Iraq started with the liberation of the country in 2003, and has only gotten worse since. The Palestinians we have spoken to have no illusions about relocating to Israel, Gaza or the West Bank. They tell us they would like firstly for the US military to protect them and their housing compounds, which is beyond the coaltion's mission here to the the degree that the Palestinians seek it. They also continue to tell us they hope that their whole community could resettle in a third country. End comment. SPECKHARD