VZCZCXRO6837
PP RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHIHL RUEHKUK
DE RUEHGB #1068/01 0861817
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 271817Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0407
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 0183
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0571

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