Palestinians harmed most by those claiming to defend them

Islam Mohamed

Some regional regimes derive their legitimacy from claims about defending the rights of the Palestinians.

Nevertheless, the phony nature of these claims is manifest whenever they are put to the test.

The same regimes are the first to cause harm to the Palestinians.

Defending al-Quds

Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979 antagonized prominent Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from day 1.

The Palestinians were quick to realize that those staging the revolution only wanted to use them to serve their own interests. Iran-backed militias killed more Palestinians than anybody else did. This was especially true after the downfall of the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq.

Former Palestinian ambassador in Iraq, Azzam al-Ahmad, then accused the Shiite Faylaq Badr, an affiliate of the Supreme Islamic Revolution Council, and the Shiite Mahdi Army, which is commanded by Muqtada al-Sadr, of killing the Palestinians on sectarian grounds.

He added at a press briefing in Ramallah on the fate of Palestinian refugees in Iraq that Iraq’s next rulers would come from Iran, especially from the Supreme Islamic Revolution Council, which was headed by Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, and Mahdi Army.

He said he had sent messages to both al-Hakim and al-Sadr, but none of them had replied.

Eviction, killing

A large number of Palestinians lived in Iraq before the downfall of the Saddam Hussein regime. Palestinians living outside Iraq also sent their children to study in the Arab country’s universities.

Saddam’s Iraq treated the Palestinians well. However, things took an ugly turn after Saddam’s downfall.

The Palestinians were the target of massive eviction campaigns. Some of the Palestinians living in Iraq applied for asylum in India to escape the Iranian killing machine.

In Lebanon, the Shiite Amal Organization, which is backed by Iran, also moved ahead with the killing of the Palestinians in refugee camps.