West Bank opens to Iraq's Palestinians

The Baltimore Sun

JERUSALEM -- A number of Palestinians who have fled war-torn Iraq will be allowed to come to live in the West Bank, Israeli officials said yesterday, presenting the decision as the latest in a series of gestures meant to bolster the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

At the same time, the officials emphasized that the terms of entry will be designed to avoid setting any precedent regarding other Palestinian refugees of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and their descendants and their long-standing claim of a right of return.

The Palestinians from Iraq would be allowed to enter under "certain conditions" and under the rubric of "family reunification," said Zehavit Ben Hillel, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman.

The Palestinians fleeing Iraq are not registered as refugees with the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, the body that deals with the majority of the Palestinian refugees and their descendants. The returnees would not be listed as refugees once they are in the West Bank but would be granted permanent residency in the Palestinian territory, Ben Hillel said.

Israeli officials are not saying exactly how many Palestinians from Iraq would be allowed into the West Bank; a report in the daily newspaper Haaretz put the number at 41. It is unclear how many are seeking to enter.

Abbas and his Western-backed caretaker government have been working to consolidate their power in the West Bank since the Islamic militant group Hamas took over the Gaza Strip six weeks ago. But Israel maintains overall security control in the West Bank and governs the border crossings from Jordan, which the Palestinians will have to pass through.

The request to allow Palestinians fleeing Iraq to enter Israel was made 2 1/2 years ago by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. It was rejected then on political and security grounds, according to the Haaretz report. The Israeli Foreign Ministry confirmed the details of the report.

The recent approval was timed to help shore up Abbas, Israeli officials said.

The Palestinian information minister, Riad Malki, welcomed the Israeli decision. "We demand the entry for all Palestinians from Iraq because of the dangers they live under," he told the Associated Press, adding, "This is a great accomplishment, and symbolic."

A request for a number of Palestinians from Iraq to join relatives in Gaza was turned down by Israel "because a terror organization is in charge there," Ben Hillel said, referring to Hamas.

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