Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian President Bashar Assad (AP)
"Despite the relatively small number of the Palestinians, U.N. officials say both countries [Jordan and Syria] fear the precedent that would be set by allowing in more Palestinian refugees."In this forlorn corner of Jordan, the border drawn as an arbitrary line in the sand, the remnants of six decades of conflict in the Middle East converge in the Ruweished camp and three others strewn along Iraq’s western frontier. …
The magnitude of the Palestinians’ plight in the camps along Iraq’s borders with Syria and Jordan pales before the sheer scale of Iraqis’ exodus from their country, where millions have been displaced or forced to flee to neighboring countries. But it is rare in the Arab world for the lives of a handful of people to so closely chart the generations of war, dictatorship, vengeance and dispossession. By the Palestinians’ own admission, their lives offer a uniquely Middle Eastern lesson in the caprice of fate. Access the full article>>