WASHINGTON (JTA) — As many as 1,350 Iraqi Palestinians will be resettled in the United States.
The State Department confirmed Tuesday that the group of refugees, the largest-ever resettlement of Palestinian refugees in the United States, will start arriving this fall and end up mostly in Southern California, according to a report Tuesday in the Christian Science Monitor. The move is seen as part of a U.S. effort to help with the refugee crisis created by its invasion of Iraq.
The article noted that the United States generally shies away from accepting Palestinian refugees because of its relationship with Israel, pointing out that a total of just 16 Palestinian refugees were resettled in the U.S. in 2007 and 2008. But a State Department spokesman told the paper that the Iraqi Palestinians fall under a different category than Palestinians who live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He added that they would be examined for any possible terrorist ties.
Iraqi Palestinians were treated well by former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, and thus have been become unpopular with those now leading Iraq. They have been living in poor conditions in the Al Waleed refugee camp near Iraq’s border with Syria, according to the Monitor.
