A spokesman for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip expressed confidence Monday that the rise of Iraqi power would further Palestinian national goals.
At the same time, Annan Sherif, an executive member of the Federation of Trade Unions in the administered territories, called on the United Nations to protect the rights of Palestinians living in the Persian Gulf states.
Sherif held a news conference in East Jerusalem, where he and other speakers charged that more than 55,000 Palestinian families have been expelled from Saudi Arabia because Palestinians support President Saddam Hussein of Iraq in his confrontation with the Western powers.
Sherif said this was the third mass expulsion suffered by the Palestinians, the first two having been at the hands of Israel in 1948 and 1967.
According to the speakers, the Saudis gave some families no more than 48 hours to leave.
They did not know how many of the families have since returned to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where economic conditions have deteriorated because the remittance of money from the Gulf states has ended.
But according to Sherif, the bright side of the situation is that the Palestinians are more united than ever in the past and are encouraged by Iraq’s ascendancy.
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