IRAQ: Palestinians flee to borders amid ongoing violence

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BAGHDAD, 5 June (IRIN) - "Tell the Palestinians in your neighbourhood to leave Iraq or you'll all be killed," said one of Luai Sulaiman's captors after beating him severely and dumping him in the street.

On 28 May, 25-year-old Sulaiman, a football player, was on his way back home after training at a sports club in Baghdad's western Mansour district when three gunmen in a black BMW abducted him. He was tied up and blindfolded before being taken to an unknown location where he was beaten up by his captors.

After that experience, Sulaiman's choice was easy: "We'll leave next week with ten other families," he said. "Twenty families already left two weeks ago for the Syrian-Iraqi border."

Along with physical intimidation, leaflets have also been scattered in Palestinian neighbourhoods of Baghdad, warning Palestinians to leave the country in ten days or face death. "Two weeks ago, I saw unidentified militants in five cars roaming the neighbourhood and scattering leaflets warning us to leave," said Salih Abu al-Feilat, a 65-year-old mukhtar, or local dignitary, in one such neighbourhood. "They said we had ten days to get out, and if we failed they would kill us."

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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/6c7a9b5f5f28ad0da01544dfe06cc470.htm

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1. Juan Cole's comment:

"The 24,000 Palestinians in Baghdad, who lost their own homeland in 1948, are being targeted and forced to flee once more. Almost all Sunni Arabs supported the Baath at one time, so if that is the reason for targeting the Palestinians, then most Sunni Iraqis and large numbers of Shiites should be targeted, as well. The dilemma of the Palestinians, who labor under continued Israeli occupation in the West Bank and often in refugee camps elsewhere, seems never to end."