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Arab Policy Created the Gaza Prison Camp

[Huffington Post] Nonie Darwish - Rarely a week goes by without a politician or organization deploring the humanitarian situation in Gaza. But I do not hear anyone describe its root cause: 60 years of Arab policy aimed at maintaining Palestinians as stateless refugees in order to pressure Israel. I lived in Gaza as a child in the 1950s when Egypt conducted guerrilla-style operations against Israel from Gaza, then under Egyptian control. My father commanded these operations. Today, Gaza continues to serve as the launching pad for attacks against Israeli citizens. This is the legacy of the Arab world's Palestinian refugee policy, started 60 years ago, when the Arab League implemented special laws regarding Palestinians that all Arab countries had to abide by. Arab countries could not absorb Palestinians. Even if a Palestinian married a citizen of an Arab country, that Palestinian could not become a citizen of his or her spouse's country. A Palestinian can be born, live and die in an Arab country, but never gain its citizenship. The world needs to understand that this dangerous mess started when 22 Arab countries agreed to create a human prison called the Gaza Strip. It is time for the Arab world to open their side of the borders and absorb the Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza who wish to be absorbed.
2008-03-17 01:00:00
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