GAZA (PIC)– The PA government on Wednesday declared that it was exerting intensive efforts to facilitate the return of Palestinian refugees in Iraq into Palestinian lands controlled by the PA in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Dr. Atef Odwan said in a press release that the tragic conditions of Palestinian refugees in Iraq were discussed at length during the PA government’s latest cabinet session adding that he explained conditions of those refugees in detail.
The government then adopted a number of measures and steps to alleviate their “great suffering” adding that the government would ask international and human rights organizations to facilitate the return of those refugees to Palestinian lands.
He said that the government would approach neighboring Arab countries to allow entry of those refugees en route to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The minister also urged the Palestinian parties that negotiate with the Israeli occupation to ask for their entry into the Palestinian lands in order to end their unbearable conditions.
Odwan pointed out that immediately after their return the government would ask friendly countries UNRWA and other international organizations to ensure a dignified life for all of them.
The ministry is supportive of the return of all Palestinian refugees to the PA-run lands on temporary basis and as a prelude to returning them to their original homes in Palestine from where they were driven out at gunpoint at the hands of “Zionist gangs”.
He also said that his government refused the transfer of those refugees to European countries in its capacity as an attempt to wipe out the refugees’ question and as a suspicious scheme to drop their right of return.
Palestinian refugees in Iraq have been the target of murder arrest and torture at the hands of Iraqi armed sectarian militias ever since the fall of that Arab country in the hands of American occupation in March 2003.
