Palestinian Lives? Not Their Problem

"We refused to drag our people and their camps into the hellish conflict which is happening in Syria and we categorically refuse to become one of the parties involved in the armed conflict that is taking place in Yarmouk."
"We refuse to be drawn into military actions, whatever or wherever they are, and we call for other means to ensure the safety of lives in Yarmouk and to prevent more destruction and forced displacement."
Palestine Liberation Organization statement

"The Palestinian situation is at its worst phase. The PLO has lost the ability to move and defend the Palestinians in all places. The various Palestinian factions are incapable of forming a Palestinian force to protect the refugees. The Palestinian leadership is also incapable of ending the division between Fatah and Hamas. All that is left for us to do is to howl, slap and cry."
Ashraf al-Ajrami, (former) Palestinian Authority minister

Residents queue up to receive humanitarian aid at the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, in Damascus, March 11, 2015. Photo by Reuters

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), has become unusually sanctimonious. It was formed under Yasser Arafat for the express purpose of exterminating Israel by any means possible, and became a menace to international flight through its hijacking of passenger planes, and ships on the high seas to deliver their message of hatred of Israel, killing as many Jews as possible in global bombing events, and a horrific attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, but it will not extend any effort to protect its own, leaving that to others.

When Saudi Arabia raised support at a meeting of the Arab League for a joint force comprised of Sunni Middle East nations to counter the success of Iran's destabilization of the Middle East's Sunni command of the region, the response from other countries was spontaneous and supportive. Many signed on to declare themselves prepared to join a military coalition to respond to Shiite Iran's ambitions that had led to its suborning the sovereignty of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen and hoping to succeed in Bahrain.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas had his own agenda to place front and centre and he agitated at every opportunity to remind those assembled that they had another enemy they must make note of, and never set aside the presence of; the State of Israel. Sunni Arab states must never get so carried away by the fact that one Muslim country is fomenting destabilization in other Muslim countries, resulting in massive death counts and great hordes of refugees that they overlook the presence of Israel in their midst, heartlessly preying on the Palestinians.

According to Ahmed Majdalani, a senior PLO official currently in Damascus for talks, 14 Palestinian factions supported the theory of a joint military operation with the Syrian military to expel the ISIS jihadists from the Damascus suburb of Yarmouk where over 15,000 people, mostly of Palestinian origin are trapped. But the PLO referring to its 'traditional position of non-involvement', would not itself become involved in any of that conflict. The Islamic State jihadis, brutish as they are, are not, after all, the Israeli military or the Israeli public.

However said Mr. Majdalani, Palestinian Arab forces are prepared to work in an 'integrated' manner 'with the Syrian state to clear the camp of terrorists'. Presumably as a cheering section. Islamic State jihadists, on entering Yarmouk last week, swiftly captured large swaths of the Syrian capital's suburb, creating international concern for the inhabitants, mostly Palestinians. But the international concern clearly is of no concern to the PLO; there are plenty of Palestinians left, if those in Yarmouk are slaughtered.


Israel now, that's a problem, its existence represents a slur on the region, and an offence to Islam itself. There lies the problem that the Arab League should become preoccupied with.

It hasn't been that long since the Syrian regime of President al-Assad was refusing medical aid, food, potable water and exit to the Yarmouk Palestinians, come to think of it. They're well accustomed to the horrible abuse they've been suffering. All is forgiven and forgotten however; when one Muslim group abuses another, it's all in the family when it becomes useful to overlook such inconvenient circumstances.



But the fact is, Yarmouk Palestinians have been under regime siege for quite a long time. They know privation and fear for the future. "Yarmouk was already a place where women had died in childbirth for lack of medicine, where children had reportedly died of malnutrition. So things were already appalling. Yarmouk was a hell hole frankly. And with the eruption of this intense fighting, things got dramatically worse", assured Chris Gunnes of UNRWA.