Refugees? Not wanted: Why Arab countries fear the Palestinians

Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon – none of Israel’s neighboring countries allow people from the Gaza Strip into the country. Why are Palestinians not welcome in the region’s Muslim states?

The only border crossing from Gaza to Egypt is closed. In the border town of Rafah, hardly any Palestinians get through – except for the injured and Palestinians with dual citizenship. A corridor for civilians from Gaza to the West Bank to travel from there to Jordan is also not an option. Not for Israel, but not for Jordan either. There is also no way north to Lebanon or northeast to Syria. The Israelis do not allow refugees to leave Gaza and travel through their country.

But even if the Israeli government were to play along, the neighboring Arab states would not want to take in Palestinians anyway. “They should stay in their country,” Egyptian President Abdel Fatah-al-Sisi said as Israel began its retaliatory strikes in the Gaza Strip following the October 7 Hamas attack.

The attitude of the Arab states may be surprising. They show little sympathy for Israel, but a lot for the Palestinians and, again and again, for Hamas. Many Arabs also consider the Palestinians to be a safeguard: “Guard dogs are kept on a leash in the garden, not in the bedroom. They are supposed to threaten your enemies, not your children,” describes an Egyptian citizen in a report by “The Insider”why he is also against accepting Palestinian refugees: The “wild dogs” should threaten Israel, not Egypt.

This metaphor has been valid for years. Even before Hamas’ terrorist attacks on October 7, Palestinians had little chance of entering Egypt legally. The border was only opened in exceptional cases, for example for seriously ill or seriously injured Gaza residents. Just like now.

“A kind of Egyptian reason of state”

Officially, however, the Egyptian leadership gives a different reason for the closed borders: Egypt fears that the Palestinians could be permanently driven out of the Gaza Strip once they have left it. “It’s a kind of reason of state, if you want to put it with this German word,” says ntv reporter Nicole Macheroux-Denault, describing the Egyptian fear that by taking in hundreds of thousands of Palestinians they are fulfilling “the prophecy of Israeli extremists who are driving out all Palestinians.” want”.

In addition, on the Egyptian side, the politically unstable Sinai Peninsula borders the Gaza Strip. The region is hardly controlled by Egyptian security authorities beyond the heavily guarded border. In recent years, Sinai has developed into a retreat for militant Islamists. After the Arab Spring eleven years ago, an alliance of jihadists retreated to the peninsula. The Egyptian army is fighting against members of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.

If the Rafah border post were opened to Palestinian refugees, Cairo fears that Hamas supporters could also leave the Gaza Strip and join forces with their ideologically related jihadists in Sinai. The already tense security situation on the peninsula would worsen further.

Egypt is threatened with collapse

Hamas is a subsidiary of the Muslim Brotherhood, which had Mohammed Morsi as president in Egypt from 2012 to 2013. Successor al-Sisi took tough action against the group, classified it as a terrorist organization and had Morsi arrested. He died in prison in 2019.

The Egyptian head of state cannot afford a wave of refugees for economic reasons. The Egyptian population has increased from 70 million to 110 million people over the past two decades. Economic growth, however, fell well short of expectations.

If the trend continues, there is a risk of social collapse: Egypt’s president points to around nine million refugees already living in the country. If hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are added, Cairo would have to provide additional reception centers, accommodation, food and water. Especially since the presidential elections are coming up in December. The authoritarian ruler al-Sisi does not want his safe election victory to be accompanied by mass protests.

Refugees in Jordan? “Red line”

Jordan also refuses to accept Gaza refugees. The Hashemite Kingdom has allowed many Palestinians into the country in recent years. A third of the population comes from Gaza or the West Bank. But there shouldn’t be more: Olaf Scholz suggested this during his visit in mid-October. Israel could set up a corridor for civilians from Gaza to the West Bank so that they could then enter Jordan, the Chancellor said. King Abdullah II immediately rejected this plan; the Jordanian ruler spoke of a “red line”.

“I think I speak not only on behalf of the Jordanian government, but also on behalf of our Egyptian friends: no refugees in Jordan, no refugees in Egypt,” said the monarch at the joint press conference with Scholz.

Jordan also argues that Palestinians could permanently lose their homeland once they leave the Gaza Strip. However, there are also historical reservations: After the Second World War, Jordan gained control of the West Bank until it was lost again in the Six-Day War against Israel in 1967. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced to Jordan by the conflict.

Since then, Palestinian refugees from the West Bank have continued to flow into Jordan. But the reality is: Palestinians and Jordanians often do not have a good relationship.

In 1970, a group of radicalized Palestinians carried out an assassination attempt on the then Jordanian King Hussein I. For them and many other Palestinians, his Israel policy was too liberal. Hussein I survived the attack, installed a military government and launched a counterattack at home. The Jordanian military drove the Palestinian guerrillas into Lebanon.

The memories of the radical guests are omnipresent. Jordan does not want to threaten its already “fragile national identity” with a renewed influx of Palestinians, writes “The Insider”.

Other countries not an option either

Other countries in the immediate vicinity are also out of the question for the people of Gaza. Syria has been mired in a bloody civil war for over a decade. Lebanon, on the other hand, is overwhelmed by the refugees from Syria. The republic on the Mediterranean has almost six million inhabitants, of which a good 1.5 million are civil war refugees from Syria. In no other country in the world is the proportion of refugees as large as in Lebanon.

The extremely rich Gulf states of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates could easily finance refugee accommodation, but they do not want to allow anyone into the country except rich foreigners from the West. Qatar is hosting the leader of Hamas, of all people.

It goes without saying that Iran does not want to accept any refugees. The Islamic Republic wants to wipe Israel off the map and is therefore the biggest Hamas supporter of all. A mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza is therefore not in Iran’s interest.

The Arab world sympathizes loudly and openly with the Palestinians. But they want to keep potentially “dangerous guard dogs” away from their own bedrooms and their own children – all Arab countries pay close attention to this.