Prometheus 6

I'm always impressed by insolence.

Since turning against Saddam, many Iraqis have lost interest in the Palestinians -- and some have turned hostile toward them. Immediately after the war, for instance, Palestinians who had been given low-rent apartments under Saddam were evicted by landlords seeking to take back their property, according to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. More generally, Iraqis have shown their anger about the special treatment Palestinians received.

Warmth Between Iraqis and Palestinians Gives Way to Animosity and Resentment
By SARMAD ALI
December 12, 2007

Much love has been lost between Iraqis and Arabs in general -- and Iraqi and Palestinians in particular – since the U.S. invasion. As soon as Saddam was gone, the affinity and amiability between Iraqis and Palestinians, a hallmark of decades of Baath Party rule, began to fade. The mutual warmth, friends and others say, sometimes turned into hostility.

Positioning himself as a defender of Arab nations and as their outspoken leader, Saddam had paid special attention to Arabs residing in Iraq and made sure they were comfortable. As a result, and particularly during the 1980s when Iraq was prosperous, many Arabs -- especially Egyptians, Palestinians, Yemenis and Sudanese -- found in Iraq not only an opportunity to work and earn money to send back home but also a place where they were well received and respected.

One example: During the 1990s when the Egyptian national soccer team lost a match in the World Cup, angry Egyptian workers rioted in a commercial district of Baghdad, destroying stores' windows and doors. Many were arrested and thrown into jail. I remember Saddam appearing on television the next day, ordering the workers' release and compensation for the shop owners. He said the Egyptians were our guests -- and guests, even if they misbehaved, should be treated well.

As examined in a Baghdad Life dispatch on Wednesday⁹, Saddam reacted strongly to the Palestinian intifada in 2000, forming the Al-Quds Army, or Jerusalem Army. The government called it a force of seven million Iraqi men and women ready to sacrifice their lives to help their Palestinian brothers. I was compelled to be part of that force, and eventually marched before Saddam as he reviewed the Jerusalem Army in a massive ceremony in late 2000.