Friday, November 09, 2012

Palestinians killed in Syria receive little attention

From the Australia/Israel &; Jewish Affairs Council, 9 Nov 2012, by Sharyn Mittelman:

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad once painted himself and his father as the champion of the Palestinian cause. But now the situation appears to have changed, as Assad's army reportedly fired on the Palestinian refugee camp Yarmouk killing 20 on November 4, raided Hamas offices and there are fears of mass Palestinian deportations from Syria.
Over 
400 Palestinians have been killed in the Syrian civil war, with little to no coverage by the ...media. The self-proclaimed Palestinian advocates have also been all-but silent.
On November 7, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas 
phoned the UN envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi and asked him to urgently intervene on behalf of Palestinian refugees living in the camps, the official WAFA news agency reported.
Despite Abbas' plea and reports that over 
32,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict, one does not hear calls for boycotts. And where are the mass demonstrations?
...The conflict has also 
divided Palestinian loyalties with many Sunni Palestinians supporting their fellow Sunnis in the opposition and others backing Assad ....

...Attacks on Palestinian refugee camps in Syria should cause outrage across the world. But it seems the only time that Palestinian grievances receive significant attention by the media and Palestinian advocates is when the focus is on condemning Israel. Meanwhile, the death toll in Syria continues to rise, and the world, for the most part, continues to turn a blind eye.

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