It is natural for people to want to flee a war zone. The Lebanese know how thoroughly their country had been hijacked by Hezbollah, how embedded Hezbollah is in many of their neighborhoods, how much Hezbollah has been using them as human shields in its quest to entrench and strengthen itself for the sole purpose of an eventual war to destroy Israel. The UNHCR is doing what it can to help the refugees in Syria.
Yet over the past year the exact same scenario occurred in Gaza. A similar terrorist group had taken over an entire area filled with civilians, hijacked it for the sole purpose of using it as a launching pad to destroy the Jewish state, and cynically used those civilians to be human shields.
Except in Gaza, there was no refugee agency helping those fleeing. Because except for a fortunate few who could pay exorbitant bribes to Egyptian middlemen, Gazans couldn't escape their war zone created by Hamas.
Arab states, instead of welcoming them, insisted that they did not want any Gazans to take refuge there. The world shrugged - they have the right to refuse who enters their borders, right? And besides, this was for the Palestinians' own good, because if they fled, who says they would ever be allowed to return?
No one asked the Palestinians what they wanted to do, and no one gave them a choice. Gazans were desperate to flee, tens of thousands of them turning to social media to raise money to bribe the Egyptians to allow them to enter.
When Egypt built a wall specifically to stop Gazans from having the option of fleeing a war zone, there was not one negative word from Amnesty or Human Rights Watch.
Egypt's refusal to allow Gazans into its country is almost certainly a direct violation of the 1969 Organization of African Unity Refugee Convention which Egypt had signed.
1. Member States of the OAU shall use their best endeavours consistent with their respective legislations to receive refugees and to secure the settlement of those refugees who, for well-founded reasons, are unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin or nationality.2 . The grant of asylum to refugees is a peaceful and humanitarian act and shall not be regarded as an unfriendly act by any Member State.3. No person shall be subjected by a Member State to measures such as rejection at the frontier, return or expulsion, which would compel him to return to or remain in a territory where his life, physical integrity or liberty would be threatened for the reasons set out in Article I, paragraphs 1 and 2.
The world community was not only silent, but it tacitly supported Egypt's and Jordan's decision to reject refugees from Gaza even as they have allowed millions to enter from other conflict zones.
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Egypt's and Jordan's hypocrisy doesn't end there. Because when they were welcoming refugees from Syria, they did not want Syrian refugees of Palestinian origin - Jordan trned some away and put others in separate camps and Egypt jailed them.
Again, the world was silent.
That only applies to Palestinians.
