Dozens of Palestinians released by Israel as part of last month's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas have complained that "no Arab country has agreed to receive us."
According to reports in Arab media outlets, 145 Palestinians who arrived in the Egyptian capital of Cairo upon their release from Israeli prison "did not find any Arab or Islamic country willing to host them."
Most of the ex-prisoners were serving one or more life terms for deadly terrorist attacks on Israelis over the past few decades. Many are affiliated with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Mahmoud Abbas's ruling Fatah faction.
The Arab countries have offered no official explanation as to why they refuse to host the released prisoners.
Some Arab leaders, especially neighboring countries such as Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon, are apparently concerned that the prisoners, who spent time in Israeli prison for carrying out terror attacks, would pose a threat to their security and political stability.
They recall that countries such as Jordan and Lebanon had extremely negative experiences with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and other Palestinian armed groups who were trying to overthrow or destabilize their governments (Black September in Jordan in 1970 and the Lebanese Civil War 1975-1990).
Several Arab countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have banned the Muslim Brotherhood and designated it as a terrorist organization.
Hamas proudly describes itself as "one of the wings of Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine." Some of these Arab countries correctly do not see much difference between terrorists belonging to Hamas, the Iran-backed PIJ, or Fatah.
The refusal of the Arabs to receive their Palestinian brothers should not come as a surprise. For decades, most of the Arab countries that regularly offer verbal support for the Palestinians have failed to provide substantive action to achieve it. This lip service is often seen as a way for the Arab leaders to appease their own people, many of whom seem to be more sympathetic toward the Palestinians than to their own governments.
Arab leaders often make strong statements, issue condemnations of Israeli actions, and attend high-profile summits that express solidarity with the Palestinians. Their gestures, however -- apart from Iran and Qatar -- are often not matched by decisive steps, much to the disappointment of the Palestinians who view the lack of support from their Arab brothers as a form of betrayal.
Most of the Arabs turned their back on the Palestinians after the First Gulf War in 1990. Then, Palestinians came out in support of Saddam Hussein's Iraq invasion and occupation of Kuwait -- which for years had provided the Palestinians with hundreds of millions of dollars in annual aid. After Kuwait was liberated, the tiny oil-rich sheikhdom and other Gulf states expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, accusing them of biting the hand that fed them. Most Arab countries have also denied or restricted citizenship for Palestinians. These countries have cited reasons such as the desire for a Palestinian "right of return" to former homes inside Israel. While Jordan has granted citizenship to many Palestinians, other countries, such as Lebanon and Syria, have imposed restrictions on their employment and movement, barring them from desirable housing and job opportunities.
Palestinian political activist Ali Abu Rizeq commented:
"The reports circulating about Arab countries refusing to receive the released [Palestinian] prisoners on their soil are unfortunately true and extremely painful... The Arab stance indicates a new level of decline and deterioration that has afflicted the Arab political system, as a whole. So far, no country other than Turkey and Malaysia has received Palestinian prisoners."
Dr. Fayez Abu Shamala, a Palestinian academic and former mayor of the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, lashed out at the Arab countries for refusing to host the released prisoners:
"The Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli prisons cannot find a single Arab country willing to receive them, as if they [the ex-prisoners] have become a virus of pain that would spread in their countries."
Mohammed Arafat, a social media activist from the Gaza Strip, wrote on X: "It is truly regrettable, indeed shameful. Where is Arab solidarity? Where is chivalry?"
The refusal of the Arab countries to absorb Palestinians (including the ex-prisoners) is not only another sign of hypocrisy but also proof why it would be a mistake to rely on the Arab countries to help rebuild and demilitarize the Gaza Strip.
US President Donald J. Trump, who seems to be pinning his hopes on the Arabs to assist in funding and establishing a new government as well as deploying an international force in the Gaza Strip, needs to bear in mind that most of the Arab heads of state and regimes actually do not care about the Palestinians.
By now, most Arab heads of state see Palestinians as having caused immeasurable harm wherever they have gone and as having rewarded with treachery whoever stretched out a hand to them.
For the Arab leaders, the Palestinian issue is just another tool to advance their own political objectives, shore up their own popular support at home, or unite various factions against a common enemy.
Trump might be reminded that earlier this year, several key Arab countries such as Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt, "firmly" rejected his plan to relocate Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. Most Arab leaders, in short, will continue to pretend that they are eager to help the US administration with its efforts to implement Trump's 20-point plan for peace in the Gaza Strip. In reality, the Arabs will continue to do their utmost to stay away from the Palestinians -- apart from helping them to regroup in the Gaza Strip.
Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
