Why Egypt and Others Will Not Take Palestinian Refugees

 1.  Washington Post

Even in times of relative peace, Egypt maintains tight control of the border. Palestinians wishing to exit Gaza must obtain permission from both Palestinian and Egyptian authorities. Wait times are long, and getting access to a speedier route often requires paying a hefty fee to private travel agencies. Northern Sinai, where Egypt has battled Islamist militants for a decade, is heavily militarized.

Egypt has taken in sizable numbers of refugees from other conflicts, including those displaced this year by the fighting in neighboring Sudan. But Sinai is more sensitive, and the Palestinian question is much more fraught.

Talk of pushing Palestinians to Sinai as a more permanent solution is “not acceptable,” former Egyptian foreign minister Mohamed al-Orabi, now chairman of the government-linked Egyptian Foreign Relations Council, told The Washington Post. “If you were to talk about this alternative home, this would be the end of the Palestinian question.”

Before the war, Sisi was already under significant domestic pressure, with the Egyptian economy in free-fall and a presidential election scheduled for December. Sisi faces no real threat at the ballot box, but rumblings of dissent have grown louder in recent months.  “Politically, I don’t think any Arab state wants to be seen as helping the displacement of the Palestinian population,” said Timothy Kaldas, deputy director of the D.C.-based Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.  In public comments this week, Sisi has been careful to emphasize Egypt’s support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and has called repeatedly for peace.

On Thursday, he rejected “relentless efforts by multiple parties” to push a resolution to the Palestinian question that diverges from the 1993 Oslo accords, the international agreements that were meant to pave the way for a Palestinian state.

“The Palestinian cause is the cause of all Arabs, and Palestinians should stay on their lands,” he said.

Egypt is trying to advance a “prudent policy,” al-Orabi, the former foreign minister, said — one oriented around organizing aid deliveries, taking in smaller numbers of injured Palestinians for medical treatment and helping foreign nationals to leave Gaza.

Egypt engaged in decade-long fight against an Islamic State-linked insurgency in Sinai.  Security is also likely on the minds of Egyptian authorities: It would be difficult to prevent Hamas fighters from slipping into Egypt among groups of refugees, Kaldas said, and Egypt might fear weapons would cross over and fuel militancy in Sinai.  The Sinai Foundation for Human Rights recorded an uptick in Egyptian military patrols, troops and vehicles in the border region in recent days.