Palestinians who settled in Iraq have remained stateless for generations

There are an estimated six million Palestinian refugees in the diaspora — most of them descendants of families who left 76 years ago during the war when Israel was established.

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

Palestinians who were forced to leave their homes in 1948 during the war surrounding the establishment of Israel ended up scattered around the world. There are now an estimated 6 million Palestinian refugees in the diaspora, most of them descendants of families who left their homeland 76 years ago and were never allowed to return. Jordan, which once ruled the West Bank, provides most Palestinians living there with citizenship. But as NPR’s Jane Arraf reports from Iraq, in many other countries, they have remained stateless for generations.

RAAD ADNAN: (Praying in non-English language).

JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: These are Friday prayers in the Palestinian neighborhood of Baladiyat in Baghdad. The mosque preacher, who is Iraqi, is talking about reclaiming Palestine, the ancestral homeland of most people in the neighborhood. Only the eldest here have ever glimpsed it.

ADNAN: (Praying in non-English language).

ARRAF: The worshippers leave the small mosque through a garden with orange trees and prize chickens.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHICKENS CLUCKING)

ARRAF: Mohammad, who is 86, is Palestinian but a former Iraqi army general. He wears a blazer over a white turtleneck and holds a silver-tipped cane. He still has the bearing of an officer. Mohammad doesn’t want his last name used because he also fought with the Palestine Liberation Organization during the Arab-Israeli War in 1967. He was posted in Gaza, in fact, and he says he would still fight if he could.

MOHAMMAD: (Through interpreter) I fought because I believe in my cause, and I still do. I am 86 years old, and if they would accept me and take me as a soldier, I would go and fight.

ARRAF: Mohammad’s family came from near the city of Haifa, then part of British Mandate Palestine. In the war in…