Hospitality has been a sacred duty in Arab culture for over a millennium. One must always welcome strangers into your home, providing them with food and protection.
Roughly 75% of the population of Gaza is now internally displaced by war. Why won’t their Arab neighbors show hospitality and take them in?
Immediately after the horrendous October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, Egypt’s President Al-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II insisted publicly that Palestinian refugees would not be allowed into their countries, ostensibly because they do not want to give in to ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Gaza. They are right to worry that the displacement of millions of Gazans across their borders would become permanent.
Massive out-migration also would reduce pressure on Israel for a two-state solution – a solution only pitched by the United States and Israeli doves.
If Israel was committing ethnic cleansing, they would forcibly be expelling Gazans across Israeli borders. Certainly, the Israelis do not want to allow Hamas terrorists to escape amidst a refugee flow. But if neighboring Arab countries were pressing the Israelis to allow Gazans to flee into their countries, it would be difficult for Israel to refuse.
Former US Ambassador Ryan Crocker, who spent four decades in the Middle East, says that other Arab states look on the Palestinians with “fear and loathing.” There are many reasons why these neighbors refuse to welcome Palestinian refugees.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II has little desire to accept refugees. There are already nearly 60 designated Palestinian refugee camps across the Middle East, including ten in Jordan with more than two million residents. Most of these camps were established in the 1950’s and 60’s and are now more like concrete slums than tent camps. Establishing massive new camps would be a financial and logistical nightmare.
Further, Jordan already has a troubled relationship with Islamist movements, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood. Two decades after accepting 300,000 Palestinian refugees, King Hussein of Jordan expelled the Palestine Liberation Organization in September 1970 because of its escalating terrorist activities and an attempted coup. The Muslim Brotherhood continues to operate in Jordan and supports Hamas, and acts as a sort of fractured opposition party.
Egypt also has a fraught history with Muslim extremism. Founded in 1928 in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood has battled the secular Egyptian government for nearly a century, including its assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981. Hamas and ISIS have both carried out attacks on Egyptian soil, from murdering tourists in Cairo to terrorism in the Sinai Peninsula. There are no Palestinian refugee camps in Egypt, and President Al-Sisi will refuse to open camps and face the associated terrorism likely to emerge.
The Muslim Brotherhood and the Palestinians are also unwelcome by other secular governments in the region, including Iran, Syria, Iraq, and the Saudis. Nobody wants to risk introducing a dangerous movement onto their own soil.
Indeed, after decades of cynical support for Hamas and the PLO, regional leaders may have had enough. In 2020, the Trump Administration launched the Abraham Accords, normalizing relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, with Morocco soon joining and Sudan now pending.
The timing of the October 7 attacks was the latest in a series of attempts by Islamist terrorist groups to disrupt impending peace. Even as the Oslo Accords were being signed in 1993 and 1995, Hamas surged in power and recognition as it carried out suicide attacks that Yasser Arafat and the PLO were unable to prevent. The PLO also accused Hezbollah in 1995 of trying to derail the peace agreements.
With the terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, Hamas has been able to scuttle or at least cause a lengthy pause in the next major step with the Abraham Accords – getting Saudi Arabia on board. Hamas knows that if the Saudis agree to the Accords, Egypt and others might soon follow.
The misery and death of Palestinian civilians in Gaza is a tragedy caused by Hamas. Yet Israel is fighting the war in a way to minimize those casualties as much as possible, hampered by Hamas’ clear efforts to make the situation far worse. Where are Palestinians to go? Other Arab states seem to believe that good fences make good neighbors.
Dr. Tom Copeland is the Director of Research at the Centennial Institute of Colorado Christian University. He writes regularly on public policy and the intersection of politics, culture, and religion. The views expressed by the author are his own and do not represent the views of Centennial Institute or Colorado Christian University.
