TEL AVIV – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Arabic-language spokesperson on Sunday said he had received several messages of support from Iraqi citizens during the recent Palestinian uprising over the Temple Mount.
“I received quite a few messages of support for Israel from Iraqis who condemned Palestinian terrorism b/c they suffered from it as well,” Ofir Gendelman tweeted.
The tweet was accompanied by photos of the messages of support in Arabic alongside Iraqi passports.
Photo: Twitter
Gendelman also expressed his “thanks and greetings” in Arabic to the Iraqis who sent the solidarity messages.
Palestinian terror groups received financial aid and operational assistance from Baghdad during Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship in the 1970s and ’80s. Among others, the Iraqis financed the Black September group, which carried out the Munich massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, and the Fatah Revolutionary Council of Abu Nidal, which killed six people and injured a further 22 at a shootout in a kosher Parisian restaurant a decade later, documents found by U.S. troops in Baghdad in 2003 showed.
In a precursor to the Palestinian Authority’s current Pay-for-Slay program, the Iraqis also paid salaries to the families of suicide bombers and other terrorists, the Algemeiner reported.
According to the report, since the overthrow of the Baathist regime in 2003, many Iraqis view the Palestinian community with mistrust.
Writing in 2015, Palestinian journalist Khaled Abu Toameh wrote about the mistreatment of Palestinians in Arab countries.
“Not only do the Arab countries despise the Palestinians, they also want them to be the problem of Israel alone,” Abu Toameh wrote. “That is why, since 1948, Arab governments have refused to allow Palestinians permanently to settle in their countries and become equal citizens.”
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