Is it just my impression or are Palestinians not that popular in most of the Arab world? And not just the ruling elites. I wonder what are the reasons?
Never meet a non-Palestinian Arab who liked Palestinians. I suspect several reasons.
1: A lot of the more well functioning Palestinian refugees have been integrated into the societies they lives in, leaving the more dysfunctional ones.
2: Palestinian refugees are banned or limited from working outside their camps, pushing them toward greater dysfuntionality. In Syria which gives Palestinians more rights, they tend to more well functioning.
3: Arabs really look down on Jews, as such they see Palestinians who lost their land to Jews and lives under Jewish rule as dirtied by this. You see a milder version of this with the Syrians, as Sunni Arabs also look down on the Alewites. Arabs may not like Christians or Buddhists (Chinese), but they recognize both groups as powerful and just don’t look as much down on Muslim being beaten by these and living under their rule.
4: PLO have a long tradition for f**king things up in the countries Palestinian refugees lives in, while Hamas is part of the Muslim Brotherhood which a lot of Arab nationalist, traditional Muslims and Wahhabist hates.
