I just met a patient (I'm a doctor) last week who is a Palestinian refugee, a 26 year old guy. He's been in Sweden for 7 years but so far hasn't got a permanent visa here because Swedish immigration authorities think it's safe for him to go back, but he's obstructed to be sent back by appealing to the upper court over and over again and his case is still not settled.
Now what's interesting is that the guy says he can't go back to Palestine because he fears the Palestinian nationalist and religious fanatics (his words). The background is that his father back in 1994 sold Palestinian land to Israel when the Israelis decided to build the West Bank Barrier, and in revenge the fanatics murdered his mother and brother in front of his eyes as a 8 year old boy.
He sat there and cried in front of me because he constantly has these nightmares about a pool of blood growing increasingly bigger around his mother and brother lying on the floor. His father is still hiding in a small village between the border of Turkey and Syria, too afraid to move back to Palestine.
Now, if this young man had a death threat coming against him from the Israelis, he'd be granted a permanent visa in Sweden in a second. But as a very pro-Palestinian country, Sweden seems unable to recognize palestinian persecution towards other palestinians.
(he also told me he had been beaten up by Israeli soldiers once, if you want to hear the complete story about offenses from both sides against him).
