Palestinian diaspora
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Palestinian Arabic |
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Other Semitic and Mediterranean peoples |
Palestinian diaspora (Arabic: الشتات, al-shatat) is a term used to describe Palestinians living outside of historic Palestine - an area today known as Israel and the Palestinian territories or the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.[12] Of the total Palestinian population worldwide, estimated at between 9 to 11 million people, roughly half live outside of their homeland.
Large-scale emigration of Christians began in the mid-19th century as a response to the oppression of Christians by the Ottoman Empire.[13][14][15][16]
Since the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Palestinians have experienced several waves of exile and lived in different host countries around the world.[17] In addition to the Palestinian refugees of 1948, hundreds of thousands were also displaced in the 1967 war. Together, these refugees make up the majority of the Palestinian diaspora.[17] Besides those displaced by war, others have emigrated overseas for various reasons such as work opportunity, education,[18][19] religious persecution[20] and persecution from Israeli authorities. In the decade following the 1967 war, for example, an average of 21,000 Palestinians per year were forced out of Israeli-controlled areas.[21] The pattern of Palestinian flight continued during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.[21] In 2002, for example, 13 militants were deported by Israeli authorities following the Siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
In the absence of a comprehensive census including all Palestinian diaspora populations and those that remained within the area once known as British Mandate Palestine, exact population figures are difficult to determine. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the number of Palestinians worldwide at the end of 2003 was 9.6 million, an increase of 800,000 since 2001.[22]
Robin Cohen in his book Global Diasporas (1997), explains that for Palestinians, and others like Armenians, Jews, and some African populations, the term 'Diaspora' has "acquired a more sinister and brutal meaning", signifying "a collective trauma, a banishment, where one dreamed of home but lived in exile."[12]
The issue of the Palestinian right of return has been of central importance to Palestinians and more broadly the Arab World since 1948.[17] It is the dream of many in the Palestinian Diaspora, and is present most strongly in Palestinian refugee camps.[23] In the largest such camp in Lebanon, Ain Hilweh, neighborhoods are named for the Galilee towns and villages from which the original refugees came, such as al-Zeeb, Safsaf and Hittin.[23] Even though 97% of the camp's inhabitants have never seen the towns and villages their parents and grandparents left behind, most insist that the right of return is an inalienable right and one that they will never renounce.[23]
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[edit] Population figures
The majority of the Palestinian diaspora are in the Middle East,[2] other than the state of Israel (indicated population statistics) :
- Jordan : 2,700,000 Palestinians (both refugees and Jordanian citizens)[3][citation needed]. Although, it's believed by many Palestinian-Jordanians that more than 70 percent of Jordanian citizens are of Palestinian descent.
- Chile : 500,000 Palestinians (largest community outside the Arab world)[24][25][26]
- Syria : 434,896 Palestinians[6]
- Libya : 430,000 Palestinians[2]
- Saudi Arabia : 250,000 Palestinians[2]
- Europe : 70,000 to 100,000 Palestinians[citation needed]
- Egypt : 70,000 Palestinians[27]
- United States of America : 67,842 Palestinians[28]
- Honduras : 54,000 Palestinians[8]
- Brazil : 50,000 Palestinians[9]
- Iraq : 34,000 Palestinians[29]
- Canada : 23,975 Palestinians[30]
- Australia : 15,000 Palestinians[2]
- East Asia : 12,000 Palestinians[2]
In 2007, Japan accepted and created a "Palestinian nationality" to designate Palestinian people living in the country, instead of their birth in Israeli occupied territories.[citation needed]
Other populations are found in mostly Muslim countries known for more political stability (i.e. Bahrain, Jordan, Libya, Qatar, Syria and Tunisia).
In 2004, the population of Palestinians in the historic Palestine lands made up of the Palestinian Authority (Israel and Jordan):
- 900 000 Palestinians in Israel (excluding East Jerusalem);
- 1,300,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip;[2]
- 200,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem;[2]
- 2,200,000 Palestinians in Jordan.[2]
About 350,000 Palestinians live in the Persian Gulf states and in other mostly Muslim countries (i.e. Azerbaijan, Iran, Kuwait, Morocco, Pakistan, Turkey and the U.A.E.).
The majority of the estimated 100,000 Palestinians in the E.U. are in the UK, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. Outside the E.U. is Norway and Switzerland.
Small numbers of Palestinians are found in Eastern Europe such as Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia and the Ukraine.
Palestinians, along with other Arab peoples alike the Lebanese migrated to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Southeast Asia, and in West Africa and West Indies nations.
The French Le Monde Diplomatique ("The Diplomatic World") has two web sites with more accurate information on the Palestinian diaspora:
- The global Palestinian diaspora in the world (in French), Fébruary 2000;
- The Palestinian Refugee population in the Middle East (in French), Fébruary 2000.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Population of Palestine
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 'Palestinians grow by a million in decade', Jerusalem Post, Feb 9, 2008
"208,000 Palestinians were counted in east Jerusalem ... 2.345 million in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and 1.416 million in Gaza" - ^ a b Cordesman, 2005, p. 54. The figure is based on an estimate for 2005, extrapolating from a population 2.3 million in 2001.
- ^ (Spanish) Israelíes y los árabes musulmanes o cristianos llamados en la actualidad "palestinos"
- ^ (Spanish) Palestinos en Chile
- ^ a b "Table 1.0: Total Registered Refugees per Country per Area" (PDF). UNRWA. http://www.un.org/unrwa/publications/pdf/rr_countryandarea.pdf.
- ^ "American FactFinder". Factfinder.census.gov. http://www.factfinder.census.gov. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
- ^ a b c d e f Joshua Project. "Arab, Palestinian Ethnic People in all Countries". Joshua Project. http://www.joshuaproject.net/peoples.php?rop3=107785. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
- ^ a b Governo do Estado de São Paulo - Memorial do Imigrante
- ^ Palestinians Refugees in Iraq
- ^ "Ethnic Origin (247), Single and Multiple Ethnic Origin Responses (3) and Sex (3) for the Population of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agg...". 2.statcan.ca. http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/topics/RetrieveProductTable.cfm?ALEVEL=3&APATH=3&CATNO=&DETAIL=0&DIM=&DS=99&FL=0&FREE=0&GAL=0&GC=99&GK=NA&GRP=1&IPS=&METH=0&ORDER=1&PID=92333&PTYPE=88971&RL=0&S=1&ShowAll=No&StartRow=1&SUB=801&Temporal=2006&Theme=80&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF&GID=837928. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
- ^ a b Helena Shiblak (2005). "The Palestinian Diaspora: Formation of Identities and Politics of Homeland". Journal of Refugee Studies 18: 507–509. doi:10.1093/refuge/fei051. http://jrs.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/18/4/507. Retrieved 2007-09-05.
- ^ The Lebanese in the world: a century of emigration, Albert Habib Hourani, Nadim Shehadi, Centre for Lebanese Studies (Great Britain), Centre for Lebanese Studies in association with I.B. Tauris, 1992
- ^ Arab Chileans.
- ^ Between Argentines and Arabs: Argentine orientalism, Arab immigrants, and the writing of identity, Christina Civantos, SUNY Press, 2005, p. 6.
- ^ Arab and Jewish immigrants in Latin America: images and realities, by Ignacio Klich, Jeff Lesser, 1998, pp. 165, 108.
- ^ a b c "The Palestinian Diaspora". Le Monde Diplomatique. http://mondediplo.com/focus/mideast/a2335. Retrieved 2007-09-05.
- ^ "Saudi Arabia finances study abroad for Palestinian students". The embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C.. 2007-04-25. Archived from the original on 2007-10-13. http://web.archive.org/web/20071013221134/http://saudiembassy.net/2007News/News/NewsDetail.asp?cIndex=7101. Retrieved 2007-09-08.
- ^ "Swarthmore Senior Founds Organization for Palestinian Students in U.S.". Swarthmore. March 27, 2006. Archived from the original on 2007-07-19. http://web.archive.org/web/20070719095146/http://www.swarthmore.edu/x3335.xml. Retrieved 2007-09-08.
- ^ "Middle East: Palestine from www.persecution.org". www.persecution.org. February 2007. http://www.persecution.org/suffering/countryinfodetail.php?countrycode=36. Retrieved 2007-09-08.
- ^ a b Palestine Refugees: 50 Years of Injustice," The Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations," http://www.palestine-un.org/info/frindex.html (28 Nov. 2002)
- ^ "Statistical Abstract of Palestine No. 5". Palestine Central Bureau of Statistics. October 2005. http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_pcbs/PressRelease/abstract_e.pdf. Retrieved 2007-09-05.
- ^ a b c "One Day We'll Rise Again - and Return". Al-Ahram Weekly. 28 October - 3 November 1999. http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/1999/453/re5.htm. Retrieved 2007-09-11.
- ^ (Spanish) Chile tiene la comunidad palestina más grande fuera del mundo árabe, unos 500.000 descendientes.
- ^ Chile: Palestinian refugees arrive to warm welcome.
- ^ (Spanish) 500,000 descendientes de primera y segunda generación de palestinos en Chile
- ^ (Spanish) Palestinos por el mundo
- ^ "American FactFinder". Factfinder.census.gov. http://www.factfinder.census.gov. Retrieved 2010-01-11.
- ^ Palestinian in Iraq
- ^ Palestinian immigration in Canada
[edit] External links
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