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Palestinian diaspora

{{Short description|Part of the Arab diaspora}}

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{{Palestinians}}

The Palestinian diaspora ({{langx|ar|الشتات الفلسطيني}}, al-shatat al-filastini), part of the wider Arab diaspora, are Palestinian people living outside the region of Palestine and Israel. There are about 6.1 million members of the Palestinian Diaspora, most of whom live in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Chile.

History

Palestinian individuals have a long history of migration. Silk workers from Tiberias are mentioned in 13th-century Parisian tax records.Sharon Farmer. The Silk Industries of Medieval Paris. Artisanal Migration, Technological Innovation, and Gendered Experience, Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania, 2017, p. 93. However, the first large emigration wave of Arab Christians out of Palestine began in the mid-19th century; factors driving the emigration included economic opportunities, avoiding forced military service, and localized conflicts such as the 1860 civil conflict in Mount Lebanon and Damascus.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, 1992Between 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.

The 1922 census of Palestine's returns for Palestinians living abroad listed 4,054 Muslims, 6,264 Jews, 10,107 Christians, and 181 Druze.{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/PalestineCensus1922 |title=Palestine Census ( 1922)}}

File:Palestinian refugees.jpg

Since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Palestinians have experienced several waves of exile and have spread into different host countries around the world.{{cite web|title=The Palestinian Diaspora|publisher=Le Monde Diplomatique|access-date=2007-09-05|url=http://mondediplo.com/focus/mideast/a2335}} In addition to the more than {{gaps|700|000}} Palestinian refugees of 1948, hundreds of thousands were also displaced in the 1967 Six-Day War. In fact, after 1967, a number of young Palestinian men were encouraged to migrate to South America.John Tofik Karam, "On the Trail and Trial of a Palestinian Diaspora…" http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9070730 Together, these 1948 and 1967 refugees make up the majority of the Palestinian diaspora.{{cite web|title=Middle East: Palestine from www.persecution.org|publisher=www.persecution.org|date=February 2007|access-date=2007-09-08|url=http://www.persecution.org/suffering/countryinfodetail.php?countrycode=36|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928020941/http://www.persecution.org/suffering/countryinfodetail.php?countrycode=36|archive-date=2007-09-28|url-status=dead}} Besides those displaced by war, others have emigrated overseas for various reasons such as work opportunity, education{{cite web|title=Saudi Arabia finances study abroad for Palestinian students |publisher=The embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C. |date=2007-04-25 |access-date=2007-09-08 |url=http://www.saudiembassy.net/2007News/News/NewsDetail.asp?cIndex=7101 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013221134/http://saudiembassy.net/2007News/News/NewsDetail.asp?cIndex=7101 |archive-date=2007-10-13 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web|title=Swarthmore Senior Founds Organization for Palestinian Students in U.S. |publisher=Swarthmore |date=March 27, 2006 |access-date=2007-09-08 |url=http://www.swarthmore.edu/x3335.xml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070719095146/http://www.swarthmore.edu/x3335.xml |archive-date=July 19, 2007 |url-status=dead }} and religious persecution. In the decade following the 1967 war, for example, an average of {{gaps|21|000}} Palestinians per year were forced out of Israeli-controlled areas.Palestine Refugees: 50 Years of Injustice", The Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations", [https://web.archive.org/web/19991124132041/http://palestine-un.org/info/frindex.html] (28 Nov. 2002) The pattern of Palestinian flight continued during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

Population

In the absence of a comprehensive census including all Palestinian diaspora populations and those that remained within the area once known as the Mandatory 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 {{gaps|800|000}} since 2001.{{cite web|title=Statistical Abstract of Palestine No. 5|publisher=Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics|date=October 2005|access-date=2007-09-05|url=http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_pcbs/PressRelease/abstract_e.pdf}}

The issue of the Palestinian right of return has been of central importance to Palestinians and more broadly the Arab world since 1948. It is the dream of many in the Palestinian diaspora, and is present most strongly in Palestinian refugee camps.{{cite web|title=One Day We'll Rise Again - and Return|publisher=Al-Ahram Weekly|date=28 October – 3 November 1999|access-date=2007-09-11|url=http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/1999/453/re5.htm}} In the largest such camp in Lebanon, Ain al-Hilweh, neighborhoods are named for the Galilee towns and villages from which the original refugees came, such as Az-Zeeb, Safsaf and Hittin. 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.

Population figures

{{Main|Palestinian people}}

It is estimated that more than 6 million Palestinians live in a global diaspora.{{cite web |url=http://www.globalexchange.org/country/palestine/diaspora |title=The Palestinian Diaspora | Global Exchange |access-date=2012-12-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130101221315/http://www.globalexchange.org/country/palestine/diaspora |archive-date=2013-01-01 }}

The countries outside the Palestinian territories with significant Palestinian populations are:

The majority of the estimated {{gaps|100|000}} Palestinians in the European Union (EU) are in Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. Outside the EU is the United Kingdom, Norway and Switzerland. Germany's capital Berlin has one of the largest Palestinian communities outside of the Middle East with about {{gaps|30|000}}-{{gaps|40|000}} people of Palestinian origin residing in the city (~1% of the total population).{{cite web |url=http://www.schule-ohne-rassismus.org/fileadmin/pdf/stadt_der_vielfalt_bf.pdf |title=Archived copy |website=www.schule-ohne-rassismus.org |access-date=13 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921055244/http://www.schule-ohne-rassismus.org/fileadmin/pdf/stadt_der_vielfalt_bf.pdf |archive-date=21 September 2013 |url-status=dead}}

In the United States, this includes a Palestinian community of 800-1000 in Gallup, New Mexico, highly involved in the area's Southwest jewelry industry.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/18/us/gallup-journal-tension-over-who-prospers-in-an-indian-capital.html|title = Gallup Journal; Tension over Who Prospers in an Indian Capital|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 18 July 2003|last1 = Leduff|first1 = Charlie}} {{citation needed|date=March 2016}}

Notable Palestinians in the diaspora

See also

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20071118080828/http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-2922-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html Shaml - The Palestinian Diaspora and Refugee Centre]
  • [http://www.surrey.ac.uk/Arts/CRONEM/krakow/Luisa-Gandolfo.doc The Palestinian Christian Diaspora in Jordan]{{Dead link|date=February 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
  • The French Le Monde Diplomatique ("The Diplomatic World") has two web sites with more accurate information on the Palestinian diaspora:
  • [http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/cartes/refugiesdiasporapaldpl2000 The global Palestinian diaspora in the world] (in French), Fébruary 2000;
  • [http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/cartes/refugiespalestiniensdpl2000 The Palestinian Refugee population in the Middle East] (in French), Fébruary 2000.

{{Palestinian diaspora}}

{{Palestinian refugee camps}}

{{Arab diaspora}}

{{Overseas Asians}}

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Category:History of the Palestinian refugees