Palestinian diaspora

Palestinians
(الفلسطينيون al-Filasṭīniyyūn)

Tawfiq Canaan • Edward Said • Mahmoud Darwish • Leila Khaled Yassir Arafat • Mohammad Bakri • Hanan Ashrawi • Queen Rania of Jordan
Total population
c. 11,000,000-20,000,000
Regions with significant populations
Palestinian territories 3,760,000 – West Bank (including East Jerusalem) 2,345,000 – Gaza Strip 1,416,000 Jordan 2,700,000 Israel 1,540,000 Syria 630,000 Chile 500,000 Lebanon 402,582 Saudi Arabia 280,245 Egypt 270,245 United States 255,000 Honduras 250,000 United Arab Emirates 170,000 Germany 159,000 Mexico 158,000 Qatar 100,000 Kuwait 70,000 El Salvador 70,000 Brazil 59,000 Iraq 57,000 Yemen 55,000 Canada 50,975 Australia 45,000 Libya 44,000 Denmark 32,152 UK 30,000 Sweden 25,000 Peru 20,000 Colombia 12,000 Pakistan 10,500 Netherlands 9,000
Languages
Palestinian territories Palestinian Arabic, English, Neo-Aramaic, and Greek. Israel Palestinian Arabic and Modern Hebrew, English, Neo-Aramaic, Modern Hebrew and Greek Diaspora: Other varieties of Arabic, Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, and others
Religion
Majority: Sunni Islam, Minority: Christian, Druze, Judaism, Samaritanism
Related ethnic groups
Other Levantine, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Semitic peoples: Jews, Arabs, Assyrians.

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. 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.

Since the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Palestinians have experienced several waves of exile and lived in different host countries around the world. 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. Besides those displaced by war, others have emigrated overseas for various reasons such as work opportunity, education, religious persecution 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. The pattern of Palestinian flight continued during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s 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.

Arab refugees of 1948 war

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."

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. 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. 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

The majority of the Palestinian diaspora are in the Middle East, other than the state of Israel (indicated population statistics) :

• Jordan : 2,700,000 Palestinians (both refugees and Jordanian citizens)^{[citation needed]}.
• Chile : 500,000 Palestinians (largest community outside the Arab world)
• Syria : 434,896 Palestinians
• Lebanon : 430,000 Palestinians
• Saudi Arabia : 250,000 Palestinians
• Europe : 70,000 to 100,000 Palestinians^{[citation needed]}
• Egypt : 70,000 Palestinians
• United States of America : 67,842 Palestinians
• Honduras : 54,000 Palestinians
• Brazil : 50,000 Palestinians
• Iraq : 34,000 Palestinians
• Canada : 23,975 Palestinians
• Australia : 15,000 Palestinians
• East Asia : 12,000 Palestinians

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;
• 200,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem;
• 2,200,000 Palestinians in Jordan.

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. Germany's capital Berlin has one of the largest Palestinian communities outside of the Middle East with about 30,000-40,000 (~1% of the total population) people of Palestinian origin residing in the city.

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.

Palestine Populations in the Diaspora

Country	Estimate	Country article in English Wikipedia
Palestine	4,200,000
Jordan	2,900,000
Israel	1,600,000
Syria	800,000
Chile	500,000
Lebanon	490,000
Saudi Arabia	280,245
Egypt	270,245
United States	270,000
Honduras	250,000
Venezuela	245,120
United Arab Emirates	170,000
Germany	159,000
Mexico	158,000
Qatar	100,000
Kuwait	70,000
El Salvador	70,000
Brazil	59,000
Iraq	57,000
Yemen	55,000
Canada	50,975
Australia	45,000
Libya	44,000
Eritrea	41,000
Denmark	32,152
United Kingdom	30,000
Sweden	25,500
Peru	20,000
Colombia	20,000
Spain	12,000
Pakistan	10,500
Panama	10,000
Netherlands	9,000
Greece	7,500
Norway	7,000
France	5,000
Guatemala	3,500
Austria	3,000
Switzerland	2,000
Argentina	2,000
Czech Republic	1,500
Turkey	1,000
India	300

See also

• 1948 Palestinian exodus
• 1991 Palestinian exodus from Kuwait
• Arab diaspora
• List of Palestinians
• Palestinian Christian
• Jewish diaspora

External links

• Shaml - The Palestinian Diaspora and Refugee Centre
• The Palestinian Christian Diaspora in Jordan