Kuwait Expels Thousands of Palestinians
2012; Middle East Forum; Volume: 19; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2767-049X
Autores Tópico(s)Global Peace and Security Dynamics
ResumoMuch has been made of the Palestinian exodus of 1 948 . Yet during their decades of dispersal, the Palestinians have experienced no less traumatic ordeals at the hands of their Arab brothers. As early as the mid-1950s, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Libya expelled striking Palestinian workers. In 1970, Jordan expelled some 20,000 Palestinians and demolished their camps; in 1 994-95, Libya expelled tens of thousands of long-term Palestinian residents in response to the Oslo process; and after the 2003 Iraq war, some 21,000 Palestinians fled the country in response to a systematic terror and persecution campaign. As recently as 2007, Beirut effectively displaced 3 1 ,400 Palestinian refugees when the Lebanese army destroyed the Nahr el Bared refugee camp during fighting between the militant Fatal al-Islam group and the Lebanese army.1 But the largest forced displacement of Palestinians from an Arab state took place in 1 99 1 when Kuwait expelled most of its Palestinian residents in retaliation for the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) endorsement of Iraq's brutal occupation of the emirate (August 1 990-February 1 99 1 ). It mattered little that this population, most of which had resided in Kuwait for decades, was not supportive of the PLO 's reckless move: From March to September 1 99 1 , about 200,000 Palestinians were expelled from the emirate in a systematic campaign of terror, violence, and economic pressure while another 200,000 who fled during the Iraqi occupation were denied return. By September 1 99 1 , Kuwait's Palestinian community had dwindled to some 20,000. Yet while this expulsion was near the order of magnitude of the Palestinian 1 948 flight (estimated by the Israeli government at 550,000-600,000 and by the Arab League at 700,00O),2 driving PLO chairman Yasser Arafat to declare that Kuwait did to the Palestinian people is worse than what has been done by Israel to Palestinians in the occupied territories,3 it was largely ignored by the international community with neither the U.N. Security Council nor the General Assembly doing anything to assist the newly displaced refugees and punish their ethnic cleanser. ASETTLEDAND INTEGRATED COMMUNITY The first Palestinian Arab immigrants to Kuwait arrived in 1936 at the invitation of its ruler, Sheikh Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, and the positive impression they made inclined Kuwait to accept further workers, including many displaced by the 1948 war. Between 1948 and 1960, tens of thousands of refugee and non-refugee Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza arrived in Kuwait while the sheikhdom was still a British protectorate. Many were teachers, civil servants, and unskilled workers. By June 1961, when Kuwait declared its independence, its Palestinian community had grown to some 40,000, about 12 percent of the emirate's entire population of 32 1 ,62 1 .4 Palestinian immigration accelerated after 1959 when Kuwait signed an agreement with Jordan cancelling visa requirements for Jordanian citizens.5 Many Jordanian Palestinians, from both the East and West Banks, seized the opportunity, bringing relatives and friends into Kuwait. In ten years, the Palestinian population of the emirate quadrupled. By August 2, 1990, the day Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, the population had multiplied to 400,000-450,000, or four Palestinians for every five native Kuwaitis.6 Most of the Palestinians were not given Kuwaiti citizenship but were thoroughly integrated into the economy and culture of the emirate. According to American academic Laurie Brand, It was the Palestinians more than any other single expatriate group who helped shape the country's social, economic, and political development. The length of their residence, the size of the community, their dedication to work in both the public and private sectors, and their consequent entrenchment in the bureaucracy, economy, professions, and the media enabled the Palestinians in Kuwait to develop into one of the most cohesive and active communities in the diaspora. …
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