Since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Palestinians have experienced several waves of exile and have spread into different host countries around the world.[6] In addition to the more than 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.[7] Together, these 1948 and 1967 refugees make up the majority of the Palestinian diaspora.[6][8] Besides those displaced by war, others have emigrated overseas for various reasons such as work opportunity, education[9][10] and religious persecution.[8] In the decade following the 1967 war, for example, an average of 21,000 Palestinians per year were forced out of Israeli-controlled areas.[11] 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 800,000 since 2001.[12]
The issue of the Palestinian right of return has been of central importance to Palestinians and more broadly the Arab world since 1948.[6] It is the dream of many in the Palestinian diaspora, and is present most strongly in Palestinian refugee camps.[13] 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.[13] 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.[13]
In the United States, this includes a Palestinian community of 800-1,000 in Gallup, New Mexico, highly involved in the area's Southwest jewelry industry.[17][citation needed]
Notable Palestinians in the diaspora
Raed Arafat, Romanian physician and politician, founder of SMURD
^Sharon Farmer. The Silk Industries of Medieval Paris. Artisanal Migration, Technological Innovation, and Gendered Experience, Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania, 2017, p. 93.
^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
^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.
^"Archived copy"(PDF). www.schule-ohne-rassismus.org. Archived from the original(PDF) on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 13 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
