From Palestine under British Mandate to today, who are the Palestinians and where have they migrated over time and conflicts? Franceinfo traces the history of this people.
Since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, the question of the Palestinian people has returned to the forefront of the international scene. But what are the origins of its inhabitants, and who are they? The Palestinians in fact come from the Arabic-speaking Muslim and Christian population who lived in the territory of Palestine under British mandate, before the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. Franceinfo offers you a chronology of the Palestinian people, in video and in text.
1948, the “Nakba”
From 1948 and the creation of the Jewish State of Israel, the Palestinians experienced what they called the “Nakba”, that is to say the “catastrophe” or “disaster” in Arabic. Some of them will then go into exile. 700,000 Palestinians will flee the fighting following the creation of Israel and will go in several directions. First, there are those Palestinians displaced within the territory of former British Palestine. Some leave for the Gaza Strip which, thanks to the conflict, comes under Egyptian control. Others moved to the West Bank, which Jordan annexed shortly after, in 1950, and some remained in Israel, those we would call Israeli Arabs.
Then there are the Palestinian refugees in neighboring countries. Many went to Lebanon, mainly to camps, others fled to Jordan and other Arab countries, such as Syria.
1967, a new war and a new exodus
In 1967, a new war broke out, the Six-Day War. During this lightning war, Israel took control, in particular, of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Once again, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are fleeing to neighboring countries (Jordan, Lebanon, Syria). From there, some migrate to find work in Iraq and Gulf countries, including Kuwait. However, since the Gulf Wars of 1990 and 2003, many Palestinians have left this region to return to Jordan or Syria.
Finally, other Palestinians emigrate across the world.
Today, where are we?
After all these exoduses and migrations, where do Palestinians live in the world today? There are currently approximately six million Palestinian refugees registered with the United Nations program to assist them in the Middle East, but there are also several million not registered with the UN.
Concretely, there are already those who are present in the Gaza Strip (2.3 million Palestinians) and in the West Bank (three million Palestinians), both under Palestinian authority. There are also those who still live in Israel, the Israeli Arabs who number around two million. Then there is the Palestinian diaspora in the Near and Middle East. There are an estimated 5 million Palestinians in total in Jordan alone, half of whom are registered as refugees. Palestinians represent more than half of the population of this country, where they are a real part of society. As proof, Queen Rania of Jordan is of Palestinian origin. There are also Palestinians in Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
The Palestinian diaspora also extends elsewhere in the world. Palestinians are found in South America, the United States, Europe, Australia and other countries.