PCBS: 10.88 million Palestinians in the world, half in diaspora

[ProgressiveMuslim]

Published yesterday (updated) 30/12/2009 22:04

Bethlehem - Ma'an - The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics released a report on the Palestinian population worldwide, noting a decrease in family size for the population living in Palestinian territories.

The report counted a total of 10.9 million Palestinians worldwide by the end of 2009, with 2.5 million in the West Bank including East Jerusalem, 1.5million in the Gaza Strip and 1.25 million living in Israel. More than half of the world Palestinian population, the report noted, live in the diaspora.

Of those living in the diaspora 3.24 million live in Jordan (29.8%); 1.78 million (16.3%) in the other Arab countries, and 618,000 in orther foreign countries.

Of those living in Palestinian areas, 45.0% are internally displaced refugees. By area, the numbers broke down to 18.8% of the West Bank population and 26.2% of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

read on...
http://maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=250948

[aquart]

1. Where were these Arabs born, exactly?

Oddly enough, I'm a citizen of the place I was born.

[Violet_Crumble]

2. Probably the same places a lot of Jews who move to Israel are...

Not sure what yr point is...

[ProgressiveMuslim]

3. These Palestinians, you mean?

[safeinOhio]

4. Where were those crazy settlers born?

[Taitertots]

5. How many of those people have ever seen Israel?

At what point do successive generations stop having a claim to Israel in your opinion?

It is getting to the point where children being born soon are going to have never met a person who has been in the area now known as Israel.

[azurnoir]

6. The same could be said of Israel n/t

[Taitertots]

7. All the people who live in Israel have seen Israel

So I'm not exactly sure what you are getting at.

[azurnoir]

8. Not all of the people who live in Israel saw it prior to

getting there except in pictures

[Ken Burch]

10. Several Israeli PRIME MINISTERS were born in other places.

Israel gained independence in 1947, but it didn't have a Sabra as prime minister until Yigal Allon, who had the job briefly in 1969(as a placeholder after Levi Eshkol's death and before the elevation of Golda Meir). The next was Yitzak Rabin, who only held the job for a year and a half after Meir's resignation and was replaced during the campaign by Diaspora-born Shimon Peres, who then lost the election to Diaspora-born Menachem Begin). Begin and Peres were eventually succeeded by Yitzak Shamir(also diaspora born).
When Rabin led the Labor party to victory in 1992(in the "Battle of the Yitzaks")he was the first Sabra to become prime minister in a general election and the first to serve nearly a full term in office, until his assassination in 1996).

SO to recap, in the first forty-three years of Israeli history, the prime ministership was only held by a person born in Israel or what would become Israel for a total of three and one-half years.

So who are Israelis or anyone who self-identifies as "pro-Israeli" to be judgmental about who does and does not count as Palestinian?

[azurnoir]

14. Thank you for pointing that out

at the time of my comment I was not sure about that

[Dick Dastardly]

12. What do you mean? n/t

[azurnoir]

13. Perhaps you should go back to comment #5

and read from there if that does not clarify then I really do not know what will

[Dick Dastardly]

15. I did

He asked

"At what point do successive generations stop having a claim to Israel in your opinion? "

and your answer made no sense with respect to that

[azurnoir]

17. it was a question asked of the OP not me

I made a statement about the question as have others, and if you read comment #16 the OP answered the question

[Dick Dastardly]

19. Ok I see that. Sorry I thought it was asked of you. n/t

[Ken Burch]

9. Apparently, some people have a claim even if their families left when the Temple was destroyed

Even if formal RoR is rejected, there WILL need to be an admission that the Palestinian diasporites have as deep a connection to that land as anyone else. There will have to be parity of esteem on this.

[ConsAreLiars]

11. I'd say the time limits when successive generations stop having a claim to Israel/Palestine

should be pretty much the same for all those who claim some connection to the land. Maybe even extended to all Arabs or Muslims in the same way it is being extended to all those, including converts, who self-identify as Jews. A few thiousand years or so, if there is to be any semblance of justice or equality. Of course, supremacists and the institutions or states they create have no concept or desire for either.

I know that answer is not "right" enough to suit you and the others who claim some superior rights, but I've always been more of a humanitarian/leftist than a supremacist/rightist, so I'll suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree.

(edit to add a bit more just to state more of what is obvious.)

[Taitertots]

20. You don't think 1,000 years is unreasonable

Why not 2000 years? Do the Romans, Byzantines, Christians, or the Zoroastrians hold such claims too?

So, since I'm a zoroastrian, I should have RoR to Israel because Zoroastrians at some point in the last few thousand years lived there and were forced off the land.

[ConsAreLiars]

22. I'd say the same standards should apply, regardless of religious affiliation.

If it is "just" to give some of those who trace their ties to that bit of land back a couple thousand years, then it is certainly "just" to extend that right to those of other religious heritages who were driven off, fled or just wandered away since then.

Of course, this is "The Holy Land" so religious insanity, supremacy, intolerance, hatred of the other, and all sorts of delusional self-serving bullshit about who are dog's true children make words like "just" irrelevant.

(edit slightly)

[Taitertots]

24. I figure the "just" way is to let Israelis decide who they let into their country

I highly doubt they are going to be interested in letting in the group they have had 60 years of hostilities with.

I don't support Israel because it has been the Jewish homeland for 2000 years+. I support it because it is good policy right now.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

16. What a stupid thing to say. How many of them would be allowed in? While birth from

a Jewish vagina insures a visa stamp, being born of a refugee pretty much ensures those folks will NEVER see historic Palestine.

[Dick Dastardly]

18. For some reason only decendendents of refugees from Palestinian vaginas are considered refugees.

No other refugee groups decendents are considered refugees. Palestinians have a separate refugee definition than everyone else in the world and get to keep perpetual refugee status.

In addition there is no absolute right of return especially one on a mass scale and certainly none at all for decendents. According to International legal expert Stig Jagerskiold and many others

"This right is intended to apply to individuals asserting an individual right. There was no intention here to address the claim of masses of people who have been displaced as a byproduct of war or by political transfers of territory or population, such as the relocation of ethnic Germans from eastern Europe during and after the Second World War, the flight of Palestinians from what became Israel, or the movement of Jews from the Arab countries. Whatever the merits of various "irredentist" claims, or those of masses of refugees who wish to return to the place where they originally lived, the Covenant does not deal with those issues and cannot be invoked to support the right to "return." These claims will require international political solutions on a large scale

In the context of general international law one also has to observe that humanitarian law conventions (such as the 1949 Geneva Conventions for the Protection of Victims of War) do not recognize a right of return.

Stig Jagerskiold, "The Freedom of Movement", in Louis Henkin, ed., The International Bill of Rights, New York, 1981, pp. 166-184 at p. 180.
http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:iCC8gbsypj0J:network.idrc.ca/uploads/user-S/10576079920Session_2_Eyal_Benvinisti_paper.doc+Stig+Jagerskiold&cd=38&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us



On the other hand Israel allowing Jews in is the same as Ireland letting those of Irish decent in, the same as France letting those of French decent in and the same as most other European countries or for that matter most other countries in the world that also let those of their decent in. Contrary to the claims it is Israel who is acting just like any other country does and the Palestinians who are getting special considerations and status.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

21. Bullshit. My American neighbor gets the red carpet. My husband, born in Palestine, is refused entry

It's racial bullshit of the worst kind.

Decent Jews around the world should all forgo their right of easy entry until there is a more just system.

[Taitertots]

25. Ease of entry can only come after peaceful resolution

It has to be apparent that do to long standing regional animosity that Israel should restrict access. How can you ask Israel to do what we all know would put the people in danger? The 60 years of unending war between the two areas is plenty reason to restrict access.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

26. He was born there and lived there until he was 25 years old! That ZIonists can so easily

rationalize this outrage is sickening.

[Taitertots]

27. It should be obvious why he isn't allowed entry

Please try as hard as you can to ignore the 60+ years of war between Palestinians and Israelis.

That you would even expect them to allow him in shows that you are being unreasonable.

[ConsAreLiars]

23. "Draft. Please do not cite without author’s permission."

So your supremacist talking points are so puny that you have to dig out a few paragraphs from some "Draft. Please do not cite without author’s permission" speech for some 1981 conference and claim that is some sort of authoritative statement?

I know cowards and righties just leurve them some Authority, but damn, that is like, ohmygod, like wow!, so awesomely LAME!

You might want to spend some time looking though your baggage. There's some stinky stuff there.