The First Gulf War Refugee Crisis

The outbreak of the Gulf War has led to a refugee crisis in a vast part of the Middle East. Especially vulnerable are Palestinians who found themselves in a fight for their dignity and independence during the outbreak of the gulf war. To fully understand the ethnic aspects of the refugee crisis and its aftermath it can be helpful to pay closer attention to the Palestinian exodus from Kuwait in 1990-1991.

Before the Gulf War, Palestinians numbered 30% (400,0000) of Kuwait’s population. After the Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait in the summer of 1990, the exodus of Palestinians from Kuwait began. This exodus was the result of Kuwait's policy, which in itself was a response to the alignment of Palestinian leader Yassar Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) with the dictator Saddam Hussein, who had earlier invaded Kuwait. In mid-1990, more than 200,000 Palestinians had fled the country due to the Iraqi occupation, which resulted in harassment and intimidation by Iraqi security forces, including getting fired from work by Iraqi authority figures in Kuwait. The Iraqi education ministry dismissed 3,000 Palestinians in September alone in 1990, but it continued throughout October.

“The months of March to June 1991 were witness to a sustained Kuwaiti campaign to expel the Palestinian population using methods that combined bureaucratic means and terror,” according to an article published by a Palestinian advocacy group, Badil.

“The great majority of Palestinian civil servants were simply fired or not rehired; Palestinian children were expelled from public schools; educational subsidies were terminated, and heavy financial burdens were placed on Palestinians who wished to remain… For those who didn’t get the message, there was always the threat of arbitrary arrest.”

Of the approximately 400.000 Palestinians who lived in Kuwait before the war, only about 20.000 were estimated to have remained afterward. That is a testament to the massive divide between the Palestinians and Kuwaitis. In addition, despite the bleak economic circumstances in Jordan and the miserable prospects for refugees, Jordan was an essential refuge since it was the only country that did not discriminate against Palestinians. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has registered 2.2 million Palestinians, though the total number is thought to be higher. All these numbers symbolize that the Palestinian refugee question is unique in terms of the large size of the affected population and the duration of the problem. Millions of families were displaced, millions had to give up their homes, and millions had to flee the country without any security. As we approach the committee, it is important to fully understand and dissect the gravité of this issue. One of the questions may focus on how one can overcome the discrimination of Palestinians in the Middle East but especially how the struggle the Palestinian population has endured may inform the future relationship between them and ethnic groups and countries, especially Kuwait.

Best,

Amelie Julicher
Assistant Director