The Peace on The Horizon - 75 Years after The World War 2 in the Middle East (112)

 

(Japanese Version)

(Arabic Version)

 

(contents)

 

Chapter 4: War and Peace in The Middle East (26)

 

112 East of Nakba(great catastrophe) (1/3)

The Arab countries have been disastrously defeated by Israel in the First Arab Israeli War in which Israel aimed for Independence. That was the reason why Arab countries called this war "Nakba (Great Disaster)" and Israel called the War of Independence. The greatest victim was the Arab-Palestinians who lived in Palestine. Approximately 750,000 Jews flowed from all over the world into Palestine after the war. As a result, the same number of Arab-Palestinians were pushed out of the country and became refugees. More Palestinian refugees came in the later Arab-Israeli wars. The number of refugees reached approximately ten million in total. Most of them evacuated to the east neighboring country - Jordan. Jordan was "the east of Nakba".

 

Jordan, however, was the poor country from its foundation. Palestinian refugees had a difficult time in Jordan. Many of them had to migrate to the Gulf countries such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, where the oil boom began. They moved from the land of Nakba in Palestine to Jordan and thereafter toward to the east again. This time, Gulf countries became “the east of Nakba”. Palestinian refugees were the diligent workforce in the Gulf oil-producing countries. Palestinians were the same Arabs with inhabitants in the Gulf countries. They could easily communicate by speaking Arabic language. They believed the same religion of Islam as the same Sunni sect. The Saudis and Kuwaitis appreciated the excellent knowledge of the Palestinians.

 

(To be continued ----)

 

 

Areha Kazuya

(From an ordinary citizen in the cloud)