Palestinian exodus from Kuwait (1990–91)
Emigration during and after the Gulf War / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Palestinian exodus from Kuwait took place during and after the Gulf War. There were approximately 357,000 Palestinians living in Kuwait before the country was invaded by neighbouring Iraq on 2 August 1990.[1] On August 10, 20 Arab League countries at an emergency summit in Cairo drafted a final statement that condemned the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and supported the UN resolutions. Twelve Arab states supported the use of force while the remaining eight, including the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), rejected a military solution to the Iraqi invasion.[2] According to the Washington Post, classified U.S. reports indicated that then PLO leader Yasser Arafat pressed then Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to make his withdrawal from Kuwait conditional on the withdrawal of Israel from the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights, and on August 12, Saddam announced his offer to conditionally withdraw.[3] The Kuwaiti government policy which led to this exodus was a response to the position taken by the PLO.
After Operation Desert Storm, which saw Iraqi forces defeated and pushed out of Kuwait by a United States-led coalition, more than 287,000 Palestinians were forced to leave Kuwait in March 1991 by the government and fear of abuse by Kuwaiti security forces.[1][4][5]
In 2004, the political situation between the Palestinian leadership and Kuwait improved with the issuance of an official apology by Mahmoud Abbas for the PLO's support of the Iraqi occupation. In 2012, the official Palestinian embassy in Kuwait was re-opened,[6] and some 80,000 Palestinians were living in the state.[6]