![]() ![]() Saudi Arabia was so anticommunist that it only recently began to consider the possibility of recognizing the Soviet Union. M.i.: The Saudis and Kuwaitis always supported the right wing of the Palestinian movement. But the Palestinian question is very sensitive in the Arab world and these regimes could not publicly oppose the formation of a Palestinian state.ĪTC Did the Kuwaitis and Saudis support a particular tendency among the Palestinians? Any political activity, even by Palestinians on Palestinian issues, was considered eye-opening and subversive by the Kuwaiti and other regimes of the Arab peninsula. When Palestinians were able to organize in Kuwait it was despite the efforts the regime. ![]() The Palestinian family was constantly threatened with disruption because of the rule that children had to leave the country when they turned eighteen. Like other non-citizens they depended totally on the goodwill of their Kuwaiti sponsors. Male Kuwaiti citizens with the right to vote:įemale Kuwaiti citizens with the right to vote:ĪTC: What was the status of Palestinians in Kuwait? Any complaint was answered by, “Here’s your passport, get out of the country.” This happened not only to Sri Lankans but to Palestinians. Completely dependent on their household, they were subjected to abuse and women to sexual harassment. I know of cases where immigrants had to turn over their passports to the agency and found it almost impossible to move about Kuwait. These workers were at the total mercy of the household or agency that sponsored them. Sri Lankans and Filipinos were recruited mainly for domestic work or very unskilled jobs (waiters, street cleaners). M.I: I would assume they were simply cheaper. The children of these workers, born in Kuwait, had to leave the country when they turned eighteen, until they could find a Kuwaiti sponsor of their own.ĪTC: Was the recruitment of Filipinos, who were Catholic, Sri Lankans, who were Buddhist, and Pakistanis, who were Muslim but did not speak Arabic, a deliberate attempt to prevent the formation of collective action? In the 1950s and 1960s there was a great demand for teachers, skilled workers and professionals, from carpenters to oil workers. Without such sponsorship one ran the risk of not being employed. To work in Kuwait one needed to obtain the sponsorship of a Kuwaiti citizen, company or agency. Arabs born outside the country could never become citizens, no matter how long they lived there. M.I.: The majority of people in Kuwait were not given citizenship. But while the precise figures are hidden, half the “foreign” Arab population is Palestinian, with the rest Egyptian, Syrian, Lebanese and Iraqi.ĪTC: The emir of Kuwait’s immigration policy has been described as “population engineering.” What were the criteria used in recruiting workers? Malunood Ibrahim: Kuwait’s population figures, like those of almost all states of the Arabian Peninsula, are a state secret Saudi Arabia has never taken a census because the results would be too politically sensitive. He spoke with him in early January, just a few days before the war began.Īgainst the Current George Bush has presented the Emir of Kuwait as the legitimate ruler of a sovereign nation state, but most people know very little about Kuwait. He has been active in the Palestine Aid Society and was the chair of the Department of History at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank from 1985 to 21989. He teaches Middle Eastern History at Cal Poly Pomona and is the author of Merchant Capital and Islam (University of Texas Press, 1990). Mahmood Ibrahim was born in Ramallah, Palestine. Soviet Union-Eastern Europe, Part II: Nature of the Transition. ![]()
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