Dr. Adnan Musallam Website

Submitted to:
La Fundacion Encuentro Cultural Colombo – Arab
(Zuleima Slebi de Manzur, Presidenta Ejecutiva)

I will be dealing in my lecture with the phenomenon of international migration with a stress on our Palestinian case, that is on Palestinians, both Muslims and Christians, leaving Palestine for other areas of the world voluntarily as a result of economic, political, and psychological pressures connected with instability and wars in the region and with the Arab-Israeli conflict. The terms “emigration” and “immigration” will be used here. “Emigration” means “leaving one’s country or region to settle in another,” while “immigration” indicates “arriving in another country for permanent residency.”

The use of the terms “Christian” or “Muslim” in this chapter is not restricted to religious affiliation. Rather, the meaning includes as well the intertwining social, cultural, and psychological elements that are acquired as a result of the interaction of individual in his / her environment. The term “Arab” will be used to designate anyone who is Arabic speaking and who is proud to be an Arab. I will use “Christian Arab” rather than “Arab Christian” to stress the “Arabness” of a Christian and to clearly indicate that local Christians are not part of a religious minority but an integral part of the Arab majority inhabiting the land and who are rooted in the land of Palestine. For, in the final analysis there is no ethnic difference between a Muslim or a Christian Arab, for both have the same language and culture, history and aspirations. Needless to say that is this is important when fighting the destructive mentality of a so-called “Christian minority” in Palestine

Twenty one years have passed since we began talking about the emigration problem in Palestinian society at Al-Liqa’ Center in Jerusalem (see Al-Liqa’ quarterly review in Arabic, Vol. 1, October 1985) and sixteen years have elapsed since the holding of the Al-Liqa’ pioneering conference on the problem where Palestinian academicians, church leaders and others met to discuss this pressing issue facing Palestinian society (See the Proceedings of the 4th annual conference on Palestinian Contextualized Theology, entitled “Al-Hijrah” (The Emigration Problem), Jerusalem, 1990. Some parts of the proceedings were translated into English and were published in Vol. 2 (Dec. 1992) of Al-Liqa’ Journal. And see www.Al-liqacenter.org.ps

Reflecting on the past sixteen years, it is very clear that the Center has not been able to solve the problem. It never will by itself. Collective efforts are needed for such an undertaking involving many sectors of our society, including the state and the church.

Otherwise, except for the public awareness, the chronic bleeding of emigration continues unchallenged. And it is estimated that out of the 10.5 million Palestinians and Israelis living in Israel/Palestine, one finds only 200,000 Christian Palestinian Arabs. 130,000 live within Israel proper and the rest line in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Arab East Jerusalem.

The “Emigration Compound” which aggravates the emigration problem continues unchallenged until this minute. The Compound includes, among other things, the following: (1)

1. Israeli military occupation’s strangulation of Palestinians psychologically, economically and politically, as a result of collective punishments, which have been imposed on Palestinians since 1967. Not everyone can withstand this pressure. Some emigrate. This task is made easier if persons opting for emigration join their relatives in the Diaspora in Latin American, North America or Australia.

2. This leads to another segment of the “Compound” which is aggravating the problem, that is family networks in the Palestinian Diaspora centers which have been building up since early in the century in the republics of Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Honduras, Colombia, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico, United States, Canada, Australia. It is easier to emigrate if you have relatives who can get you a visitor’s visa or an immigrant visa and ensure your livelihood.

We can see this clearly in the disappearance of tens of Palestinian families from the local registers only to reappear in Latin American cities as a result of emigration and of family reunification in the Diaspora, a sample of the names of these families from Bethlehem is only partial:

Jidii, Dakarrat, Mu’allim, Komandari, Abu Fheilah, Talamas, Sam’an, Tarud, Dahbura, ‘Abis, Za’nun, Abu Jarur, Sabbagh, Sahuriyah, Hriezi, Abu Hirmas, ‘Afaanah, Nquli, Bsiseh, Kaffyeh, and tens of other families which now prosper in the Diaspora.(2)

3. In this compound, the Christian Arab is constantly being fed the idea that he / she is a member of a religious minority. Accordingly, migration decreases the minority, and weakens those who stay behind in carrying out the message. If it solves the problem of individuals who emigrate, it enlarges the problem of the remaining minority and increases the burden. It should be noted that no mention here is made of the nation or fellow countrymen of the other faiths who can help the Christian Arab to steadfast on the Arab land. This is clearly a destructive approach, which leads only to alienation of individuals from both society and land and only invigorates the phenomenon of emigration.

I hope Palestinians will rise to the challenge of fighting this chronic disease in the body of the nation. We are not merely discussing the question of a few thousand emigrants but the gradual disappearance of the indigenous Arab population against the background of the influx of Jewish immigrants from the ex-Soviet Union and other parts of the world and the arrival of thousands more in the coming few years to set up more colonial settlements in the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem

In Search of a Better World: Emigration from the Ottoman State to the Americas

The Mediterranean Region witnessed in the last quarter of the nineteenth century waves emigration from the Ottoman State. Nevertheless, emigration to the Americas was an inseparable part of international migration of human waves, which started between 1880 and 1920 from South and Central Europe and from the Ottoman Empire to the United States. Their number was estimated at 25,000,000 persons: Italians, Greeks, Slavs, Jews, Ottomans and others (3). The number of Arab Ottomans from Greater Syria (now Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Jordan) in this immigration was estimated to be 250,000 persons not to mention the thousands of emigrants who ventured to Latin America (4)

According to a report by the Ottoman Consul in the City of Buenos Aires in Argentina, 46,000 Ottoman immigrants arrived between 1911 and 1913. The Consul urged his Government to put an end to this phenomenon (5). The number of Ottoman immigrants to the Americas between 1860 and 1914 was estimated to be 1,200,000 persons including 33,000 who came from Syria (6).

The major factors that attracted immigrants to the Americas were economic. The tremendous industrialization process which was taking place in the United States required manpower. This was guaranteed by the large number of immigrants. High wages and rumors that the American Government was distributing agricultural land free of charge to anyone who migrated to the western parts of the United States (Homestead Act 1862) gave immigrants additional incentives (7).

The Ottoman Foreign Ministry, furthermore, received many applications submitted by a Brazilian land owner Paolo Duval from the City of Sao Paulo asking for large numbers of Ottoman agricultural workers (8). News about fortunes made by pioneers of emigration and checks sent to the mother country motivated others to follow suit. In 1914 emigrants from geographical Syria sent home remittances which were estimated at 8,000,000 dollars (9).

It is worth mentioning that areas where early immigrants had settled became an attractive factor for other family members and relatives who subsequently immigrated, not for economic reasons but to join relatives. Between 1908 and 1909 family relations were the main reason for 95% of Syrian immigration to the United States (10). This factor played a considerable role in the firm establishment and continuity of emigration that exists today. If this human drain continues, it will eventually result in the virtual extinction of whole Palestinian families, as has been the case in the Bethlehem area, which I shall mention shortly.

Historically, Palestine was connected in all aspects of life with Greater Syria. Artificial boundaries which now separate the Palestinian from the Syrian, the Syrian from the Lebanese and the Jordanian from the Palestinian etc... Took shape in the wake of the French and British agreements as embodied in the Sykes-Picot Agreement, May 1916, the military occupation system, the Anglo French Agreement, September 1918, the decisions of San Remo, April 1920, and the Cairo Conference, March 1921.

Emigration from Palestine, thus, was an integral part of this movement in greater Syria. The fundamental motivating factor for emigration was the deteriorating economic and political condition, which left its mark on all population sectors, Christian and Muslim alike. Outside negative influences escalated with the opening up of Palestine and Syria to new Western influences and technological innovations. As a result of the Industrial Revolution in Europe and the accompanying colonial movements in the Arab World, the region entered the Western economic network. Thus, “it was useless for local hand—made products to compete with European mass produced goods, severely affecting the local economy and deepening the political and economic servitude to the European system” (11).

Instability in the region, furthermore, played a significant role in escalating emigration. The years between 1792 and 1853 were characterized by feudal disorders, wars, economic paralysis and demographic deterioration in the Ottoman Empire (12). Bribery, favoritism and administrative corruption were widespread. Peasants who constituted the great majority of the population felt the pinch of taxes and levies. Thefts spread everywhere. The word “Khawa”, a levy imposed on the weak by the strong, became an integral part of people’s daily dictionary. The continual wars of the Ottoman State in the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century drained the number of youths as emigration became an exit and a means for youths to dodge the draft and escape armed conflict including the First World War. (13)

In addition to the above-mentioned factors, we should mention that the existence of the Holy Places in Palestine, the importance of Jerusalem and Palestine in the international arena, the spread of foreign religious institutions in the Holy Land, the crowds of visitors and pilgrims that came to Palestine from all over the world, mixing with Christian Arab interpreters and sellers of memorial curios who knew many foreign languages... all that eventually led to an increase in the awareness of Palestinian Arabs about Europe and the New World. This increased their desire to see those countries and immigrate to them, in order to exploit the available economic opportunities, as is the case with people all over the world.

Palestinian folk literature looked with much anger and disgust at the mass emigration of young people to America:

Oh No America! May the father of your friends be cursed… You have taught young people to knock at your doors

Oh No America! May the father of your people be cursed… Your great wealth has incited young people (to leave their homes) (14).

Information available to us indicates that the emigration of the Palestinians started in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. However, the first death among the emigrants to Latin America, recorded in the registers of the Latin Parish priest’s office in Bethlehem, however, goes back to 7/9/1796. The deceased emigrant’s name was Andrea Francis Hanna Dawid from the Tarajmah Quarter in Bethlehem. (15) The question that arises: Was Dawid’s presence in Latin America simply an isolated phenomenon, or was it part of a wider Palestinian presence in those lands? What was the nature of the deceased Dawud’s journey? Are there any similar cases in the Parish’s office or other registers? This data must be scrutinized comprehensively. However, at least it confirms that the Palestinians were, “years ahead of Arab immigrants to explore the wilds of America” and that Palestinian preceded their Lebanese brethrens in emigrating to the New World, although on a smaller scale, and did not settle down in the countries they went to as the Lebanese did. This was confirmed by the elder of the Arab Lebanese community in Brazil in the 1950’s, Rizq Allah Haddad, as mentioned in the book, “Arab Speakers in South America.” According to him two brothers from the family Zakhariya from the Tarajmah Quarter in Bethlehem were among the first Arabs who arrived in Brazil in 1874.They sold mother- of-pearl curios such as rosaries, crosses and icons in the main jewelers’ street in the city of Rio. (16)

International exhibitions held in the United States, furthermore, played a pioneering role in attracting Palestinian merchants. Many of them came to visit the Philadelphia Exhibition in 1876, the Chicago Exhibition in 1893 and St. Louis Exhibition in 1904, carrying with them Holy Land products such as mother-of-pearl, olive wood and Nabi (Prophet) Moses stone, so as to exhibit and sell them to the faithful for tempting prices.

According to oral traditions, Bethlehemites Geries Ibrahim Suleiman Mansoor Handal, Geries Anton Abul-’Arraj, Hanna Khalil Morcos and Mishel and Gabriel Dabdoub and others attended these international exhibitions. The Handal brothers eventually settled down in New York while the Dabdoub brothers, who received a Medal during the Chicago Exhibition, returned to their native town. It so happened that a Mexican merchant was impressed with the Bethlehem products in the Chicago International Exhibition that he and the above-mentioned Hanna Khalil Morcos agreed that the latter would travel to Mexico with a number of Holy Land products. That is what Mr. Morocs did. He returned to Bethlehem, gathered various Bethlehem products, returned to Mexico in 1895 and settled in that country.(17) Others followed such as Geries Anton Abul‘Arraj, who went with his wife Sarah Dawid to the Republic of Guatemala after the termination of the 1893 International Exhibition. Having made his fortune selling Holy Land products, he decided to stay in that country and eventually took up trade. (18)

The news of these pioneers, their newly found wealth and the cheques they sent to their relatives to erect spacious homes like those of Jacir, Handal, Hermas, to mention only a few, spread far and wide. This created a jealousy in the hearts of others. Some Syrians and Lebanese followed the example of their Palestinian brethren in selling Holy Land curios until the number of professionals increased and rumors spread that these products were manufactured in Europe. Thereafter, Westerners abstained from buying curios. Inevitably Palestinian merchants had to turn elsewhere; settlement and free trade consequently began. At the beginning roaming peddlers followed the example of their Lebanese and Syrian brethren, and penetrated Central and South America. They chose Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia and Honduras. In time Chile became a main center for immigrants from the two-sister towns Bethlehem and Beit jala. The first Palestinian emigrant to enter Chile was the late Jubra’il D’eiq from the Tarajmah Quarter in Bethlehem. That was in 1880. He was followed by the late Yusuf Jacir from Bethlehem and the late Yusuf Geries Salah from Jerusalem. The three of them worked together in commerce. (19)

At the beginning emigration was slow and temporary as the fundamental aim was making a fortune and returning home. Between1908-1918, however, coups, wars and compulsory military service resulted in a notable rise in the number of emigrants. With the outbreak of the First World War the prices of basic goods went up sharply resulting in many shortages. In 1915 and 1916 hundreds of thousands of people were on the verge of death and starvation due to the spread of the typhus epidemic. Collective fleeing from the draft became a familiar phenomenon (20). Thus the slow and temporary emigration was transformed gradually into a dangerous social phenomenon in whose bitter reality we are still living.

Emigration from Palestine in the British Era, 1917-1948: Its Impact locally and on the Diaspora

Emigration continued throughout the British Mandate in light of the deterioration of the country’s political circumstances. Most emigrants made their way to Latin America. Large groups of emigrants followed each other encouraged by relatives already living in Chile, Colombia, Peru, Honduras and Salvador. Very few emigrants arrived at the North American shores (United States) at this stage because American laws, which were enacted between 1917 and 1924, limited the immigration of non Anglo-Saxons such as Italians, Slavs Arabs, Asians and Africans. They aimed at the preservation of the cultural and ethnic hegemony of the Anglo-Saxon whites. These same years witnessed the appearance of racist movements antagonistic to anyone who was Catholic, immigrant, foreigner, black or Jew. One such movement was the Ku Klux Klan which reached its climax in 1923 when its followers were estimated to be in the millions. (21)

Lack of official statistics makes it difficult to estimate the total number of Palestinian emigrants in this period, but the approximate estimate of emigrants in 1936 was 40,000(22) With the arrival of vast numbers of emigrants to main immigration centers in Latin America, certain streets in principal Latin American cities began to acquire Palestinian characteristics. At the same time the names of certain large families in Palestinian cities began to disappear gradually from local registers, resulting from collective emigration and family reunification in the Diaspora. Such was the case in Bethlehem with the following families: (mentioned as samples only) (23)

Farahiyah Quarter	Anatra Quarter	Tarajmah Quarter	‘Najaj rah Quarter	Hreizat Quarter	Qawawsah Quarter
Jada’	Shahin	Kamandari	A1-’Alul	Abu Jarur	Abu-Nifhar
D’eis	Dhawabah	Abu Fheilah	Qarqur	Hreizi	Sirriyeh
Barakah	Abu Gheith	Talamas	Hilwah	Abu Hermas	Abu Shunnar
Jidi	Silhi	Sam’an	Al-Qabas	‘Afanah	Bsiseh
Bkhit	Wardah	Tarud	‘Duzman	Sahuriyah	Nquli
Dakarat	Shamali	Dahburah	Za’nun	Dguban
Miladeh		‘Abis	Abu Arab	Adawi
Zaitun			Al- Chat’ah	Al-Tqu’i
Dardahiyyah				Al-Bahri
Silsik				Hasluf
Shhadeh				Sabbagh
Abu Shagrah
Mua’allim
Jacir

It is worth mentioning that a considerable number of immigrants in Latin America desired to return to their country, because they did not emigrate for the love of emigration but for the improvement of their economic conditions or in an attempt to flee the horrors of continual wars. After the end of the First World War, many decided to practice their natural right of return to their birth-place. The British authorities, however, closed the doors in their faces at a time when the doors of Palestine were wide open to Jewish immigrants. The Palestinian Citizenship Law was ratified in 1925 with the main aim of facilitating the granting of Palestinian citizenship to Jews coming to Palestine, according to Item 7 of the Mandate Charter. (24)

Concerning Palestinian emigrants who left the country before 1920, Britain considered them Turks because they traveled during Ottoman Turkish rule with Ottoman passports. This British stance totally contradicted Item 34 of the Treaty of Lausanne which stipulated that citizenship must be given to those who were born in countries which were once parts of the Ottoman Empire, within two years of the effective date of the Treaty, 6 August 1924, but no late than 6th August 1926 (25) But the Government of Palestine did not enact the Palestinian Citizenship Law and did not promulgate it in the official gazette, until 16 September 1925. Thus the Government wasted more than half of the period as specified in the Treaty. In addition to this tragedy, the British Government failed to circulate the Law in the local papers, neither did the British representatives in the Americas circulate it in the press so that emigrants could be informed. (26)

The British Ambassador in the Mexican capital stated that the British Government “had not authorized him to spend three pounds to publish the mentioned Law” (27) In October 1927 the British Mandatory Government issued a statement saying, “The Palestinian citizenship is given to the emigrants who left the country after 1920 or before this date, and returned to the country and resided six months in it.” As for the emigrants who had left the country before 1920 and did not return, who constituted ninety per cent of all emigrants abroad, they were considered by British, as I said before, to be Turks, completely ignoring the fact that they were not” Turk: by race, nationalism, language or emotion” (28) As a consequence of this British policy only one hundred applications were approved of a total of 9,000 submitted by emigrants wanting to return to their mother country. (29)

The notables of the Bethlehem region took up the case, under the leadership of Khalil ‘Issa Morcos from Bethlehem, ‘Atallah Hanna al-Najjar from Beit Jala, ‘Issa al-Khury Basil Bandak from Bethlehem (owner of newspaper “Sawt al-Sha‘b” and later Mayor of Bethlehem) and founded “The Committee for the Defense of Emigrants Rights to the Palestinian Citizenship” in 1927. The Committee led the campaign against the oppressive British policy which allowed the incoming alien Jewish immigrants to obtain citizenship under the easiest conditions, while placing numerous obstacles in the face of native-born Palestinians who wanted to return to their country. The Committee launched an appeal to the British people in the form of a booklet on the question of the emigrants and the obstacles created by the British authorities to prevent Palestinian abroad from obtaining Palestinian citizenship. The above mentioned ‘Issa al-Bandak, Mayor of Bethlehem (1934-1938), raised the question before “Lord Peel’s Royal Commission” which came to Palestine in 1936 to investigate disturbances and rebellion in the country and issued its recommendations for the partitioning of Palestine in 1937. The Royal Commission recommended in its report the facilitation of measures of return for those emigrants with genuine intentions who kept a continual personal contact with Palestine. (30)

The Defense Committee demanded in its campaign that all Palestinian immigrants residing abroad should be considered, at their request, Palestinian citizens, and that all Palestinian emigrants, who have returned to Palestine, or have temporarily stayed away, should obtain their right to Palestinian citizenship as soon as they submit official applications to the relevant departments. The Defense Committee, furthermore, demanded that orders must be circulated to all British Government representatives throughout the Palestinian Diaspora to defend and protect the interests of all Palestinian Arabs until the government acknowledged their right to Palestinian citizenship. “The Government should consider these applications indicative of the feelings of Palestinian Arab public opinion in the country and aboard...” (31)

The British Government, on its part, expressed its readiness to defend the interests of those who had acquired citizenship, but it refused to protect those who did not acquire it, that is the overwhelming majority. It did not want to bear the responsibility of great number whose sole aim was to benefit from British protection, though item 12 of the Mandate Charter stipulates that “the Mandated Power had the right, too, to extend the protection of its ambassadors and consuls to Palestinian subjects living abroad.” (32) When a delegation from the Palestinian community living in El Salvador met the British Consul and asked him to carry out this item, the Consul ‘s reply was: “The British State accepted the mandate over the land of Palestine only, and this mandate does not include the affairs of the Palestinians.” (33)

Palestinian emigrants deprived of their citizenship faced extremely difficult circumstances. For example in July 1927 in the Republic of El-Salvador in Central America the Government enacted a law forcing every merchant whose capital exceeded thirty pounds to register his name and produce his citizenship papers. If the merchant failed to observe this order, he would have his stores closed. When the Palestinians asked the British Consul to give them a citizenship certificate he refused. When some Palestinian tried to obtain the Salvadorian citizenship to protect their interests, the Government refused on the basis that their need to acquire citizenship did not stem from their love and commitment, but from personal benefit only (34)

The emigrant who did not carry Latin American citizenship faced other difficulties:

The various governments of Palestine continued to impede immigrants’ return to their country. After the formation of the Kingdom of Jordan, in 1950, Jordanian Citizenship Law Number 56/1949 was enacted. It was a great disappointment for immigrants who had expected Jordan to take care of them and protect their interests. The Law deprived immigrants of Jordanian citizenship on the basis that they were not in Jordan when the two banks united (36)... It was similar to the Palestinian Citizenship Law, 1925, which deprived them of citizenship on the basis that the emigrants were not present in the country in 1920. And since 1967 Israel has placed other great obstacles. Its aim has been clear, namely to vacate the land of its legitimate owners. Anyone who studies carefully the “family reunion laws” and restrictions imposed on “exit permits across the bridge” and “the Laissez-passer and its renewal” will find that all of them encourage, in one way or another, emigration without return.

As a result the Palestinian immigrants who did not acquire citizenship settled in the Diaspora for good and played a pioneering role in the development of their new homes. Stories of the brilliant success of emigrants are numerous and documented. The following are examples: The Brothers Hunain and Nicola Jarur from the Hreizat Quarter, Bethlehem, were extremely brilliant in Chilean industries. This is evident in the economic projects they established, such as the Jarur Brothers’ Factories of cotton goods employing about 3,000 labourers in an area of 80,000 square meters. The Sahuri Brothers from Bethlehem who have erected a modem industrial city for cotton goods with an area of 150,000 square meters; the factories of Sulaiman Zummar from Beit Jala; the factories of Hermas Brothers from Bethlehem and the factories of Abu Sabal Brothers from Beit Jala and hundreds others (37)

Few are the stories we hear about emigrants who followed the example of the late ‘Abdul Majid Shuman who traveled to the United States in 1911 carrying with him eight gold pounds. He returned home in 1929 to lay the foundation of the Arab Bank which since then had become one of the greatest banking institutions in the Arab world (38).

Little do we hear about such persons as Badr and Ibrahim ‘Abdullah al- A ‘ma (Lama) who returned from Chile in 1927 armed with a knowledge of the art of photography and cinema acting. Their aim was to establish a cinema company in Palestine. However, a stop in Alexandria, Egypt, convinced them that opportunities in Egypt, were better than in Palestine. They settled down and founded the Condor Cinema Film Company,” which presented in May 1927 the first silent Arabic film in the history of Egyptian cinema, entitled “A Kiss in the Desert.” In the thirties and forties Lama Studios became one of the major cinema companies in Egypt (39).

Though success stories of immigrants are documented and available, thousands of stories of failures are not, such as the stories of those who could not return home despite their deep love, as they did not possess even the fare to return to their homeland. They preferred the hardships of life and a slow death in the Diaspora, as dignity did not and would not allow them to return as failures, and at the same time becoming a joke to their fellow Palestinians.

1- See Adnan Musallam, “Bethlehem Palestine’s Cultural Identity, An Integral Part of Palestinian Arab Collective Identity: A Palestinian Historical Perspective,” Al-Liqa’ Journal, Vol. 13 (October 1999).

2- See for example, Nancie L. Gonzalez: Dollar, Dove and Eagle: One Hundred years of Palestinian Migration to Honduras, Ann Arbor, Michigan, University of Michigan Press, 1992, pp. 131-135.

3-Adnan Musallam, A Nation of Immigrants: The Arab Immigrant Experience in America, Curriculum Development Center (Outreach Program), Center for Near Eastern and North African Studies, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1981, p.6.

5-Kemal H. Karpat, “The Ottoman Emigration to America, 1860-1914”, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 17, 2 (May 1985), p. 85

7- Ahmad Tarabin, “Aspects of Syrian Arab Emigration to the United States,” Damascus University Journal, Vol.2, June 1985, p.19. (in Arabic); and Adnan Musallam, A Nation of Immigrants, p. 13

9- Charles Issawi, An Economic History of the Middle East and North Africa, New York, 1982, p.86.

11- Philip Hitti, History of Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, Vol.2, Translated by Kamal al-Yazigi, Beirut 1959, p.357 (in Arabic).

13- Walid Rabi‘,“Emigration and Alienation in Palestinian Society, a Folkloric Social Study,” Society and Heritage, Number 3, Vol.1, October 1974, pp.36-37 (in Arabic).

15- Mike George Salman, “Emigration and its effect on the extinction of Bethlehem families,” Al-Liqa’ (in Arabic), 4th Year, Vol. l, 1989, p.55.

16- Al-Badawi al-Mulatham, Arabic Speakers in South America (in Arabic), first part, Beirut 1956, p.101.

18-Ayyub Musalam “Pages from the Book: Bethlehem in the Depth of History and as Described by Travellers and Historians,” Bait Lahm (The Antonian Society Bulletin) (in Arabic), Vol.2, 1987, p.15

20- Lutsky, The Modern History of the Arab Countries, Translated from Russian by’ Afifah al-Bustani, Moscow, Undated, pp. 438-439. (in Arabic).

21- al-Fajr Jerusalem Daily, 10/5/1986, p.5. (in Arabic); and Adnan Musallam, A Nation of Immigrants, pp. 10-11

23-Mike Salman, pp.56-59; and Giries Elali, Bethlehem, The Immortal town, Bethlehem, 1991, pp. 72-8 1

25- Preparatory Committee for the Defense of the Rights of the Arab Emigrants to Palestine Citizenship, An Appeal to the Noble British People, ‘Jerusalem, 1 February 1928, pp. 8-9. (in Arabic).

31- Preparatory Committee for the Defense of the Rights of Arab Emigrants to Palestinian Citizenship, p.37.

36- See the issues of Bethlehem’s monthly magazine Al-Mahd, 1951 - 1956, which were devoted to this issue. And see Adnan Musallam’s article on al-Mahd in the Antonian Society’s annual review Bayt lahm, 1997- 1998, issue, pp. 71 - 78.

39- Sa‘d al-Din Tawfiq, The Story of the Cinema in Egypt, Al-Qahira: al-Hilal Publishing Press, 1969, pp. 18-20, (in Arabic); and see on Badr and Ibrahim Lama, their life and works in the cinema, see Adnan Musallam, Folded Pages from Local Palestinian History: Developments in Politicsa, Society, Press and Thought in Bethlehem in the British Era, 1917-1948, Bethlehem, 2002 (in both English and Arabic), pp. 57-66.