EGYPTIAN ÉMIGRÉS IN THE LEVANT OF THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES 1837. Encampment of Ibrahim Pasha Near Jaffa Prof. Gideon M. Kressel Professor Emeritus of Cultural-Social Anthropology at the Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Dr. Reuven Aharoni Formerly, Department of Middle Eastern History at Haifa University Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs 1890. Constructing the Jaffa-Jerusalem railroad. Workers were brought in from Egypt, Sudan, and Algeria. @ 2013 Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs 13 Tel Hai Street, Jerusalem, Israel Tel. 972-2-561-9281 Fax. 972-2-561-9112
[email protected] www.jcpa.org Graphic Design: Studio Rami & Jaki Front Cover: Encampment of Ibrahim Pasha, near Jaffa. Original steel engraving drawn by W. H. Bartlett, engraved by S. Fisher, 1837. Inside Cover: Palestine Railways, Battir Railway Station, The Jaffa and Jerusalem Railway (YouTube) Egyptian Émigrés in the Levant of the 19th and 20th Centuries Gideon M. Kressel and Reuven Aharoni Is there empirical evidence supporting the surprising Ḥamas claim that a large part of the Palestinian Arabs are not indigenous to this area but rather immigrated from surrounding countries? On March 23, 2012, the Ḥamas minister of the interior and of national security, Fathi Ḥammad, slammed Egypt for not helping to prevent fuel shortages in the Gaza Strip. He then averred that Gaza deserved more brotherly assistance from Egypt, saying that “half of the Palestinians are Egyptian and the other half are Saudis.”1 This dramatic assertion raises questions. Was Ḥammad simply overstating his people’s links to a country whose help he sought, or was he reporting something true, if largely unknown, about Palestinian roots? The answer matters, because the statement marks perhaps the first time a prominent Palestinian leader openly departed from a well-entrenched mythology about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.