# British Palestinians

Palestinians in the United Kingdom, commonly called British Palestinians, are people of Palestinian origin born or residing in the United Kingdom.

## History

According to Youssef Courbage and Hala Nofal in Palestinians Worldwide: A Demographic Study (2020), Palestinian presence in the United Kingdom predates the Nakba. Dina Matar writes in her 2005 thesis that the well-off and businesspeople arrived as early as the 1930s for education and work reasons.
Still composed mostly of students and professionals, larger waves of Palestinians began migrating to the UK from the 1960s and on, spurred by events such as the Naksa and the Lebanese Civil War (as many Palestinians had previously fled to Lebanon during the Nakba). Since the 1980s, especially after the Second Gulf War, an increasing number of stateless Palestinians have sought asylum in European countries to escape wars and political turmoil in the Middle East.

## Demographics

Outlined in Abbas Shiblak's The Palestinian Diaspora in Europe (2005), it was estimated there were 20,000 Palestinians in the UK in 2001, with the number rising after 1991. However, as pointed out by Lina Mahmoud in her essay for the same publication, Ghada Karmi in a 2008 article for This Week Palestine, and Dina Matar in her thesis, the number was impossible to calculate due to a lack of data on British-born Palestinians and Palestinian residents of Britain born in other countries. In 2020, Courbage and Nofal estimated the number was 60,000 in 2017.
From 2004 to 2006 and 2011 to 2012, Stéphanie Loddo (of the EHESS) collected ethnographic data from Palestinians living in Manchester, Oxford, and London and among Palestinian-related organisations. The respondents were both migrants (belonging to various categories – students, professionals, refugees – who arrived at certain intervals in different contexts) and British-born Palestinians. As a result of these migration patterns, the Palestinian community in the UK is diverse in terms of social class, civil and legal status, place of origin, and religious and cultural background.
Loddo, Courbage and Nofal, and Karmi agreed that Palestinians typically find relative success in the UK. Loddo considered the country a "favourable environment" for Palestinians as a "world leader" in higher education, arts, Arab media, and business.

## Notable people

* Ghassan Abu-Sittah, surgeon – Kuwait-born to Palestinian parents
* Nima Abu-Wardeh, journalist – Palestinian heritage
* Sarah Agha, actress and presenter – Palestinian father from Delhamiya
* Naji al-Ali, artist – born in Al-Shajara
* Huda Ammori, activist – Palestinian father
* Naim Attallah, businessman and writer
* Faris Badwan, musician – Palestinian father
* Zaki Chehab, journalist – from Burj el-Shemali refugee camp
* Selma Dabbagh, writer – Palestinian father from Jaffa
* Saleem Haddad, writer – Palestinian paternal grandmother from Nazareth
* Isabella Hammad, novelist – Palestinian paternal heritage from Nablus
* Bilal Hasna, actor and playwright – Palestinian father
* Mona Hatoum, artist – Lebanon-born to Palestinian parents
* Joudie Kalla, chef – Palestinian grandparents
* Ghada Karmi, academic – born in Jerusalem
* Hanan Kattan, producer – Jordan-born to Palestinian parents from Jerusalem and Bethlehem
* Reem Kelani, musician – Palestinian parents from Yabad and Nazareth
* Lewis Ludlam, rugby union player – Palestinian paternal heritage
* Bashar Lulua, orchestra conductor – Syria-born to a Palestinian mother
* Michael Malarkey, actor and musician – Lebanon-born to a British Palestinian mother
* Shadia Mansour, rapper – Palestinian parents from Haifa and Nazareth
* Tanushka Marah, theatre director and writer – Palestinian-Jordanian heritage
* Ahmed Masoud, writer, theatre maker and academic – born in Gaza
* Leanne Mohamad, public speaker and political activist – Palestinian parents
* Layla Moran, Liberal Democrats MP – Palestinian mother from Jerusalem
* Farah Nabulsi, filmmaker – Palestinian parents
* Karma Nabulsi, academic
* Basheer Nafi, historian
* Nadia El-Nakla, SNP politician – Palestinian father
* Rosalind Nashashibi, artist – Palestinian father
* Anbara Salam, writer – Palestinian-Lebanese father
* Leila Sansour, filmmaker – born in the USSR to a Palestinian father from Bethlehem
* Larissa Sansour, artist and filmmaker – born in Jerusalem
* Yasir Suleiman, academic – born in Jerusalem
* Abdul Latif Tibawi, academic – born in Taybet
* Azzam Tamimi, academic – born in Hebron
* Sami Tamimi, chef and author – born in Jerusalem
* Samir El-Youssef, writer – Lebanon-born to Palestinian parents

## Associations

Organisations and collectives concerning British Palestinians specifically include the British Palestinian Committee (BPC), the Association of the Palestinian Community in the UK (APC–UK), the Palestine Community Foundation (PCF), and the Palestinian Forum in Britain (PFB). There is also the Scottish Palestinian Society (SPS).
The Mission of Palestine (embassy) in London began operating as a delegation in the 1970s.