Palestinian Expulsion from Kuwait

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At the end of the Gulf War Kuwait expelled some 400,000 Palestinians because the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had aligned the PLO with Saddam Hussein, who had invaded Kuwait.^{[citation needed]} The exodus took place during one week in March 1991, after Kuwait was liberated from Iraqi occupation. Despite the fact that a number Palestinians had joined the Kuwaiti resistance to Iraq's occupation, they were unjustly blamed for the position adopted by the PLO leader.^{[citation needed]}

The exodus has caused great strain on the Palestinian economy, since many Palestinians working in Kuwait have been an important source of income to the Palestinian economy.^{[citation needed]}

Prior to the exodus, Palestinians made up about 30% of Kuwait's population.^{[citation needed]} By 2006 only a few had returned to Kuwait and today the number of Palestinians living in Kuwait is less than 40,000 (under 3% of the population).^{[citation needed]}

On December 12, 2004, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas apologized for the PLO's support of Saddam Hussein during the invasion of Kuwait.^[1]