The term first appeared in print, in the Journal of the Free Church of Scotland in 1844, as part of a review of the book by Reverend Alexander Keith, d. De who was one of the first Christian leaders involved in the evangelization of the Jews. It is a phrase that was referred to from the beginning about the land of Palestine, and this phrase was rapidly spread and the like, during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, especially the one that gives the right to own property: a land without a people, (for) a people without a land.
The subject, in its content, is a reference to the entitlement of a particular dynasty to the sovereignty of a land, and at the same time legitimizes the ethnic cleansing of a people who does not belong to that dynasty. Many objections to this measure have been officially recorded by the entire world, including international agencies, such as the Security Council, starting with Resolution 42 in 1948, and successive resolutions (a total of 187 resolutions) to Resolution 2334 in 2016. This is in addition to the 192 resolutions of the United Nations Secretariat and other international and regional institutions.
However, what we see today of occupation and violations in the name of religion and ethnic dynasty but we haven’t observed any real consequences. As a result of this injustice, there are today about 8.5 million Palestinians in the Diaspora, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics data in mid-2021, compared to 5.23 in the State of Palestine. Over the past 75 years, the population of the Diaspora has doubled the number of the residents in the Palestinian homeland.
At the national level, there are more than seven million Yemenis living outside Yemen, according to the statistics of the Ministry of Expatriates in a 2014 report, a number that - no doubt - has doubled dramatically due to the war in Yemen since that year. Thus, over the seven years of armed conflict, the number of Yemenis in the diaspora has reached at least a third of the population. I don't want here to even think about the numbers that will become a reality as the war in Yemen continues.
Many of those Yemenis who were forced to leave their homeland for political, economic, humanitarian, or even religious reasons of which a large number of them cannot return home at the present time because of the potential harm they will be exposed to, which may amount to execution. In addition to the maltreatment taking place currently in Yemen, not only towards those who could make it outside the country, as only a few can actually get out of a besieged country, whether because the world closed its doors to Yemenis and the almost impossibility of obtaining visas to live in safer countries, or because it is really difficult to leave for logistical and economic reasons, the greatest abuse occurs between one governorate and another, even between one neighborhood and another within the framework of the same city.
What is happening in Yemen makes me think a lot about that famous saying about the Zionist project to occupy Palestine: “A land without a people, a people without a land.” The approach to the Yemeni issue is frightening. Yemenis in the diaspora seek to belong in any way to the host communities, even if their hearts are attached to the wounded homeland, and Yemenis in Yemen are starving and displaced in their land as if they are not the owners of the land, but intruders or second-class citizens probing for the consent of an armed group here or there that does not recognize the other, even if the other is the comrade and the neighbor or even the brother!
The abhorrent racism that has worsened in Yemen is even more painful, because it occurs between children of the same skin and has led to an excessive tearing of the social fabric, we will pay the price for it for successive generations. Basically, the concepts of national identity, unity of destiny and the future are totally absent from the present day of the Yemeni human being, which perpetuates sectarian fanaticism and makes it the main value in society.
Policy makers and peace mediators are busy discussing the details that could lead to a rapprochement between the parties to the conflict to reach some kind of peace, and while an understanding is reached on dividing the cake among those with power, this will lead to the loss of national identity and the features of Yemen, and the harmony of society, respectively. The experiences of countries repeatedly confirm that this fragmentation gives a fertile environment for the return of conflict, especially in light of a fragile economy and the absence of good governance. Thus, the tragedy continues, and efforts are in vain.
We must, therefore, redress the repercussions of social fragmentation and the absenteeism of national identity in a country whose people at home look with regret at the many opportunities abroad, While the immigrant looks deprivedly to the lost homeland at home. What we have to do is begin to gather the diaspora at home and abroad, through a vision of the future of a people whose children share a common identity and destiny.
