Since the beginning of the Zionist movement in Palestine in the early 20th century, Palestinians have fled their homeland to all different parts of the world. Following the Nakba in 1948, the Palestinian refugee population increased dramatically. The Nakba—Arabic for “catastrophe,” resulted in 750,000 expelled Palestinians, 15,000 Palestinians killed, and the erasure of over 500 Palestinians villages and towns to establish the state of Israel . These Palestinians who were forcibly displaced from their homes were never allowed to return, despite an internationally recognized right to do so (U.N. Res. 194). These events have made Palestinians one the largest refugee populations globally, making up nearly one-fifth of the world’s 30 million refugees. As of 2006, every one in three refugees around the world are Palestinian. These people include Palestinian-Americans, whose families sought refuge in the United States, including Texas.

The Institute for Diversity and Civic Life has been conducting interviews with Palestinian-Texans since 2019. Many have been part of our Muslim Voices in Texas project. Most of these interviews have been conducted by Moureen Kaki, a Palestinian-Texan, who is a local organizer and a grant recipient of the Migration Narratives Project. As a part of the Migration Narratives Project, Kaki produced an oral history film, Palestinian Stories from Texas, that documents the lives of Palestinians in Texas, including the similarities between the Palestinian and Texan landscapes. Texas holds the ninth largest population of Palestinians in the United States at over 13,000. We invite you to listen to these stories as Palestinians share what life is like in Texas for them.