Why Arab Countries Will Not Accept Palestinian Refugees: Egypt, Jordan, and the Gulf States

Several Arab states that loudly criticize Israel refuse to absorb Palestinians permanently — though the picture varies: Jordan hosts about 2.39 million registered Palestine refugees, most of whom hold full Jordanian citizenship, while Lebanon and others have denied citizenship and many rights. Understanding why requires looking at history, not rhetoric.

The Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza is controlled by Egypt. Egypt built a steel wall along its Gaza border, reinforced underground, to prevent tunneling. When international media discusses the Gaza blockade, the discussion focuses almost entirely on Israel's restrictions — but Egypt also maintains a near-total blockade of the Gaza border.

Egypt's position is not hypocritical in isolation; it reflects a calculation. Egypt fought a decade-long insurgency in Sinai (roughly 2011–2023); Egyptian authorities accused Hamas of aiding militants there, which Hamas denied. Egypt's intelligence services regard a mass Palestinian refugee population as a security threat and a destabilizing political force.

Egyptian President el-Sisi stated explicitly in 2023: Egypt will not accept a Palestinian displacement into Sinai. The reason he gave was that it would liquidate the Palestinian cause; analysts also point to Egypt's security concern about importing the conflict into Sinai.

Jordan absorbed the largest Palestinian refugee population after 1948. By 1970, Palestinian organizations — principally the PLO under Yasser Arafat — had established a 'state within a state' in Jordan, operating checkpoints, collecting taxes, and launching cross-border operations into Israel that drew Israeli reprisals on Jordanian soil.

In September 1970, King Hussein ordered the Jordanian army to expel the PLO by force. Approximately 3,000–5,000 people were killed in what Palestinians call 'Black September.' The PLO leadership fled to Lebanon.

In Lebanon, the PLO repeated the pattern. By the mid-1970s, Palestinian organizations controlled significant territory in southern Lebanon, operating as a parallel government. This was a contributing factor to the Lebanese civil war (1975–1990), which killed approximately 150,000 people.

Jordan's population today is estimated to be 60–70% Palestinian origin. Jordan did not sign the Abraham Accords. Jordan has warm-ish relations with Israel for security reasons. Jordan will not absorb more Palestinians. This is not a secret: Jordanian officials say so openly.

While Western capitals hosted mass pro-Palestinian protests in 2023–2024, several of the Arab states closest to the conflict designated Hamas a terrorist organization:

• Saudi Arabia: Hamas designated terrorist
• UAE: Hamas designated terrorist; UAE signed the Abraham Accords with Israel in 2020
• Jordan: Hamas designated terrorist; expelled Hamas political leadership in 1999
• Egypt: Hamas designated terrorist; maintains near-total border closure
• Bahrain: Signed Abraham Accords; does not host Palestinian refugees

As Hen Mazzig noted: 'The countries that actually understand what Hamas is — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan — are the countries banning Hamas support. The countries protesting in favor of Hamas are the ones furthest from the conflict.'

The Abraham Accords (2020) — normalization agreements between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco — represented a decisive break by Arab states from the old formula of making Arab-Israeli peace contingent on Palestinian sovereignty. The Arab world moved toward Israel while the Western left moved toward Hamas.

Virginia state delegate Nick Freitas stated the logic plainly in a speech that went viral: 'Arab countries won't take the Palestinians because they know what happens when they do. They've seen what happened in Jordan. They've seen what happened in Lebanon. They know that the Palestinian leadership — not the Palestinian people — will destabilize their country.'

Egyptian and Jordanian leaders have publicly cited security and the Palestinian cause when rejecting mass displacement of Gazans; no source is given here for Saudi or Emirati statements. The Arab world's refusal to absorb Palestinians permanently is informed by direct experience, not by indifference to Palestinian suffering.

The Western progressive framing — in which Israel is uniquely responsible for Palestinian welfare while Arab states are simply passive bystanders — inverts the actual regional power structure. Critics of Arab state policy argue that Arab governments, having rejected the 1947 partition plan and gone to war in 1948, then declined to absorb refugees partly to keep the grievance against Israel alive; Arab League states officially justified non-naturalization as preserving the refugees' right of return. Historians also document expulsions by Israeli forces as a cause of the 1948 exodus.