# The Palestinian middle class in the Gulf

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "The Palestinian middle class in the Gulf," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-palestinian-middle-class-in-the-gulf/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's stated puzzlement, after a career spent on and in the Middle East, at what he calls a region-wide dislike of Palestinians among Arab governments — given that Palestinians constitute the entire professional middle class of the Gulf states, and are themselves Arabs and mostly Muslims.*

- **His posting record:** Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain; time in the Emirates and Qatar
- **The professions he lists:** Bankers, professors, lawyers, engineers, teachers
- **The grievance he allows:** Yasser Arafat backed Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf War
- **His verdict:** "I just don't understand"

**The Palestinian middle class in the Gulf** is the observation [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) uses to frame what he presents as an unresolved puzzle of his career: that the Arab states he served in depend on Palestinian professionals and are nonetheless hostile to the Palestinian cause.

## The claim to standing

Kiriakou prefaces it with his own credentials, which he states without hedging. *"I spent my entire adult life either working on the Middle East or living in the Middle East. I was one of the CIA's leading experts on the Middle East."* He lists the postings: *"I spent much of my career in the Persian Gulf, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain for the most part. Although I spent some time in the Emirates and in gutter as well."*[1]

The puzzle follows directly: *"I have just never understood this this this regionwide dislike of Palestinians."*[1]

## The grievance he allows, and the fact he sets against it

He concedes one historical grievance without endorsing it as sufficient: *"I get that Yaser Arafat backed Saddam Hussein during the first Gulf War."*[2]

Against it he sets the economic fact. *"the Palestinians make up the entire middle class of these families. They are the bankers, the professors, the lawyers, the engineers, the teachers. They're the ones that make these economies run and they're Arabs and they're mostly Muslims."*[3]

His expectation, stated as a counterfactual, is the opposite of what he observed: *"you would think would be would beating each other up to see who could do the most for the Palestinian people and they're not."*[3]

One exception is granted. Egypt he exempts on material grounds — *"Egypt I get it because the Egyptians are poor and they're right on the border"* — a country he describes elsewhere in the same conversation as Umm al-Dunya, the mother of the world, with 116 million people, caught between a population that wants to help and a border it will not open.[3][4] The rest of the region he leaves unexplained.

## See also

- [Yasser Arafat](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/yasser-arafat)
- [Bahrain Posting (1994–1996)](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bahrain-1994-1996-posting)
- [Qatari money in Egypt](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/qatari-money-in-egypt)
- [The search for a country to take Gaza](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-search-for-a-country-to-take-gaza)

## Sources

1. Taxpayers Against Genocide w/ Seth Donnelly (2025-11-14), at 21:57. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHevWAzEsic&t=1317s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-14-the-deep-focus-show-taxpayers-against-genocide-w-seth-donnelly/
2. Taxpayers Against Genocide w/ Seth Donnelly (2025-11-14), at 22:28. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHevWAzEsic&t=1348s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-14-the-deep-focus-show-taxpayers-against-genocide-w-seth-donnelly/
3. Taxpayers Against Genocide w/ Seth Donnelly (2025-11-14), at 23:01. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHevWAzEsic&t=1381s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-14-the-deep-focus-show-taxpayers-against-genocide-w-seth-donnelly/
4. Taxpayers Against Genocide w/ Seth Donnelly (2025-11-14), at 17:14. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHevWAzEsic&t=1034s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-14-the-deep-focus-show-taxpayers-against-genocide-w-seth-donnelly/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-palestinian-middle-class-in-the-gulf/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt