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by sneak 1944 days ago
Congratulations!

I'm curious: do people from Gaza primarily identify as "Gazan" versus "Palestinian"? I was confused for a moment by the title before I clicked, as I'd not seen that adjective used in that way before.

3 comments

In my experience, yes: Palestinians from Gaza usually explicitly refer to themselves as Gazan (in Arabic: غزّاوي).

Source: lived in the UAE and have a number of Palestinian friends.

No, it's not about "Gazan vs Palestinian". It's that Arabs sometimes refer to someone using his city. For example, if someone is from the city of Khalil (Jericho), he might be called as "khalili", people from Nablus as nabulsi. This is a trend in most Arab countries, in Jordan, people from city of Maan refer themselves as Maanis, from Irbid as irbidawi, etc...
I think of myself as Gazan and Palestinian. Just like a Newyorker and American. But it was important to choose the word Gazan in the title because the Gaza situation is different from other parts of Palestine. Gaza is a very small piece of Palestine near the mediterranean sea. It’s 35 km long and 7 km wide. We are surrounded by walls on 3 sides and most of us have never been able to travel, that’s why I said Gazans because Google seemed as distant as an alien planet.