Nationality and Cases of Statelessness in the Middle East and North Africa state of Israel, including through nationality laws that excluded non-Jewish residents, left many resident Palestinian Muslims and Christians without access to the state’s nationality and continues to contribute to statelessness within Israel today. At the same time, Arab and Islamic traditions prevalent in the region also provide significant opportunity for tackling some of the challenges with regard to statelessness.58 The central concept of “Ummah”, or community, contributes to a culture of inclusivity which has been beneficial to the treatment of some stateless groups within the region. For instance, the reception and long-term hosting of large numbers of Palestinians in many countries and of Muslims from Myanmar’s Rakhine State in Saudi Arabia (a group commonly known as the “Rohingya”) is an expression of the solidarity with people from the same ideological background, regardless of nationality, that is inherent in the notion of Ummah. Similarly, the facilitation of travel for stateless individuals, including Kuwait’s Bidoon, for the purposes of Hajj,59 as well as the sense of public outrage at the exclusion of Bidoon children from the well-regarded Koranic recital competition in Middle East and North Africa, June 2013. 58 - See also G. Parolin, Citizenship in the Arab World. Kin, Religion and Nation State, Amsterdam University Press, 2009, from page 112. 59 - See, for instance, US State Department, 2012 Human Rights Reports: Kuwait, April 2013, available at http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/204580. pdf. 50