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Sami Larach (61) was born in Beit Jala, Palestine. .'The very first person in the family who came to Honduras was the brother of my grandfather, he came in 1891. My father came in 1921, with his father. He came back later to Palestine, but when Palestine was occupied in 1948, we lost everything. I studied in Beirut and came to Honduras 1979. The family had a hardware store since 1902 called 'Hermanos Larach'. My grandfather came beause of the Ottoman empire, where Christians were discriminated. I only went back once to Palestine in 2008. I will only go back again if there is a Palestinian state. I am married to a Palestinian, we met in San Pedro Sula. We have five chlldren. ..It was as early as the late 1800's that the first Palestinians arrived in Honduras. It was the time of the Ottoman empire and many Christian Palestinians felt the pressure that they had to convert to Islam and enlist in the Turkish army. Many took the boat with destination ‘the Americas' and honduras turned out to be the final destination. When the state of Israel was created in 1948 many followed. With many more in 1967 (six day war, occupation of Gaza, Westbank and the Golan heights) and during and after the two Intifadah's..Nowadays its estimated that there are around 200,000 people of Palestinian decent in Honduras, making it probably the biggest Palestinian community in the Western hemisphere. They have been very succesful on both an economic and a political level. Almost all are Christians and from the Bethlehem area. (KEYSTONE/NOOR/Kadir van Lohuizen)