Palestinians are a group of Arabic-speaking people with origins in historic Palestine, mostly Muslims of the Sunni branch. They are one of the largest stateless populations, with 10-11 million worldwide. The Palestinian National Authority governs the occupied territories, and the Palestine Liberation Organization represents Palestinians globally. The modern Palestinian identity formed in response to Zionist interest in the region, and they have never had effective control over their lands. The international community recognizes Palestine’s right to self-determination, but much of the land they claim is still under Israeli control.
Palestinians are a group of people, usually defined as Arabic-speaking, with their origins in historic Palestine. The class is somewhat controversial, as its existence and definition plays a major role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinians are mostly Muslims, of the Sunni branch, although there are also some Christian Palestinians.
There are somewhere 10 to 11 million Palestinians worldwide, with the majority lacking citizenship in any recognized nation, making them one of the largest stateless populations in the world. This half live in parts of the West Bank, Gaza, Israel and Jerusalem, in what pro-Palestinian groups sometimes call Occupied Palestine.
Nearly 3 million Palestinians also reside in Jordan, which has the largest Palestinian population outside the territories. Nearly 500,000 live in Syria and just over 300,000 in Chile. From there the numbers drop to less than 100,000 for countries such as the United States, Egypt, Honduras, Brazil and Kuwait.
Palestinians, while technically stateless, have two main bodies that represent them in the world at large. The Palestinian National Authority, established during the Oslo Accords, is responsible for governing the occupied territories and functions as a state government. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) represents Palestinians before various global bodies.
The Palestinian self-concept is complex. The history of Palestine is long and convoluted, and attempting to trace an ethnic group’s residency in the region is problematic at best. Palestine was settled by the Romans, the Byzantine Empire, the Muslim Umayyad and Fatima peoples, the Crusaders, the Ottoman Turks and administered by the British Empire until the 20th century. During this period Arab lineages mixed freely with indigenous peoples and cultures intertwined. Many of these residents included ancient Jews, making the modern dichotomy between Palestinian and Jew somewhat simplistic.
The modern Palestinian identity began to form towards the end of the 19th century. A number of people under the influence of the Ottoman Empire forged strong personal identities to distinguish themselves from other pockets of the Empire. When the Ottoman Empire was broken up after World War I and Palestine was demarcated with hard lines, this emerging identity became even more solidified.
Following the rise of Zionist interest in the region of historic Palestine, Palestinians began to form an even more cohesive sense of self, in response to what was often perceived as an outside force moving across their lands. Much of this early identity formation centered around a negative reaction to Zionism, and the legacy of these early years can still be seen to this day.
Palestinians have never, at least since the formation of a strong personal identity, effective control over their lands. The Palestine region was first administered by the Ottoman Empire, then by the British and finally by Israel. Even after the seizure of parts of the newly formed Israel in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, those regions were administered by Egypt and Jordan, never by the Palestinian population itself.
The Palestinians have, in recent years, been increasingly recognized by the international community as a group with the right to self-determination. The United Nations General Assembly, the United Nations Security Council and the International Court of Justice recognize Palestine. In addition, more than 100 states recognize Palestine as their own state, although much of the land it claims continues to be largely under the control of Israel, which claims the right to self-defense, although Israel is one of the states that recognizes Palestine .
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