The Palestinian people

As of October 2009, a total of 4 million Palestinians live in the occupied Palestinian territory – 1.5 million in the Gaza Strip and 2.5 million in the West Bank. Palestinians also live inside Israel, as well as in the diaspora - mostly as refugees in other Arab countries, but many Palestinians also live in Europe, the US and in Latin America.

Palestinian diaspora

• The wars of 1948 and 1967 have resulted in two waves of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons, now totalling around 5 million people. Although the legal status of Palestinian refugees differs in each country, in general those who live in Arab countries do not have equal rights and citizenship status as the rest of the local population. Article 11 of the UN General Assembly Resolution 194 from 11 December 1948 stipulates that; " …the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property…". To the UN General Assembly website and Resolution 194
• Approximately half a million Palestinians live in other countries outside of the Arab world.

Palestinian citizens of Israel

• After the 1948 war Palestinians living within the borders of the future state of Israel became Israeli citizens. As of October 2009, 1,4 million Palestinians live in Israel, which compose around 20% of the Israeli population.

East Jerusalemites 

• As of October 2009, close to a quarter of a million Palestinians live in East Jerusalem. The illegal Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem has formally divided Palestinian families - those living in the West Bank have West Bank identification cards, and those living in East Jerusalem have Israeli permanent residency identification cards. Identification cards restrictevily define a right of their holders to move in and around the West Bank, Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, Israel and abroad.

Reem Jusuf, Palestinian from Ramallah and Sakhir Abd Alkader Arabase, Palestinian citizen of Israel from Qufur Qarea, Seeds of Peace, June 2004.
Photo: Hanna Lageröf