Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also called Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs (الفلسطينيون), are an Arabic-speaking people of Palestina. The total Palestinian population, including descendants, is estimated at approximately 10 million.
Almost exactly half of the world's Palestinian people (49% to 51%, as of 2009) continue to live in historic Palestine (nowadays Israel, Palestine, Northwest Jordan and Golan Heights).[1]
The rest of Palestine's population became part of the Palestinian diaspora, during which millions of Palestinians left their homelands. Most are stateless refugees with no citizenship in any country.[2] Over 2.5 million live in Jordan;[3] a million in Syria and Lebanon combined; a quarter million in Saudi Arabia; and half a million in Chile. Chile has the highest concentration of Palestinians outside the Arab world.[4]
Religion
Most Palestinians are Muslim, particularly of the Sunni branch of Islam. However, a significant minority of the world's Palestinians belong to various Christian denominations, Judaism or smaller religious communities.
No matter what religion they follow, Palestinians share a common dialect of Arabic. Among those who are citizens of Israel (known as Arab Israelis), many are bilingual in Hebrew.
Recent genetic research has showed that Arabs and Bedouins of the State of Palæstina share genetics with the ancient Levantines.[5] It also shows that Palestinians descend from people who lived in Roman-Palæstina beginning in prehistoric times. [6][7] Palestinians acculturated and even established Arabic as the area's official language, due to Pre-Islamic Nabataean influences on ancient Israel and Judaea.[8] Arabic eventually became the primary language spoken by locals. Over time, most of these people converted to Islam from various prior faiths.
Name
The name "Palestinian" was in use before World War I, referring to the nationalist concept of a Palæstinian people who would include the local Arabic-speaking population of Palestine.[9] On 21 September 1921, the and the first demand for national independence was issued by the Arab's Syrian-Palæstinian Congress issued the first demand for national independence.[10]
Before and after Zionism, the Nakba, and the Exodus of 1967, "Palæstinian" came include a sense of shared past and future in the form of a ethnostate of Palestina.[9]
National authorities
The Palestina Liberation Organization (PLO) represents the Palestinian People before the international community.[11]
The Palæstinian National Authority governs the Palestinian center in the West Bank, while Gaza is governed by far-right-wing Hamas.
Notable
Some well known Palestinians are:
- Yasser Arafat, former chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organiation
- George Habbash, Founder of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palæstina
- Mahmoud Abbas, Pres of the State of Palestine
- Ghassan Kanafani, Writer
- Mahmoud Darwish, Poet and Writer[12]
- Edward Said, philosopher and literary theorist
- Ibrahim Al Nabulsi, Commander of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
Palestinian People Media
- Map of the Palestinian diaspora in the World.svg
Map of the Palestinian diaspora in the World
1650s maps of the region by Ottoman geographer Kâtip Çelebi, showing the term أرض فلسطين ("Land of Palestine")
- Khalil Beidas.jpg
Khalil Beidas (1874–1949) was the first person to self-describe Palestine's Arabs as "Palestinians" in the preface of a book he translated in 1898.
- Filastin 1936 issue (cropped).png
1936 issue of the Palestinian Arab Christian Falastin newspaper addressed its readers as "Palestinians" since its establishment in 1911.
- Khalil Raad, Palestinian mother and child, 1918-1938.jpg
Palestinian mother and child
- Coat of arms of Palestine.svg
Eagle of Saladin, the coat of arms and emblem of the Palestinian Authority
- Khalil Beidas 1898 use of the word Palestinians in the preface to his translation of Akim Olesnitsky's A Description of the Holy Land.png
Khalil Beidas 1898 use of the word Palestinians in the preface to his translation of Akim Olesnitsky's A Description of the Holy Land
- Palestine 1930.jpg
A 1930 Palestinian women's protest in Jerusalem against the British Mandate. The sign reads "No dialogue, no negotiations until termination [of the Mandate]"
UN stamp to commemorate the Palestinian struggle
References
- ↑ Regrettable statistical error. Ynetnews.com. 2 February 2009. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3709436,00.html. Retrieved 2009-09-24.
- ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Utilities at line 38: bad argument #1 to 'ipairs' (table expected, got nil).
- ↑ From 1918-22 the region of modern-day Jordan, then called Transjordan, was one of two constituent territories that comprised the British Mandate of Palestine (so-named after the other constituent, Palestine) which was separated to form a new Arab monarchy. Unless otherwise specified, this article uses "British Mandate" and related terms to refer to historic Palestine, that is, the 20% of the post-1922 mandate west of the Jordan river.
- ↑ Villegas, Alexander (7 November 2023). "In Chile, a Palestinian diaspora makes its voice heard on Gaza". Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/chile-palestinian-diaspora-makes-its-voice-heard-gaza-2023-11-07/. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
- ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Utilities at line 38: bad argument #1 to 'ipairs' (table expected, got nil).
- ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Utilities at line 38: bad argument #1 to 'ipairs' (table expected, got nil).
- ↑ Hammer, et al. Figure 2: Plot of populations based on Y-chromosome haplotype data Archived 2008-04-05 at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Utilities at line 38: bad argument #1 to 'ipairs' (table expected, got nil).
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Utilities at line 38: bad argument #1 to 'ipairs' (table expected, got nil).
- ↑ Porath, 1974, p. 117.
- ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Utilities at line 38: bad argument #1 to 'ipairs' (table expected, got nil).
- ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Utilities at line 38: bad argument #1 to 'ipairs' (table expected, got nil).