Palestinian people
Ethnic group native to the Palestine region in Southwest Asia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Palestinian people are an Arabic-speaking people from the land called Palestine. Today, there are about 10 million Palestinians in the world, including their children and grandchildren.
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About half of all Palestinians (49% to 51%) live in the region of historic Palestine, which is now Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, and parts of Jordan and Syria.[1]
The other half are part of the Palestinian diaspora. This means they had to leave their homeland. Many are refugees and are not citizens of any country.[2] Large Palestinian populations live in other countries:
- Over 2.5 million live in Jordan.[3]
- About a million live in Syria and Lebanon together.
- Chile has the largest Palestinian population outside of the Arab world.[4]
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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.
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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]
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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
References
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