In the years since the establishment of Israel in 1948 on Palestinian land, Palestinians themselves have been divided into subgroups, separated from their own community members by geography and many living under legal, political and military structures that are fully controlled by Israel. There are five classes of Palestinians today:
1 Palestinians of “Israel ’48” – Often referred to as “Arab Israelis,” this category of Palestinians hold Israeli passports. These Palestinians were living on the land designated as part of Israel when the United Nations General Assembly divided the territory into two states in 1947. Today, these 2 million Palestinians represent about 20% of Israeli citizens. They have some degree of rights, although in many ways they exist as second class citizens, navigating through over 60 discriminatory laws that apply unequally to Jewish versus non-Jewish citizens of Israel.
2 Palestinians of East Jerusalem – East Jerusalem was captured by Israel during the 1967 War and then annexed unilaterally in 1980. The 350,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem have permanent residency status, but are not considered citizens of Israel and do not have a path to citizenship. They pay taxes but do not have the right to vote. For forty years, Israel has failed to equitably or adequately fund public services in East Jerusalem, as reported by Israeli civil rights groups such as ACRI. Further, Israel has demolished homes and evicted the residents of East Jerusalem, and established laws that make the life of Palestinians in the area unstable and unpredictable. As early as 1997, Israeli human rights group B’tselem was writing about the “quiet deportation of East Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents.” East Jerusalem is sometimes considered part of the West Bank
3 Palestinians of the West Bank – The West Bank was originally the largest contiguous area designated by the UN to be part of a Palestinian state. Its name comes from the fact that it sits on the west bank of the Jordan River. Major historical sites like Bethlehem and Hebron, the site of the Tomb of the Patriarchs, are located in the West Bank. The 3.2 Million Palestinians in the West Bank live under Israeli military law. They do not have voting or any other rights. Their land has been subject to illegal settlement expansion and frequent settler violence, and their daily lives are disrupted by checkpoints, home demolitions and arbitrary confiscation of property, as described in documentaries like Oscar Winning “No Other Land“. In theory the Palestinian Authority (PA) is the political representative of West Bank Palestinians but in reality, the PA controls only about 18% of the West Bank, and their powers are limited to administrative activities and security, far less than the powers a typical state government has. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 War, and has slowly expanded its control over the territory through the building of settlements. When the Oslo Peace Process was underway in the mid- to late 1990s, Israeli settlements in the West Bank continued to expand, undercutting diplomatic activities. In 1995, the Oslo II Accords also divided the West Bank into administrative Areas A, B, and C as a transitional step, with Palestinian Authority having full control over Area A (18%) shared control over Area B (22%), and Israel having full control over Area C (60%). The stated goal was to transition to Palestinian control over all three areas (Annex I, Article I, 9), but 30 years later, this transition has yet to take place. The practical result is a disconnected West Bank that looks like Swiss-cheese, with separate roads for Israeli settlers versus Palestinians, and unexpected checkpoints that make traveling from one village to another an unpredictable undertaking, if not worse.
4 Palestinians of Gaza – The Gaza Strip sits on the Mediterranean Ocean and comprises about 24 miles long and about 6 miles wide. Geographically it’s about the size of Philadelphia, Detroit or Las Vegas, and was home to about 2.2 Million Palestinians prior to October 2023. Gaza City is denser than any city in the United States. More than half of Palestinians in Gaza are refugees who fled other parts of historic Palestine during the Nakba in 1948. Gaza was occupied by Egypt after the 1948 War, and then occupied by Israel in 1967. Israel claims that it withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but
5 Palestinians of the Diaspora – About 6 million Palestinians live outside of historic Palestine, including refugees in Jordan (2.3 million), Syria and Lebanon (~500,000 each), and populations who have settled beyond those immediate states.