Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in the southern Levant region of West Asia recognized by 146 out of 193 UN member states. It encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, collectively known as the occupied Palestinian territories, within the broader geographic and historical Palestine region. Palestine shares most of its borders with Israel, and it borders Jordan to the east and Egypt to the southwest. It has a total land area of 6,020 square kilometres (2,320 sq mi) while its population exceeds five million people. Its proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, while Ramallah serves as its administrative center. Gaza City was its largest city prior to evacuations in 2023.
Ijzim was a Palestinian village in the Haifa Subdistrict of British Mandate Palestine, 19.5 kilometers south of Haifa, that was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Many residents resettled in Jenin after Operation Shoter on 24 July 1948.
Mahdi Abdul Hadi is a political scientist, historian, columnist, author, founder and member of various Palestinian, Arab and international institutions. He founded and heads the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs.
Fadwa Tuqan was a Palestinian poet known for her representations of resistance to Israeli occupation in contemporary Arab poetry. She has sometimes been referred to as the "Poet of Palestine".
Yahya Hammuda was the Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee from 24 December 1967 to 2 February 1969, following the resignation of Ahmad Shukeiri. He was a veteran activist in Palestinian refugee affairs and a colorless left-leaning lawyer. His tenure as Chairman did not leave a mark on the organization. He stated that Jewish citizens of Israel could not be expelled to the countries from which they had emigrated, a moderation of the general sentiment that still rejected the State of Israel. On January 21, 1968, Hammuda was received in Jordan by king Husayn and prime minister Bahjat al-Talhuni in a public welcome to reinvigorate the PLO within Jordan. He was succeeded by Yasser Arafat.
Kafr Yasif is an Arab town in the Northern District of Israel. It is located 11 kilometers (6.8 mi) northeast of the city of Acre and adjacent to Abu Sinan and Yarka. The population of Kafr Yasif is half Christian (52.1%) with the rest Muslim (44.9%), and a small Druze community.
Shaden Abu-Hijleh was a peace activist and philanthropist.
Tantura was a Palestinian Arab fishing village located 8 kilometers (5 mi) northwest of Zikhron Ya'akov on the Mediterranean coast of Israel. Near the village lie the ruins of the ancient Phoenician city of Dor.
Deir Ghazaleh is a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank, located nine kilometers northeast of Jenin in the Jenin Governorate. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Deir Ghazaleh had a population of over 850 inhabitants in mid-year 2006 and 1,129 in 2017, mostly Muslims with a small Christian minority.
Muhammad Nimr al-Hawari was a Nazareth-born Palestinian who studied law in Jerusalem, graduating in 1939. Al-Hawari served in the British Mandate administration as chief interpreter in the district court of Jaffa and chairman of the Association of Government second-division officers. He was transferred to Haifa where he resigned his government position in 1942. On his resignation, he returned to practicing law in Jaffa. Al-Hawari started his career as a devoted follower of Amin al-Husseini but broke with the influential Husseini family in the early 1940s. Muhammad Nimr Al-Hawari, during the termination of the British mandate, formed and commanded al-Najjada, a paramilitary armed movement. Al-Hawari was in command of the militia in the defence of Jaffa until he fled in the mass exodus of Palestinians in late December 1947. Al-Hawari fled from Jaffa to Ramallah in December 1947. Al-Hawari together with ‘Aziz Shihada a lawyer from Ramallah opened an office in the West Bank for refugee affairs. Hawari returned to Palestine and years later became judge in the District Court of Nazareth.
al-Najjada was a Palestinian Arab paramilitary scout movement formed in Jaffa, British Mandate of Palestine on 8 December 1945. The organisation was headed by Muhammad Nimr al-Hawari as General Commander and Rashad al-Dabbagh as Secretary General. The al-Najjada HQ was on Railway Station Street Jaffa. Its officers were mainly Arabs who had served in the British Army. During the lead into the 1948 war its membership numbered 2,000 to 3,000 but the organisation lacked arms. The Palestinian Arab revolt of 1936–1939 led to an imbalance of power between the Jewish community and the Arab community, as the latter had been substantially disarmed. The British had estimated al-Najjada strength as 8,000 by mid-1946.
Shadia Mansour, also known as "the first lady of Arabic hip hop" is a British-Palestinian rapper who performs in Arabic and English. Much of her music revolves around Middle Eastern politics.
In the 1948 Palestine war, more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs – about half of Mandatory Palestine's predominantly Arab population – were expelled or fled from their homes, at first by Zionist paramilitaries, and after the establishment of Israel, by its military. The expulsion and flight was a central component of the fracturing, dispossession, and displacement of Palestinian society, known as the Nakba. Dozens of massacres targeting Arabs were conducted by Israeli military forces and between 400 and 600 Palestinian villages were destroyed. Village wells were poisoned in a biological warfare programme codenamed Operation Cast Thy Bread and properties were looted to prevent Palestinian refugees from returning. Other sites were subject to Hebraization of Palestinian place names.
Sharafat is a Palestinian Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem, located within approximately 5 km to the south west of the Old City of Jerusalem. It is situated close to the Palestinian town of Beit Safafa and near the Israeli settlement of Gilo in the southern portion of East Jerusalem.
Palestinian Bedouin are a nomadic people who have come to form an organic part of the Palestinian people, characterized by a semi-pastoral and agricultural lifestyle. Originating from the Bi’r as-Saba’/Beersheba region in Southern Historical Palestine, Palestinian Bedouin are now predominantly concentrated in the South, the North and in the West Bank. Bedouins have lived in the Negev region, stretching from Gaza to the Dead Sea, since at least the fifth century. Remnants of Bedouin communities in the Gaza Strip include 5,000 individuals in Om al-Nasr, as of 2022. However in the Gaza strip, the number of nomadic Bedouin is shrinking and many are now settled.
Sabreen is a pioneer Palestinian musical group. Based in East Jerusalem, Sabreen was founded in 1980 by Said Murad. Their vision focused on the development of the Palestinian modern song, reflecting the humanitarian and cultural reality in general, and the suffering endured from the political situation in particular. Sabreen's members have changed over the years, the most notable members were Said Murad, Kamilya Jubran, Odeh Tourjman, Issa Freij, Yacoub Abu Arafeh, Issam Murad, Samer Mussallem, and Wissam Murad. Said Murad is the composer and arranger of the music, and Kamilya Jubran was the lead vocalist on four albums out of the five studio albums released.
The Nakba is the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Arabs through their violent displacement and dispossession of land, property, and belongings, along with the destruction of their society and the suppression of their culture, identity, political rights, and national aspirations. The term is used to describe the events of the 1948 Palestine war in Mandatory Palestine as well as the ongoing persecution and displacement of Palestinians by Israel. As a whole, it covers the fracturing of Palestinian society and the long-running rejection of the right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants.
Yusra Al Barbari (1923–2009) was a Palestinian teacher and activist who was a member of the Palestine National Council and of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
On 13 December 2023, the bodies of fifteen Palestinians were discovered at the Shadia Abu Ghazala School, west of Jabalia refugee camp in Al-Faluja, Gaza Strip. The school had been used as a shelter and had been surrounded by the Israeli military for several days. Images released several days after showed damage to the school's interior.
Amina Dahbour is a Palestinian militant of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLA), known for her role in the El Al Flight 432 attack.
