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Population: 4.4 million (UN, 2010)
Intended seat of government: East Jerusalem. Ramallah serves as administrative capital Area: Palestinian Ministry of Information cites 5,970 sq km (2,305 sq miles) for West Bank territories and 365 sq km (141 sq miles) for Gaza Major language: Arabic Major religions: Islam, Christianity Life expectancy: 73 years (men), 76 years (women) (UN) Monetary unit: 1 Jordan dinar = 1,000 fils, 1 new Israeli shekel (NIS) = 100 new agorot Main exports: Citrus GNI per capita: US $1,230 (estimated, World Bank, 2007) Internet domain: .ps International dialling code: +970 |
The Palestinian population of 10-11 million people is divided between historic Palestine and a diaspora mainly in neighbouring Arab countries.
Efforts to create a Palestinian state on the West Bank of the River Jordan and Gaza on the Mediterranean coast are frustrated by the continuing conflict with Israel and disputes over the status of diaspora Palestinians. The war that followed Israel's declaration of independence in 1948 left the former British mandate of Palestine partitioned between Israel, Trans-Jordan and Egypt. The Palestinian national movement gradually regrouped in the West Bank and Gaza, run respectively by Jordan and Egypt, and in refugee camps in neighbouring Arab states. The Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) emerged as the leading umbrella group shortly before the Six-Day War of 1967, during which Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem. The PLO under Yasser Arafat gradually won international recognition as the representative of the Palestinian people, culminating in the Oslo Accords with Israel in 1993. These accords established a Palestinian National Authority as an interim body to run parts of the West Bank and Gaza (but not eastern Jerusalem) pending an agreed solution to the conflict. Continuing violence and Israeli settlement building have slowed progress towards a final agreement and led many on both sides to dispute the worth of the Accords. The Islamist Hamas movement, which seized control of Gaza in 2007, explicitly rejects Oslo. The Palestinian National Authority functions as an agency of the PLO, which represents Palestinians at international bodies. It is led by a directly-elected president, who appoints a prime minister and government which must have the support of the elected Legislative Council. Its civilian and security writ runs in urban areas (Area A) under the Oslo Accords, with civilian but not security control over rural areas (Area B). Israel retains full control over bypass roads, Israeli settlements and the Jordan Valley, and makes incursions into urban areas against armed groups. The Fatah faction of the PLO ran the Authority until 2006, when Hamas won a majority in Legislative Council elections. Uneasy co-existence between Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and a Hamas-led government degenerated amid violence between Fatah and Hamas armed wings, culminating in Hamas seizing power in Gaza in June 2007 and President Abbas dismissing the government. The two Palestinian Authority areas have since been run by the separate factions - the West Bank by Fatah, and Gaza by Hamas. Egyptian-mediated efforts to bring the two factions together continue, but with little success so far. Talks between the Fatah-led Palestinian National Authority and Israel about a solution to the conflict continue with international encouragement, but disagreements on the status of Jerusalem, which both sides claim as the site of their capital, and the status of the Palestinian diaspora and Israeli settlements frustrate progress. The refusal of Hamas and Israel to deal one with the other, and the regular exchanges of violence between them, leave prospects for peace dim. |
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