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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
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href="http://english.pnn.ps/2019/05/13/on-71-st-annual-palestinian-nakba-the-number-of-palestinians-worldwide-has-doubled-about-nine-times-pcbs-report-say/">http://english.pnn.ps/2019/05/13/on-71-st-annual-palestinian-nakba-the-number-of-palestinians-worldwide-has-doubled-about-nine-times-pcbs-report-say/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">On 71 st Annual Palestinian Nakba: The
number of Palestinians worldwide has doubled about nine-times
PCBS report say</h1>
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<div class="reader-estimated-time">May 13, 2019<br>
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<p>Ramallah</p>
<p>Dr. Ola Awad, President of the Palestinian Central
Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), via figures, historical and
current data, reviewed the geographical, demographical
and economic situation of the Palestinian People on the
eve of the 71th Commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba,
which occur takes place on May, 15th; and those figures
and data run as the following:</p>
<p> <strong>The Nakba: Ethnic cleansing, displacement of
Palestinians and settler colonializm</strong></p>
<p>Nakba in Palestine describes a process of ethnic
cleansing in which an unarmed nation was destroyed and
its population displaced systematically by gangs and
individuals from all over the world. The Nakba resulted
in the displacement of 800 thousand out of the 1.4
million Palestinians who lived in historical Palestine
in 1948 in 1,300 villages and towns. The majority of the
displaced Palestinians ended up in neighboring Arab
countries and in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and other
countries in the world. Furthermore, thousands of
Palestinians – who stayed in the area controlled by the
Israeli occupation in 1948 – were driven out of their
homes and lands, which were seized by the occupation.</p>
<p>According to documentary evidence, the Israelis
controlled 774 towns and villages and destroyed 531
Palestinian towns and villages during the Nakba. The
atrocities of Zionist forces also included more than 70
massacres in which more than 15 thousand Palestinians
were martyred.</p>
<p><strong>The Demographic Reality: Palestinian population
has doubled nine times since the Nakba 1948</strong></p>
<p>The population of Palestine in 1914 was around 690
thousands of whom only 8% were Jewish. In 1948, the
number of Palestinians in Palestine exceeded 2 million,
31.5% of them were Jews, while the number of Jews
doubled more than six times during this period. Between
1932 and 1939, the largest number of Jewish immigrants
to Palestine reached 225 thousand Jews. Between 1940 and
1947, more than 93 thousand Jews poured into Palestine.
Palestine received around 318 thousand Jews Between 1932
and 1947 and 540 thousand from 1948 to 1975.</p>
<p>Despite the displacement of more than 800 thousand
Palestinians in 1948, and the displacement of more than
200 thousand Palestinians (majority of them to Jordan)
after the 1967 war, the Palestinian world population
totaled 13.1 million by the end of 2018, which means
that the number of Palestinians in the world has doubled
more than 9 times since the events of the Nakba of 1948,
more than half of them live in historic Palestine by the
end of 2018 where their number reached 6.48 million,
(1.57 million in the occupied territories in 1948),
population estimates indicate that the number of
population end of 2018 in the West Bank, including
Jerusalem, was 2.95 million, and around 1.96 million in
Gaza Strip, and with regard to the population of
Jerusalem Governorate, it was about 447 thousand people
of which approximately 65% (about 281 thousand people)
live in those parts of Jerusalem which were annexed by
Israeli occupation in 1967 (J1), the data show that
Palestinians represent 49% of the population living in
historic Palestine, while Jews constitute 51% at the end
of 2018. The Israeli occupation continues its control
over 85% of the area of historical Palestine, which
amounts to 27 thousand square kilometer (km2), while the
remaining areas continue to endure further attempts of
usurpation and control. It should be noted that Jewish
under the British Mandate used only 1,682 km2 of
historic land of Palestine which represents 6.2%.</p>
<p><strong>Palestinian Refugees Status</strong></p>
<p>Records of the United Nations Relief and Work Agency
(UNRWA) reported on 1st January 2018 that the total
number of Palestinian refugees was 6.02 million, 28.4%
of whom live in 58 camps (10 in Jordan, 9 in Syria, 12
in Lebanon, 19 in the West Bank and 8 in Gaza Strip).
Estimates, however, indicate that this is the minimum
number of refugees since many of them are not
registered. This number does not include the
Palestinians displaced in the period from 1949 till the
six-day war in June 1967. The UNRWA definition of
refugees does not cover the Palestinians who migrated or
who were displaced after 1967 because of the war and who
were not registered refugees. On the other hand, the
Population, Housing and Establishments Census 2017
showed that refugees represented 43% of the population
of the State of Palestine.</p>
<p><strong>Population Density: Gaza Strip has one of the
highest population densities in the world</strong></p>
<p>The population density in State of Palestine at the end
of 2018 was 816 individuals per square kilometer (km2):
522 individuals/km2 in the West Bank and 5,375
individuals/km2 in Gaza Strip, noting that 66% of the
total population of Gaza Strip are refugees. The flux of
refugees turned Gaza Strip into one of the highest
population densities in the world. Despite the small
area of Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation set up a
buffer zone over more than 1,500 meter along the Eastern
border of Gaza Strip. Consequently, the Israeli
occupation controls about 24% of the total area of Gaza
Strip (365 km2).</p>
<p><strong>Continuous Siege on Gaza Strip</strong></p>
<p>The continuous Siege on Gaza Strip, which is one of the
most densely populated areas in the world, led to a
sharp rise in unemployment in Gaza Strip, where the
unemployment rate reached 52%, around 72% of youth aged
15-24 years are unemployed. The siege also shakes the
economy of Gaza Strip and turns over half of its
population into poor 53%, and 11% of households use an
improved drinking water source in Gaza Strip due to the
deterioration in the quality of water extracted from the
coastal basin.</p>
<p>More than 100 Thousand Martyrs since the Nakba 1948<br>
The number of Palestinian and Arab martyrs since the
Nakba in 1948 up to the present day (inside and outside
Palestine) has reached about 100,000 martyrs . The
number of martyrs killed between September 29th, 2000
and May 7th, 2019 was 10,853. The bloodiest year was
2014 with 2,240 Palestinian martyrs, of whom 2,181 were
from Gaza Strip. The number of Palestinian martyrs
reached 312 persons during the year 2018, out of them 57
children and 3 women. The Israeli occupation also
detained the bodies of 15 martyrs.</p>
<p><strong>Around 17 Thousand Wounded since the Start of
the Marches of Return</strong></p>
<p>The number of wounded Palestinians during the year 2018
reached about 29,600 persons, while data from the
Ministry of Health indicated that the number of wounded
in Gaza Strip has reached 16,800 since the beginning of
the marches of return on the occasion of Land Day on
March 30 2018. It is noteworthy that 136 citizens were
amputated as a result of the Israeli occupation forces
aggression against the Palestinians in the march of
return and breaking the siege East of Gaza Strip, while
the number of martyrs 272 citizens, among the martyrs 54
children and 6 women and elderly, and confirmed the
martyrdom of 4 paramedics and 3 journalists.</p>
<p><strong>About 1 Million detentions since 1967</strong></p>
<p>The Israeli occupation arrested around 5,700
Palestinians, end of March 2019, of them 250 were
children, 47 were women. Since the beginning of 2018,
the Israeli occupation has arrested 6,500 Palestinians
(including 1,063 Children and 140 women). In addition,
the Israeli occupation imposed house arrest on 300
children in Jerusalem since October 2015. Around 36
children are still under house arrest. Most of those
children have been arrested after the end of the period
of a house arrest, which ranged from six months to one
year.</p>
<p><strong>Israeli Occupation: Continuous Expansion of
Settlements</strong></p>
<p>There were 435 Israeli occupation settlements and
military bases in the West Bank (including 150
settlements and 116 outposts) by the end of 2017. Data
indicated that the total number of settlers in the West
Bank was 653,621 by the end of 2017, 306,529 (47%), of
them lived in Jerusalem Governorate, including 225,335
of them lived in Jerusalem J1 . In demographic terms,
the proportion of settlers to the Palestinian population
in the West Bank is around 23 settlers per 100
Palestinians compared with 70 settlers per 100
Palestinians in Jerusalem Governorate.</p>
<p>The Expansion and Annexation Wall isolates more than
12% of the West Bank area, this imposed restrictions on
1.9 million people living in areas close to the wall and
/ or settlements, around 400 thousand people live in
Area “C”. In addition to the expansion and annexation
wall that surrounds the city of Jerusalem with the
length of 93 km isolating about 84 km2 of the area of
Jerusalem Governorate, while the incomplete part of the
wall which is about 46 km will isolate about 68 km2 of
the area of Jerusalem Governorate.</p>
<p>The Jurisdiction Area of the Israeli occupation
settlements in the West Bank reached 541.5 km2 as at end
of year 2018, representing about 10% of the West Bank,
while the confiscated areas for the purposes of military
bases and military training are about 18% of the West
Bank, which deprives the Palestinian farmers and herders
of access to their farms and pastures. The Israeli
occupation places all obstacles to tightening the siege
and restricting the urban expansion of the Palestinians,
especially in Jerusalem and Area (C), in the West Bank,
which are still under full Israeli occupation control.</p>
<p><strong>Theft of Agricultural Land</strong></p>
<p>The total area of land classified as high or medium
agricultural value in the West Bank is 2,072 thousand
dunums, constituting about 37% of the West Bank. The
Palestinians use only 931.5 thousand dunums which
constitute about 17% of the West Bank area.</p>
<p>The reason for the non-exploitation of agricultural
land in the West Bank is the fact that Area (C)
constitutes about 60% of the area of the West Bank,
which is still under full Israeli occupation control
that deprived many farmers from accessing their land and
cultivation or taking care of cultivated areas which led
to the destruction of most of the crops in those areas,
in addition to bulldozing and uprooting 7,122 trees
during 2018 by the Israeli occupation forces, bringing
the number of trees uprooted more than one million trees
since 2000 until the end of 2018. Thousands of dunums
were confiscated by settlers, to be cultivated, where
the area planted in the Israeli settlements in the year
2018 reached about 110 thousand dunums, the majority
were of irrigated agriculture.</p>
<p><strong>Continuous Confiscation of Land</strong></p>
<p>The Israeli occupation used the land classification
according to the Oslo Agreement (A, B, C) to tighten
control of the Palestinian land, especially in areas
classified as (C) with an area of 3,375 thousand dunums.
About 2,642 thousand dunums, constituting 76% of the
total area classified (C) is exploited by the Israeli
occupation directly. The area classified (A) is about
one million dunums, and the area classified (B) is 1,035
thousand dunums, and the area classified “Others” is 250
thousand dunums includes (Natural Reserves, and J1 in
East Jerusalem, and H2 in Hebron, and unclassified
areas). In 2018, the Israeli occupation confiscated 508
dunums of the Palestinian land, in addition to
confiscating hundreds of dunums of the Palestinians
through the expansion of Israeli checkpoints and
establishments of military checkpoints to protect the
settlers.</p>
<p><strong>Jerusalem: Intensive and Systematic Judaization</strong></p>
<p>At the time that the Israeli occupation forces demolish
Palestinian buildings, and put obstacles and impediments
to the issuance of building permits, the Israeli
occupation issued deportation orders for 12 Bedouin
communities in East Jerusalem, comprising about 1,400
people, in the effort to Judaize the city of Jerusalem.
During the year 2018, the Israeli occupation approved
the building permits for 5,820 settlement units. The
Israeli occupation demolished 215 buildings in Jerusalem
Governorate, leading to the forced displacement of 217
people, including 110 children.</p>
<p>The violations of the Israeli occupation against the
Palestinians continue, in terms of demolishing buildings
(housing units and establishments) and forced
displacement of residents. Israeli occupation demolished
471 buildings in 2018 (houses and establishments), of
which about 46% were in the city of Jerusalem with 215
demolitions. The demolished buildings were divided into
157 residential buildings and 314 establishments. In the
year 2018, the Israeli occupation issued orders to
demolish 546 buildings in the West Bank and Jerusalem,
at a time when the needs of housing units for
Palestinians increase. In figures and according to the
data of the Housing Conditions Survey 2015, about 61% of
households in Palestine need to build new housing units
over the next decade.</p>
<p>A Bitter Reality for Water in Palestine, 22% of
Available Water in Palestine Purchased from Israeli
Water Company “Mekorot”<br>
The Israeli measures contribute to limiting the ability
of the Palestinians to exploit their natural resources,
especially water, and to forcing them to compensate for
the shortage of water through purchasing the needed
amount from the Israeli water company “Mekorot”. The
quantity of water purchased for domestic use reached 83
million cubic meters (MCM) in 2017, which constitutes
22% amounting to 375 (MCM), in addition to 23.5 (MCM) of
water flowing from Palestinian springs, 264.5 (MCM)
flowing from underground wells, and 4.0 (MCM) of
desalinated drinking water.</p>
<p>77% of Available Water is from Surface and Ground Water<br>
Data showed that the percentage of the exploitation of
surface and ground water from available water in the
year 2017 was high, with an average of 77%. It should be
noted that the Palestinians have been denied access to
extraction from the Jordan River since 1967, which was
estimated about 250 million cubic meters (MCM). On the
other hand, the quantity of Water Pumped from
Palestinian Wells in the West Bank in 2017 was 86 MCM
from Eastern aquifer, Western aquifer and North-Eastern
aquifer.</p>
<p>The amount of water extracted from the coastal aquifer
for domestic use was 178.7 (MCM) in Gaza Strip in 2017,
but this quantity is obtained via unsafe pumping that
jeopardizes sustainability of the source knowing that
the basin sustainable yield should not exceed 50-60 MCM
a year. More than 97% of the water pumped from the
coastal aquifer in Gaza Strip does not meet the water
quality standards of the World Health Organization, this
leads to the depletion of groundwater reserves, where
the groundwater level in the coastal aquifer reached 19
meters below sea level.</p>
<p>Sources:<br>
1. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics 2018:
Israeli settlements in the West Bank, 2017. Ramallah-
Palestine<br>
2. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2019.
Revised estimates based on the final results of
Population, Housing and Establishments Census 2017.
Ramallah-Palestine.<br>
3. Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, Statistical
Abstract of Israel. Jerusalem, 2018.<br>
4. Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission 2019:
Summary of the most Important Violations in Palestine,
2018. Ramallah- Palestine<br>
5. Commission of Detainees and Ex-detainees Affairs,
Annual Report, 2018.<br>
6. Abdullah Al-Hourani Center for Studies and
Documentation, Israeli violations 2018, Ramallah- 2019.<br>
7. National Gathering of Martyrs’ Families, Database of
Martyrs Families, 2019, unpublished data.</p>
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