Palestinians

==Origins==
{{main|Origin of the Palestinians|Demographic history of Palestine (region)}}The origins of Palestinians are complex and diverse. The region was not originally [[Arabs|Arab]] – its [[Arabization]] was a consequence of the gradual inclusion of Palestine within the rapidly expanding [[Caliphate|Islamic Caliphates]] established by Arabian tribes and their local allies. Like in other "Arabized" Arab nations, the [[Arab identity]] of Palestinians, largely based on [[Arabic|linguistic]] and [[Arab culture|cultural]] affiliation, is independent of the existence of any actual Arabian origins.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.openedition.org/ifpo/491?lang=en |title=Palestinian Identity and Cultural Heritage |author=Nazmi Al-Ju'beh |series=Contemporain publications |date=26 May 2009 |pages=205–231 |publisher=Presses de l’Ifpo |isbn=978-2-35159-265-6 |access-date=14 October 2023 |archive-date=15 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231015061318/https://books.openedition.org/ifpo/491?lang=en |url-status=live}}</ref>  [[File:Khalil Raad, Palestinian mother and child, 1918-1938.jpg|thumb|Palestinian mother and child]]Palestine has undergone many demographic and religious upheavals throughout history. During the [[2nd millennium BC|2nd millennium BCE]], it was inhabited by the [[Canaanites]], [[Semitic languages|Semitic]]-speaking peoples who practiced the [[Canaanite religion]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mark |first=Joshua J. |title=Palestine |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/palestine/ |access-date=3 January 2023 |website=World History Encyclopedia |language=en |archive-date=27 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220127100651/https://www.worldhistory.org/palestine/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Most Palestinians share a strong genetic link to the ancient Canaanites.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2020-05-31/ty-article/.premium/jews-and-arabs-share-genetic-link-to-ancient-canaanites/0000017f-eb8f-d4a6-af7f-ffcf4f190000|title=Jews and Arabs Share Genetic Link to Ancient Canaanites, Study Finds|newspaper=Haaretz}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1 June 2020 |title=Study finds ancient Canaanites genetically linked to modern populations |url=https://english.tau.ac.il/news/canaanites |access-date=24 October 2023 |publisher=[[Tel Aviv University]] |archive-date=25 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231025201822/https://english.tau.ac.il/news/canaanites |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Israelites]] later emerged as an outgrowth of southern [[Canaan]]ite civilization, with [[Jews]] and [[Samaritans|Israelite Samaritans]] eventually forming the majority of the population in Palestine during [[classical antiquity]],<ref>John Day, [In Search of Pre-Exilic Israel,] Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005 pp. 47.5, p. 48: 'In this sense, the emergence of ancient Israel is viewed not as the cause of the demise of Canaanite culture but as its upshot'.</ref><ref>ubb, 1998. pp. 13–14</ref><ref>Mark Smith in "The Early History of God: Yahweh and Other Deities of Ancient Israel" states "Despite the long regnant model that the Canaanites and Israelites were people of fundamentally different culture, archaeological data now casts doubt on this view. The material culture of the region exhibits numerous common points between Israelites and Canaanites in the Iron I period (c. 1200–1000 BCE). The record would suggest that the Israelite culture largely overlapped with and derived from Canaanite culture... In short, Israelite culture was largely Canaanite in nature. Given the information available, one cannot maintain a radical cultural separation between Canaanites and Israelites for the Iron I period." (pp. 6–7). Smith, Mark (2002) "The Early History of God: Yahweh and Other Deities of Ancient Israel" (Eerdman's)</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hopkins |first=David C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0TLbAAAAMAAJ&q=israelites+emerged+after+canaanites |title=The Highlands of Canaan: Agricultural Life in the Early Iron Age |date=1985 |publisher=Almond |isbn=978-0-907459-39-2 |pages=22 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Barbati |first=Gabriele |date=2013-01-21 |title=Caught Between Two Votes: The Samaritans And The Israeli Election |url=https://www.ibtimes.com/israeli-election-preview-samaritans-caught-between-two-votes-1028684 |access-date=2023-12-25 |website=International Business Times |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=DellaPergola |first1=Sergio |title=Some Fundamentals of Jewish Demographic History |journal=Papers in Jewish Demography |date=2001 |pages=11–33 |publisher=The Hebrew University, Jerusalem |quote=The emergence of a second Jewish population peak can be posited toward the time of the construction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem during the Hasmonean period (3rd-2nd century B.C.E.). This new peak, variously estimated, and here cautiously put at around 4.5 million people during the first century B.C.E.,}}</ref> However, the Jewish population in [[Jerusalem]] and its surroundings in [[Judea]], and Samaritan population in [[Samaria]], never fully recovered as a result of the [[Jewish–Roman wars|Jewish-Roman Wars]] and [[Samaritan revolts]] respectively.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Palestine - Roman Rule, Jewish Revolts, Crusades {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Palestine/Roman-Palestine |access-date=2023-12-25 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> In the centuries that followed, the region experienced [[Crisis of the Third Century|political and economic unrest]], mass conversions to [[Christianity]] (and subsequent [[Historiography of Christianization of the Roman Empire|Christianization of the Roman Empire]]), and the [[religious persecution]] of minorities.<ref name="Kessler2010">{{cite book |author=Edward Kessler |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=87Woe7kkPM4C&pg=PA72 |title=An Introduction to Jewish-Christian Relations |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-521-70562-2 |page=72}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Denova |first=Rebecca |title=Christianity |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/christianity/ |access-date=3 January 2023 |website=World History Encyclopedia |language=en |archive-date=31 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230831112510/https://www.worldhistory.org/christianity/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The immigration of Christians, as well as the conversion of pagans, Jews and Samaritans, contributed to a Christian majority forming in [[Syria Palaestina|Late Roman]] and [[Diocese of the East|Byzantine Palestine]].<ref name="CHJ2">{{cite book |author=David Goodblatt |title=The Cambridge History of Judaism |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-521-77248-8 |editor=Steven Katz |volume=IV |pages=404–430 |chapter=The Political and Social History of the Jewish Community in the Land of Israel, c. 235–638 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |quote=Few would disagree that, in the century and a half before our period begins, the Jewish population of Judah () suffered a serious blow from which it never recovered. The destruction of the Jewish metropolis of Jerusalem and its environs and the eventual refounding of the city... had lasting repercussions. [...] However, in other parts of Palestine the Jewish population remained strong [...] What does seem clear is a different kind of change. Immigration of Christians and the conversion of pagans, Samaritans and Jews eventually produced a Christian majority}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Ehrlich |first=Michael |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1302180905 |title=The Islamization of the Holy Land, 634–1800 |publisher=Arc Humanities Press |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-64189-222-3 |location=Leeds, UK |pages=3–4 |oclc=1302180905 |quote=Samaritan rebellions during the fifth and sixth centuries were crushed by the Byzantines and as a result, the main Samaritan communities began to decline. Similarly, the Jewish community strove to recover from the catastrophic results of the Bar Kokhva revolt (132–135 ce). During the Late Roman and Byzantine periods, many Jews emigrated to thriving centres in the diaspora, especially Iraq, whereas some converted to Christianity and others continued to live in the Holy Land, especially in Galilee and the coastal plain. [...] Accordingly, most of the Muslims who participated in the conquest of the Holy Land did not settle there, but continued on to further destinations. For most of the Muslims who settled in the Holy Land were either Arabs who immigrated before the Muslim conquest and then converted to Islam, or Muslims who immigrated after the Holy Land's conquest. [...] Consequently, many local Christians converted to Islam. Thus, almost twelve centuries later, when the army led by Napoleon Bonaparte arrived in the Holy Land, most of the local population was Muslim. [...] The Holy Land's transformation from an area populated mainly by Christians into a region whose population was predominantly Muslim was the result of two processes: immigration and conversion |access-date=29 November 2023 |archive-date=9 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230709195021/http://worldcat.org/oclc/1302180905 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bar |first=Doron |date=2003 |title=The Christianisation of Rural Palestine during Late Antiquity |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022046903007309 |journal=The Journal of Ecclesiastical History |volume=54 |issue=3 |pages=401–421 |doi=10.1017/s0022046903007309 |issn=0022-0469 |quote=The dominant view of the history of Palestine during the Byzantine period links the early phases of the consecration of the land during the fourth century and the substantial external financial investment that accompanied the building of churches on holy sites on the one hand with the Christianisation of the population on the other. Churches were erected primarily at the holy sites, 12 while at the same time Palestine's position and unique status as the Christian 'Holy Land' became more firmly rooted. All this, coupled with immigration and conversion, allegedly meant that the Christianisation of Palestine took place much more rapidly than that of other areas of the Roman empire, brought in its wake the annihilation of the pagan cults and meant that by the middle of the fifth century there was a clear Christian majority. |access-date=29 November 2023 |archive-date=6 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406174740/https://dx.doi.org/10.1017%2Fs0022046903007309 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the 7th century, the Arab [[Rashidun Caliphate|Rashiduns]] [[Muslim conquest of the Levant|conquered the Levant]]; they were later succeeded by other Arab Muslim dynasties, including the [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyads]], [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasids]] and the [[Fatimid Caliphate|Fatimids]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gil |first=Moshe |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/59601193 |title=A History of Palestine, 634–1099 |date=1997 |translator=Ethel Briodo |isbn=0-521-59984-9 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |oclc=59601193 |access-date=29 November 2023 |archive-date=9 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230709172836/https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/59601193 |url-status=live }}</ref> Over the following several centuries, the population of Palestine drastically decreased, from an estimated 1 million during the Roman and Byzantine periods to about 300,000 by the early Ottoman period.<ref name=":Broshi1979">{{Cite journal |last=Broshi |first=Magen |date=1979 |title=The Population of Western Palestine in the Roman-Byzantine Period |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1356664 |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |volume=236 |issue=236 |pages=1–10 |doi=10.2307/1356664 |jstor=1356664 |s2cid=24341643 |issn=0003-097X |access-date=29 November 2023 |archive-date=11 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230711021518/https://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1356664 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":4">Broshi, M., & Finkelstein, I. (1992). [https://www.academia.edu/40790691/M_Broshi_and_I_Finkelstein_The_Population_of_Palestine_in_Iron_Age_II_BASOR_287_1992_pp_47_60 "The Population of Palestine in Iron Age II"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230305224039/https://www.academia.edu/40790691/M_Broshi_and_I_Finkelstein_The_Population_of_Palestine_in_Iron_Age_II_BASOR_287_1992_pp_47_60 |date=5 March 2023 }}. ''Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research'', ''287''(1), 47–60.</ref> Over time, the existing population adopted Arab culture and language and much [[Islamization|converted to Islam]].<ref name=":5" /> The settlement of Arabs before and after the Muslim conquest is thought to have played a role in accelerating the Islamization process.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Levy-Rubin |first=Milka |date=2000 |title=New Evidence Relating to the Process of Islamization in Palestine in the Early Muslim Period: The Case of Samaria |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3632444 |journal=Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient |volume=43 |issue=3 |pages=257–276 |doi=10.1163/156852000511303 |jstor=3632444 |issn=0022-4995 |access-date=29 November 2023 |archive-date=27 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230327165417/http://jstor.org/stable/3632444 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":Ellenblum2010">{{Cite book |first=Ronnie |last=Ellenblum |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/958547332 |title=Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-511-58534-0 |oclc=958547332 |quote=From the data given above it can be concluded that the Muslim population of Central Samaria, during the early Muslim period, was not an autochthonous population which had converted to Christianity. They arrived there either by way of migration or as a result of a process of sedentarization of the nomads who had filled the vacuum created by the departing Samaritans at the end of the Byzantine period [...] To sum up: in the only rural region in Palestine in which, according to all the written and archeological sources, the process of Islamization was completed already in the twelfth century, there occurred events consistent with the model propounded by Levtzion and Vryonis: the region was abandoned by its original sedentary population and the subsequent vacuum was apparently filled by nomads who, at a later stage, gradually became sedentarized |access-date=29 November 2023 |archive-date=10 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230710040327/https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/958547332 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Chris Wickham, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=yFkTDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA130 Framing the Early Middle Ages; Europe and the Mediterranean, 400–900] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129192619/https://books.google.com/books?id=yFkTDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA130#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=29 November 2023 }}'', Oxford University press 2005. p. 130. "In Syria and Palestine, where there were already Arabs before the conquest, settlement was also permitted in the old urban centres and elsewhere, presumably privileging the political centres of the provinces."</ref><ref name=":3">Gideon Avni, ''The Byzantine-Islamic Transition in Palestine: An Archaeological Approach,'' Oxford University Press 2014 pp.312–324, 329 (theory of imported population unsubstantiated);.</ref> Some scholars suggest that by the arrival of the [[Crusades|Crusaders]], Palestine was already overwhelmingly Muslim,<ref>Ira M. Lapidus, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZkJpBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA156 A History of Islamic Societies] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129194813/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZkJpBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA156#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=29 November 2023 }}'', (1988) Cambridge University Press 3rd.ed.2014 p.156</ref><ref name="Tessler">Mark A. Tessler, ''A History of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict'', Indiana University Press, 1994, {{ISBN|0-253-20873-4}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=3kbU4BIAcrQC&q=iSLAM+pALESTINE%2C&pg=PA70 M1 Google Print, p. 70] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230622120112/https://books.google.com/books?id=3kbU4BIAcrQC&q=iSLAM+pALESTINE%2C&pg=PA70 |date=22 June 2023 }}.</ref> while others claim that it was only after the Crusades that the Christians lost their majority, and that the process of mass Islamization took place much later, perhaps during the [[Mamluk Sultanate|Mamluk period]].<ref name=":2" /><ref>Ira M. Lapidus, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=qcPZ1k65pqkC&pg=PA201 Islamic Societies to the Nineteenth Century: A Global History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129193058/https://books.google.com/books?id=qcPZ1k65pqkC&pg=PA201#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=29 November 2023 }}'', Cambridge University Press, 2012, p. 201.</ref>

For several centuries during the [[Ottoman Syria|Ottoman period]] the population in Palestine declined and fluctuated between 150,000 and 250,000 inhabitants, and it was only in the 19th century that a rapid population growth began to occur.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kacowicz |first1=Arie Marcelo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ovck_g0xwX0C&q=Population+Resettlement+in+International+Conflicts:+By+Arie+Marcelo+Kacowicz,+Pawel+Lutomski&pg=PR11 |title=Population Resettlement in International Conflicts: A Comparative Study |last2=Lutomski |first2=Pawel |date=2007 |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=9780739116074 |page=194 |access-date=29 November 2023 |archive-date=29 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129193059/https://books.google.com/books?id=ovck_g0xwX0C&q=Population+Resettlement+in+International+Conflicts:+By+Arie+Marcelo+Kacowicz,+Pawel+Lutomski&pg=PR11#v=snippet&q=Population%20Resettlement%20in%20International%20Conflicts%3A%20By%20Arie%20Marcelo%20Kacowicz%2C%20Pawel%20Lutomski&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> This growth was aided by the immigration of [[Egyptians]] (during the reigns of [[Muhammad Ali of Egypt|Muhammad Ali]] and [[Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt|Ibrahim Pasha]]) and [[Demographics of Algeria|Algerians]] (following [[Emir Abdelkader|Abdelkader El Djezaïri]]'s revolt) in the first half of the 19th century, and the subsequent immigration of Algerians, [[Bosniaks|Bosnians]], and [[Circassians]] during the second half of the century.<ref name=":63">{{Cite book |last=Grossman |first=David |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315128825/rural-arab-demography-early-jewish-settlement-palestine-david-grossman |title=Distribution and Population Density During the Late Ottoman and Early Mandate Periods |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2017 |isbn=9781315128825 |edition=9781315128825 |location=New York |pages=44–52 |doi=10.4324/9781315128825 |quote=They came from Circassia and Chechnya, and were refugees from territories annexed by Russia in 1864, and the Bosnian Muslims, whose province was lost to Serbia in 1878. Belonging to this category were the Algerians (Mughrabis), who arrived in Syria and Palestine in several waves after 1850 in the wake of France's conquest of their country and the waves of Egyptian migration to Palestine and Syria during the rule of Muhammad Ali and his son, Ibrahim Pasha. [...] In most cases the Egyptian army dropouts and the other Egyptian settlers preferred to settle in existing localities, rather than to establish new villages. In the southern coastal plain and Ramla zones there were at least nineteen villages which had families of Egyptian origin, and in the northern part of Samaria, including the ‘Ara Valley, there are a number of villages with substantial population of Egyptian stock. |access-date=29 November 2023 |archive-date=29 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230629024634/https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315128825/rural-arab-demography-early-jewish-settlement-palestine-david-grossman |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":FrantzmanKark20133">{{Cite journal |last1=Frantzman |first1=Seth J. |last2=Kark |first2=Ruth |date=16 April 2013 |title=The Muslim Settlement of Late Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine: Comparison with Jewish Settlement Patterns |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1949-3606.2012.00172.x |journal=Digest of Middle East Studies |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=77 |doi=10.1111/j.1949-3606.2012.00172.x |issn=1060-4367 |quote=Some of these Muslims were Egyptian and Algerian immigrants who came to Palestine in the first half of the nineteenth century from foreign lands. There were also Algerians, Bosnians, and Circassians, who came in the second half of the nineteenth century, but most were from within the borders of Palestine. |access-date=29 November 2023 |archive-date=5 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230305230211/https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1949-3606.2012.00172.x |url-status=live }}</ref>