Population in Palestine
PrintPopulation in Palestine
Current editions says: "28,300 in Palestine (2019)."
This source ( https://minorityrights.org/country/palestine/ ) says:
- "Minority groups include Bedouin who number around 27,000 people in Area C and 40,000 in the whole of the West Bank." ("Background" section) => So a total of 40,000 Bedouins in Palestine
- "Unlike the Bedouin in the Negev, those living in the West Bank are not Israeli citizens, but since the territory they live in is administered and controlled by the Israeli authorities, Israel has obligations to this community under international human rights and international humanitarian law. However, Bedouin communities have been repeatedly targeted with forcible relocations to poorly serviced townships to accommodate the growth of settlements from the outskirts of East Jerusalem. In May 2018, the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled in favour of the Ministry of Defense’s plan to demolish the entire Bedouin neighbourhood of Khan al-Ahmar Ab al Helu. The Court based the decision on the grounds that the homes had been built illegally under Israeli military law. However, the ruling ignored the fact that it is impossible for Palestinians to obtain permits to build in Area C. The residents were descendants of Bedouin who had been expelled from the Negev in 1953 and had relocated to the area, which at the time belonged to Jordan. Also to be demolished is a school that served about 170 children from five Bedouin communities. The community is near several Israeli settlements on the outskirts of East Jerusalem and stands in the way of a planned major expansion, intended to create a unified settlement area." ("Current issues" tab)
This source ( https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=P8yhCgAAQBAJ p.11) says 30,000 in the "Palestinian Authority", so probably excluding Bedouins in Area C.
This UN source ( https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-195392/ ) says: "Most Bedouins in the oPt are originally from the Negev Desert. In the course of 1948, they fled or were displaced from their land. There are currently around 40,000 Bedouins in the oPt, most of which are refugees and displaced indigenous tribes that settled in areas suitable for their lifestyle around Jerusalem, Hebron, Bethlehem, and Jericho." (here oPt = "occupied Palestinian territory" "and specifically in Area ‘C’")
Being conservative, I would choose 40,000 as the current population in the whole of Palestine.
We will update the ethnic population for Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Spoken Arabic [avl] in Palestine, for inclusion in the next edition of the Ethnologue.


Comments
Dear Antoine,
Thank you for this information on the number of Bedouins [avl] in Palestine.
Best regards,
Chuck Fennig
Managing Editor, Ethnologue
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