Foundations
Who Are the Palestinians of Jerusalem?
Officially, Palestinian Jerusalemites comprise nearly half of the population of Jerusalem within the Israeli-defined municipal boundaries, but unofficially their number is much higher. Additionally, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Jerusalemites live outside the city and its environs—most not by choice. This topic explores their stories.
Featured in This Topic
Sharing legends and paranormal activities may be crucial for preserving the collective memory of Jerusalem.
The oldest family-run business in the Old City
What do Jerusalemites who were forced to leave their homes in 1948 tell their descendants about the place they lost?
Bilal Abu Khalaf sells exceptional fabrics and shares intricate details about their importance throughout history.
A look back at Jerusalem’s rulers since ancient times and the city’s population based on more recent censuses
Palestinian Jerusalemites view the history of their city through a different lens. A conversation with Palestinian historian Nazmi Jubeh.
Palestinian authors describe Jerusalemites and their struggles to navigate their daily lives despite crushing Israeli colonial practices. A book review.
Palestinian storyteller Husam Abu Eisheh has dedicated his talents to creating theater in Jerusalem for decades, using humor as resistance.
A renowned Jerusalemite artist and art historian who was exiled in 1967 and spent the rest of his life creating art that would convey, and lead him back to, the city of his birth
Kamal Boullata’s art reflects his exile and longing for the light of Jerusalem.
A Jerusalem artist and art historian in exile whose work explored the beauty and pain of the Jerusalem he remembered
A Palestinian woman returns to Jerusalem to rediscover and reclaim her mother’s city for her.
A photo album depicting the story of the Sabella family, part of the Jerusalem elite, before and after the 1948 War
The Story in Numbers
366,800
Palestinian population of Jerusalem, within the Israeli unilaterally-declared municipal boundaries (2020) [1]
38.56
Percentage of Palestinians in the total Jerusalem population (East and West) (2020) [2]
96
Percentage of Muslims in the Palestinian population of Jerusalem (2020) [3]
4
Percentage of Christians in the Palestinian population of Jerusalem (2020) [4]
19
Percentage that Palestinian residents within the Israeli municipal boundaries of Jerusalem comprise of Israel’s total Palestinian population (citizens and permanent residents) (2020) [5]
5
Average number of persons per household among Palestinian Jerusalemites (compared with 3.3 for Jewish households) (2020) [6]
95.5
Literacy rate among Palestinians in Jerusalem (2021) [7]
86
Percentage of Palestinian children living within the Israeli municipal boundaries who live below the Israeli poverty level (versus 33 percent of Jewish children) [8]
Notes
1. Omer Yaniv, Netta Haddad, and Yair Assaf-Shapira, Jerusalem Facts and Trends 2022 (Jerusalem: Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, 2022), 20. Reflects the number of Palestinians entered in the Israeli Population Registry (including both citizens and permanent residents). Unregistered persons and persons with Palestinian Authority IDs living in Jerusalem may number in the thousands or tens of thousands, but are not counted in this source.
2. Omer Yaniv et al., Jerusalem Facts, 20. Lists the Jerusalem population of Christian Palestinians as 12,900 and Muslim Palestinians as 353,800, but added together, these only total 366,700 not 366,800, the same source’s stated total of Palestinians in the city. Therefore, approximately 100 people are missing from these religious categories without explanation.
3. Omer Yaniv et al., Jerusalem Facts, 20. See note 2.
4. Omer Yaniv et al., Jerusalem Facts, 20. See note 2.
5. Omer Yaniv et al., Jerusalem Facts, 20. This calculation is made by an Israeli institute based on the assumption that both West and occupied East Jerusalem are part of Israel. It is offered as a point of insight, without any political inference or connotation.
6. Omer Yaniv et al., Jerusalem Facts, 98.
7. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, “Jerusalem Statistical Yearbook—2021” [in Arabic] (June 2022) 77.
8. Association for Civil Rights in Israel, “East Jerusalem—Facts and Figures 2021.”
We pay a visit to a master storyteller in his lifelong Jerusalem home.