There are no reliable data about Palestinian Jerusalemites. Since they live in a frenetically politicized milieu, and they are not allowed to count themselves in any official or scientifically systematic way,1 the only “data” one can use are Israeli data. However, Israeli officials who compile these data serve the state’s objective, which is to ensure that Palestinians remain demographically insignificant enough to prevent them from ever gaining political power.
Israeli data only count Palestinians who are registered in the official Population Registry as having a permanent address in Israeli-defined Jerusalem. But this leaves out tens of thousands who are either carrying Palestinian Authority (PA) IDs and living in within the city boundaries (whether legally or illegally) or those who are completely unregistered (e.g., if their residency was revoked but they did not comply with the deportation order, or if a child was born to a parent and the system didn’t accept to register him or her on the parent’s ID). Of course, these data also then overlook all the Palestinian Jerusalemites who live outside the Israeli-defined boundaries of the city, whether near or far, by choice or by force, but identify themselves as Jerusalemites.
Calculations are by the Jerusalem Story Team.
Flawed as they may be, these data are the most readily available that exist at present.