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Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in the southern Levant region of West Asia, encompassing the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, within the larger historic Palestine region. The country shares most of its borders with Israel, and borders Jordan to the east and Egypt to the southwest. It has a combined land area of 6,020 square kilometres (2,320 sq mi) while its population exceeds five million people. Its proclaimed capital is Jerusalem while Ramallah serves as its administrative center and Gaza City was its largest city until 2023. Arabic is the official language. The majority of Palestinians practice Islam while Christianity also has a presence.

During World War I, Britain supported the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine, later occupying and partitioning it from the Ottoman Empire, and setting up Mandatory Palestine. During the mandate period, mass Jewish immigration allowed by the British authorities led to increased tensions and violence with the local Palestinian Arab population. By 1947, Britain handed the issue to the United Nations, which proposed a partition plan, for two independent Arab and Jewish states and an independent Jerusalem entity. Immediately after the General Assembly adopted the resolution, a civil war broke out, and the plan was not implemented. The Mandate for Palestine brought significant changes to the political and social landscape of the area, setting the stage for the conflicts and struggles that would follow.

The 1948 Palestine war saw the forcible displacement of most of its predominantly Palestinian Arab population, and consequently the establishment of Israel, in what Palestinians call the Nakba. During the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In 1988, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) declared the establishment of the State, which later signed the 1993 Oslo peace accords with Israel, creating the Palestinian Authority (PA). In 2007, internal divisions between Palestinian political factions led to a takeover of the Gaza Strip by Hamas. Since then, the West Bank has been governed in part by the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, while the Gaza Strip has remained under the control of Hamas. Israel has built settlements in the territories since its 1967 occupation, with the ones in Gaza being dismantled following Israel's unilateral disengagement in 2005. Approximately 670,000 Israeli settlers live in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Currently, the biggest challenges to the country include the Israeli occupation, a blockade, restrictions on movement, Israeli settlements and settler violence, as well as an overall poor security situation. The questions of Palestine's borders, the legal and diplomatic status of Jerusalem, and the right of return of Palestinian refugees remain unsolved. Despite these challenges, the country maintains an emerging economy and sees frequent tourism. It is also a member of several international organizations, including the UNESCO, International Criminal Court and the Interpol. It has been a non-member observer state of the United Nations since 2012. (Full article...)

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Tubas skyline

Tubas is a small Palestinian city in the northeastern West Bank, located 21 kilometers (13 mi) northeast of Nablus, a few kilometers west of the Jordan River. A city of over 16,000 inhabitants, it serves as the economic and administrative center of the Tubas Governorate. Its urban area consists of 2,271 dunams (227 hectares). It is governed by a municipal council of 15 members and most of its working inhabitants are employed in agriculture or public services. Jamal Abu Mohsin has been the mayor of Tubas since being elected in 2005. Tubas has been identified as the ancient town of Thebez (/ˈθˌbɛz/)—a Canaanite town famous for revolting against King Abimelech. However, the modern town was founded in the late 19th century—during the Ottoman rule of Palestine—by Arab clans living in the Jordan Valley region and became major town in the District of Nablus, particularly known for its timber and cheese-making. It came under the British Mandate of Palestine in 1917, annexed by Jordan after their capture of the town in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and then occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. The Palestinian National Authority has had complete control of Tubas since it was transferred to them in 1995.

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Machine gunners, Second Battle of Gaza
Machine gunners, Second Battle of Gaza
Credit: American Colony, Jerusalem
Restoration: Lise Broer/Fir0002

Ottoman machine gun corps, before the Second Battle of Gaza, which took place on 19 April 1917. The First Battle of Gaza, just three weeks prior, had ended in defeat for the British Empire, and this second attempt to break through Turkish defenses was also unsuccessful. Six months later, on the third attempt, the Allied forces were finally able to break the GazaBeersheba line.

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Judean Date Palm

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Yasser Arafat
Our basic aim is to liberate the land from the Mediterranean Seas to the Jordan River. We are not concerned with what took place in June 1967 or in eliminating the consequences of the June war. The Palestinian revolution's basic concern is the uprooting of the Zionist entity from our land and liberating it.

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Edward Wadie Saïd (Arabic pronunciation: [wædiːʕ sæʕiːd] Arabic: إدوارد وديع سعيد, Idwārd Wadīʿ Saʿīd; 1 November 1935 – 25 September 2003) was an American-Palestinian literary theorist, and University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He was a founding figure of the critical field of post-colonialism. Saïd was a Palestinian Arab born in Jerusalem (then in the British Mandate of Palestine), and held an American passport through his father who was a Palestinian U.S. citizen with Protestant origins. Said was an advocate for the human rights of the Palestinian people, whom the commentator Robert Fisk described as the Palestinians' most powerful voice. As an influential cultural critic, academic, and writer, Edward Saïd was known best for the book Orientalism (1978), a critical analysis of the ideas that are the bases of Orientalism — the Western study of Eastern cultures. As a public intellectual, he discussed contemporary politics, music, culture, and literature, in lectures, newspaper and magazine articles, and books. Drawing from his family experiences as a Palestinian Christian in the Middle East, at the time of the establishment of Israel (1948), Saïd argued for the establishment of a Palestinian state, equal political and human rights for the Palestinians in Israel — including the right of return — and for increased U.S. political pressure upon Israel to recognize, grant, and respect said rights; he also criticized the political and cultural politics of Arab and Muslim régimes. He received a Western education in the U.S., where he resided from adolescence until his death in 2003; as such, in his memoirs, Out of Place (1999), Saïd applied his dual cultural heritage to narrow the gap of political and cultural understanding between The West and the Middle East, to improve Western understanding of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. His decade-long membership in the Palestinian National Council, and his pro–Palestinian political activism, made him a controversial public intellectual.

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Demographics: Definitions · State of Palestine · History · Name · People · Diaspora  · Refugee camps · Arab citizens of Israel

Politics: Arab Higher Committee · All-Palestine Gov-t · PLO · PFLP · Depopulated villages

Today: Fatah · Hamas · Islamic Jihad · Political parties · PNA · Hamas gov-t · Governorates · Governorates · Cities · Arab localities in Israel · PNC · PLC ·

General: Flag · Law

Palestine: West Bank · Gaza Strip · E. Jerusalem

Religion: Islam · Christianity · Judaism · Dome of the Rock · Al-Aqsa Mosque · Great Mosque of Gaza · Cave of the Patriarchs · Church of the Holy Sepulchre · Basilica of the Annunciation · Church of the Nativity · Joseph's Tomb · Rachel's Tomb · Lot's Tomb · Nabi Samwil

Culture: Art · Traditional costumes · Cinema · Cuisine · Dance · Handicrafts · Language · Literature · Music


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