A Look At Countries With Large Palestinian Populations

Posted September 21st, 2011 at 1:02 pm (UTC-5)
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Palestinians are gearing up to press a bid for statehood recognition at the United Nations this week. Here is a look at territories and countries with large Palestinian populations.

WORLDWIDE: Figures from the United Nations and world refugee agencies indicate there are now more than 11 million Palestinians across the globe.

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: More than four million Palestinians live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. An additional 1.4 million live in Israel.

JORDAN: At least 1.8 million Palestinian refugees live in Jordan, mostly in refugee camps and neighborhoods.

LEBANON AND SYRIA: Home about to between 400,000 and 500,000 Palestinians each.

UNITED STATES: The U.S. Census Bureau says about 81,700 people identified themselves as Arab Americans of Palestinian origin in data collected between 2005 and 2009.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) defines Palestinian refugees as people whose “normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948.” It says people in this category lost their homes and their means of support as a result of the Arab-Israeli conflict in 1948.