ABSTRACT

On the eve of the 1948 war and the establishment of the State of Israel, nearly two million persons lived within the borders of Mandatory Palestine, two-thirds of them Palestinian-Arabs and one-third Jews. The vast majority of the Palestinians (almost 940,000) and almost all the Jews, lived in the areas that became Israel. As a result of expulsions and mass flight, by the end of the war only about 150,000 Palestinians – 10 percent of all Palestinians – remained in the territory under Israeli control. After the war they were distinguished from other Palestinians by the fact that they had stayed on their land and become citizens of Israel. In the intervening six decades, the Palestinians in Israel have known many vagaries in their political, social, cultural and economic development.