PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES Official name: The Palestinian Territories are those parts of historical Palestine (Filistin in Arabic) which have not been incorporated into Israel. There is no state called Palestine, although this expression is commonly used and has become semi-official since the Oslo Accords of 1995. Location: West Asia International organisations: The Arab League, The Non-Aligned Movement, The Organisation of Islamic Conference Borders: Egypt, Israel, Jordan Coastline: Mediterranean Sea Land area: 6,220 Km2 (West Bank 5,860 Km2, Gaza 360 Km2). Population: 3,300,000 (West Bank 2,100,000, Gaza 1,200,000). This population includes 370,000 Jewish settlers. In addition, more than 1 million Palestinians live in Israel, while more than 4 million live outside the 1947 boundaries of Palestine, the majority in Jordan. Ethnicity: Palestinian Arab 89%, Israeli/Jewish 11%.

Languages: Arabic is the official language of the Palestinian authority, and is the first language of the Arab population. Most of the Jewish settlers speak Hebrew.
Religion: Sunni Moslem 84%, Jewish 11%, Christian of various denominations 5%.
Form of government: Under the terms of the 1993 Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements, a Palestinian Authority was created to administer the Palestinian Territories. The Palestinian Territories are divided into 16 governorates. Most of the West Bank is still under Israeli occupation. Israel has formally annexed East Jerusalem, but no other state has recognised this.
Capital: The Palestinians regard Jerusalem (al-Quds in Arabic) as the capital of Palestine. The administrative headquarters of the Palestinian Authority is in Ramallah.
Constitution: Before the breakdown of the process outlined in the 1993 Declaration of Principles, a Draft Constitution of Palestine was under consideration.
Head of state: Since there is no Palestian state there is no Palestinian head of state. The position of President of the Palestinian Authority is intended to be a precursor to such a position. Yasir Arafat was elected to this position in 1996, supposedly for a four-year term, but no further elections were held until his death in 2004, when Mahmoud Ridha Abbas was elected to replace him.
Head of government: The Prime Minister, appointed by the President of the Palestinian Authority. This position was created in March 2003. It is not clear what the legal basis of this position is or who the Prime Minister is accountable to.
Legislature: The Palestinian Authority has a unicameral legislature, the National Council, which has 172 members.
Electoral authority: The Central Election Commission administers elections.
Freedom House rating: Political Rights 5, Civil Liberties 6

Political history For the history of Palestine before 1948, see Israel. Following the defeat of the Palestinians and the Arab states in the war against the emerging Israeli state, about 800,000 Palestinians became refugees, either in those parts of Palestine not under Israeli control, or else in the neighbouring states of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. (This figure is disputed.) Of the remaining Palestinian territories, the West Bank area was annexed by Jordan, while Gaza was occupied by Egypt, though not formally annexed. A Palestinian government in exile was established in Gaza, but ceased to function when the West Bank and Gaza were occupied by Israel during the 1967 war. It was succeeded by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), led from 1969 by Yasir Arafat. The PLO waged an intermittent guerilla war against Israel, and also a terrorist campaign against American and Jewish targets around the world. Since the 1967 war Israel has systematically colonised the West Bank with Jewish settlers, making Israeli disengagement increasingly difficult to bring about. A series of peace plans have failed on the related issues of Jewish settlers, Palestinian refugees and the future of Jerusalem, claimed by the both Israelis and Palestinians as their capital. In 1987 the Palestinian population launched the first Intifada (civil insurrection), which led eventually to the 1991 Madrid Conference, the election of Yitzhak Rabin as Israeli Prime Minister, and the Oslo Accords, concluded in 1994. Between 1995 and 1999 the Israelis handed over administration of most of the Territories to the Palestinian Authority. But the assassination of Rabin in 1995 set off a chain of events which led to the breakdown of the settlement.

In 2000 Arafat rejected the offer of a Palestinian state made at the Camp David meeting by President Clinton and Prime Minister Ehud Barak, mainly on the issue of the Palestinian "right of return." This was followed by the second Intifada and the election of the Ariel Sharon government in Israel.

Following the appointment of Mahmoud Ridha Abbas (Abu Mazen) as Palestinian Prime Minister in March 2003 it was hoped a new round of negotiations for a final settlement and the establishment of a Palestinian state could take place. This hope was not realised and in 2005 Israel withdrew unilaterally from Gaza and a small part of the West Bank. Israel is building a security fence in the West Bank which is expected to become a new de facto frontier. In January 2006 the Islamist group Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) won legislative elections, ending any prospects of a negotiated settlement.

The political parties in the Palestinian Territories are Hamas and Abbas's Liberation Movement of Palestine, usually known as al-Fatah.

International human rights organisations have made frequent criticisms of both the Israeli occupation forces and the Palestinian authorities for their violations of human rights in the Palestinian Territories. See Human Rights Watch's Report on Israel, the Occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Palestinian Authority Territories, and Amnesty International's reports on Israel and the Occupied Territories and on the Palestinian Authority.