Country

Palestine

Also Known As Palestinian

Asia

The area recorded here as Palestine, whose statehood and borders remain internationally disputed and are treated in the atlas as contested rather than settled, includes Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus and site of the Church of the Nativity, and East Jerusalem's Old City, home to holy sites central to Judaism, Christianity and Islam whose access and status are themselves subject to ongoing dispute. The population is majority Sunni Muslim, with historic Christian communities, particularly around Bethlehem and Ramallah, that have shrunk over recent decades through emigration linked to the broader conflict and economic conditions. Hebron's Cave of the Patriarchs is venerated by both Jewish and Muslim tradition as the burial site of Abraham, and it has also been a repeated site of communal violence. The atlas describes these sites and communities without asserting a position on the underlying political and territorial dispute.

Facts

Law and State

Establishment Status

Established 3

Article 4 of the Palestinian Basic Law names Islam the official religion in Palestine while pledging respect for the sanctity of other divine religions; Hamas's de facto governance of Gaza since 2007 has layered further Islamist administrative practice on top of that same constitutional text.

Registration or Recognition Regime

The Palestinian Authority recognizes some religious communities and not others; a group it does not recognize, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, remains barred from proselytizing but is generally able to carry out its other functions, and Palestinian authorities have generally accepted, case by case, the personal status documents an unrecognized church issues its own members. Freedom of movement restrictions, including on Christians seeking to leave Gaza for services in Jerusalem or the West Bank and on Muslims from the West Bank seeking to enter Jerusalem for Ramadan, have separately constrained the practice of religion regardless of a community's recognition status. 4

Concordat Basisthe subject's own account

Palestine's instrument with the Holy See is the Comprehensive Agreement between the Holy See and the State of Palestine, signed 26 June 2015 by Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher and Palestinian foreign minister Riad al-Malki and entered into force 2 January 2016, covering the freedom of the Catholic Church to operate and of Christians to practice their faith in Palestine and building on the 2000 Basic Agreement that first set the framework. 5

Government type (class)

Semi-presidential republic 2

Disputed

Legal Status

The political and territorial status of Jerusalem and the wider Palestinian territories remains internationally contested; Hamas has governed Gaza as an Islamist movement since 2007, while the Palestinian Authority administers parts of the West Bank under interim arrangements. 3

The political and territorial status of the Palestinian territories, the West Bank and Gaza, and specifically of Jerusalem, is among the most disputed and long-running questions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, disputed between the state of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and the wider international community, with no permanent settlement reached since the conflict's modern phase began in the twentieth century. Hamas, an Islamist movement, has governed the Gaza Strip since winning Gaza in intra-Palestinian fighting in 2007, while the Palestinian Authority, a secular nationalist body originating in the Oslo Accords, administers parts of the West Bank under interim arrangements never intended to be permanent when negotiated in the 1990s. The religious dimension recorded here is that Hamas's governance of Gaza is explicitly Islamist in ideology and self-description, in contrast to the Palestinian Authority's largely secular nationalist framing. Whether and how Palestinian statehood and the two territories' governance are ultimately resolved depends on a wider political settlement not yet reached despite decades of intermittent negotiation.

Demographics

Religious Composition

About 97-98% Sunni Muslim; Christian minority of roughly 1-2%, concentrated in Bethlehem, Ramallah and parts of Jerusalem, and declining through emigration over the twentieth and twenty-first centuries (Pew Research Center, Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020). 1

Government

Capital

Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority's de facto administrative seat in the West Bank; East Jerusalem is the proclaimed capital under Palestinian law but is not under Palestinian administrative control. 2

Government Type

Unitary semi-presidential system under the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank; Gaza has been separately controlled by Hamas since 2007. Statehood and governing authority are themselves part of the contested status this atlas records rather than resolves. 2

Sovereignty Status

UN observer state, not a member 2

Geography

Latitude

32 degrees north 2

Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement.

Longitude

35.2 degrees east 2

Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement.

Location

Learn More

Religion and History in Palestine

The Palestinian territories, comprising the West Bank and Gaza Strip, are overwhelmingly Muslim, around 97 to 98 percent Sunni, with a small Christian minority of roughly 1 to 2 percent concentrated in Bethlehem, Ramallah and parts of Jerusalem, a population that has declined significantly over the twentieth century through emigration driven by economic pressure and the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict, per estimates including Pew Research's Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020.

Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, built over the traditional site of Jesus's birth on foundations dating to the fourth century under Constantine and rebuilt in the sixth century under Justinian, remains one of Christianity's most venerated pilgrimage churches and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Hebron's Cave of the Patriarchs, traditionally identified as the burial place of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their wives, is sacred to both Judaism and Islam, and the building's division into separate Jewish and Muslim prayer areas since 1994, following a mass shooting of Muslim worshippers by an Israeli settler that year, exemplifies the layered and often contested religious geography across the territories.

Religion Amid Occupation and Ongoing Conflict

Palestinian Christian communities, concentrated in Bethlehem, Ramallah, Beit Sahour and parts of Jerusalem, have experienced substantial decline over the past century, falling from a much larger share of the population under the British Mandate to a small minority today, a trend Christian leaders attribute variously to broader economic emigration pressures affecting all Palestinians and, more specifically, to restrictions on movement, land access and permits under Israeli occupation, alongside, in Gaza, a small and further shrinking Christian community affected by conflict and the Islamist governance of Hamas since 2007.

Jerusalem's status remains the single most contested religious and political question in the conflict, with Palestinians and the wider Muslim and Christian world regarding East Jerusalem, including the Old City's holy sites, as the intended capital of a future Palestinian state, a position at odds with Israeli sovereignty claims over the unified city. The Gaza war that began after the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel and the subsequent Israeli military campaign has caused a humanitarian catastrophe and severely damaged religious sites in Gaza, including historic mosques and churches, while displacing the large majority of the strip's population.

Palestine

2 entries

Official Recognition

Opposes

Belongs To Tradition

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Palestine

The 1929 Palestine Riots

Palestine

Connections

Ancient and Historical Regions

Judea

Source GeoNames: GeoNames search results for Judea

Samaria

Source GeoNames: GeoNames search results for Samaria

West Bank

Source GeoNames: GeoNames search results for West Bank

Western Asia

Source United Nations Statistics Division: UN M49 Standard country or area codes for statistical use: geographic regions

Associated With

Abraham Isaac Kook (reference article)

This source names Palestine directly: "Chief Rabbi of British Mandate Palestine and a foundational figure in religious Zionism, is a community edited reference page rather than a peer reviewed publication."

Source Abraham Isaac Kook (reference article)Wikipedia contributors

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee

This source names Palestine directly: "relief funds to Jews in Europe and Palestine during the First World War, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, known as JDC or simply "the Joint," is still serving over a century later..."

Source The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Inc.: Consolidated Financial Statements, Year Ended December 31, 2024The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Inc.; audited by Grant Thornton LLP

Christian Zionism (Wikipedia)

This source names Palestine directly: "belief in Jewish restoration to Palestine, consulted 2026-08-13."

Source Christian Zionism (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Comprehensive Agreement Between the Holy See and Palestine (Wikipedia)

This source names Palestine directly: "between the Holy See and the State of Palestine, signed 26 June 2015 by Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher and Palestinian foreign minister Riad al-Malki and entered into force 2 January 2016..."

Source Comprehensive Agreement Between the Holy See and Palestine (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Hannah Rachel Verbermacher

This source names Palestine directly: "Later in life she emigrated to Ottoman Palestine, settling in Jerusalem, where she continued to be visited as a holy woman until her death."

Source The Maiden of Ludmir: A Jewish Holy Woman and Her World (Deutsch, 2003)Nathaniel Deutsch

Islam

About 97 to 98% Sunni Muslim.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

Israeli Declaration Of Independence (Wikipedia)

This source names Palestine directly: "Aviv Museum as the British Mandate for Palestine ended; not a source for anything beyond the declaration itself."

Source Israeli Declaration Of Independence (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

More Desired than Our Owne Salvation: The Roots of Christian Zionism

This source names Palestine directly: "doctrines about Jewish restoration to Palestine developed and spread across centuries and denominations."

Source More Desired than Our Owne Salvation: The Roots of Christian ZionismRobert O. Smith

Muslim Conquest of Egypt

This source names Palestine directly: "with an invasion force crossing from Palestine into the Nile Delta in 639."

Source The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live InHugh Kennedy

Muslim Conquest of the Levant

This source names Palestine directly: "Byzantine-ruled provinces of Syria and Palestine."

Source The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live InHugh Kennedy

Shoghi Effendi Becomes Guardian of the Baha'i Faith

This source names Palestine directly: "founder Baha'u'llah, died in Haifa, Palestine, at the age of seventy seven."

Source The Life and Work of Shoghi Effendi (Baha'i Reference Library)

The 1929 Palestine Riots

Fought across Mandatory Palestine, chiefly in Jerusalem, Hebron and Safed.

Source Year Zero of the Arab-Israeli Conflict 1929Hillel Cohen

The 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs Massacre

Took place in Hebron.

Source Brother Against Brother: Violence and Extremism in Israeli Politics from Altalena to the Rabin AssassinationEhud Sprinzak

The Guiding Principles of Reform Judaism (The Columbus Platform)

This source names Palestine directly: "Judaism's stake in the rebuilding of Palestine as a Jewish homeland, and reopened space for ceremonial and traditional practice the earlier platform had treated as no longer binding."

Source The Guiding Principles of Reform Judaism (The Columbus Platform)Central Conference of American Rabbisthe holders' own account

The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide

This source names Palestine directly: "at each site it covers across Israel, Palestine and the Sinai from earliest times through the Crusades, giving each site's own excavated evidence and historical context rather than a devotional or..."

Source The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological GuideJerome Murphy-O'Connor

The State Of Israel Is Founded

This source names Palestine directly: "midnight and the British Mandate for Palestine ended."

Source Israeli Declaration Of Independence (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

United Nations General Assembly Resolution 67/19: Status of Palestine in the United Nations

This source names Palestine directly: "Its strength is that it is the UN's own record of according Palestine non-member observer state status, the same status held by the Holy See, in the General Assembly's own words."

Source United Nations General Assembly Resolution 67/19: Status of Palestine in the United NationsUnited Nations General Assembly

Year Zero of the Arab-Israeli Conflict 1929

This source names Palestine directly: "countrywide riots that swept Mandatory Palestine in August 1929, reading the violence in Jerusalem, Hebron and Safed as the year the modern Arab-Israeli conflict took its lasting shape."

Source Divinity Atlas Original Articles, Second Edition

Contains

Bethlehem

Hebron

Herodium

Source The Jewish WarFlavius Josephus

Jericho

Source The Hebrew Bible (Tanakh)Anonymous (multiple authors)

Mamre

Source The Oxford Dictionary of World ReligionsJohn Bowker (ed.)

Mar Saba