Article74 Magazine

Palestinians living in the 1967 occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip are asked to remain in their homes on 10 December 1997, the day when the PA census employees will start visiting every home in order to gather personal data of the estimated two million Palestinian residents. 

The current PA census, under way for several months, will be the first census after the one carried out by Israel just after its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in June 1967. Approximately 6,000 employees and a budget of US $6 million, mostly from international donations, are involved in the census operation conducted under the supervision of the Palestinian Statistics Department. The first stage included the registration of Palestinian homes and enterprises and was largely completed by the end of November. The second stage comprises the collection of personal data, including information about education, work, and living conditions. According to the Palestinian Statistics Department, initial results will be published in January 1998. 

Who is included in the Census? As common for any population census, every individual, Palestinian or foreigner, who is present in the designated area on the day of the census will be included and registered according to categories describing the person's status (tourist, resident, etc). In an effort to accommodate the census to the specific situation of Palestinians as a people living in exile, the questionnaire includes a category reserved for the registration of relatives who lived in the West Bank and Gaza Strip until after the June 1967 occupation and whose resident status was later revoked by Israel (deportees, lost IDs). 

And what about occupied East Jerusalem? According to PA plans and announcements, Palestinian residents of Jerusalem will be included in the census. This of course has provoked the strong protest of Israeli officials who have threatened to arrest every Palestinian census employee found in the streets of the city. Consequently, implementation of the first stage of the census (registration of homes and enterprises) in East Jerusalem has not occurred, and the population count started on 10 December has so far not included the residents of the city. 

Concerning Palestinian Jerusalemites living outside the city boundaries in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, it appears that the PA has learnt the lesson of the 1996 election registration, when the majority of this group refused registration for fear of Israeli reprisal (ID card confiscation, cut of Israeli state welfare, etc.). In order to encourage their participation this time, the PA has informed Palestinian Jerusalemites in numerous media announcements that they would not be required to register their names and personal identification data, and that they were free to choose the address to be registered on the census forms. 

And Palestinian Refugees? A special category in the census forms will identify the refugee status of persons living in the PA areas. The approximately 60% of Palestinian refugees living in the diaspora, however, will remain excluded. The talk of the first census of the Palestinian people that will disclose the real number of our people, spread by PA officials and quoted by the Palestinian media, is therefore not legitimate. Moreover, the census was heavily criticized by refugee activists for not including a special category for the registration of UNRWA property in the refugee camps. Census employees received instructions to simply register refugee homes in the camps as private property, a step which does not reflect the reality of the 1.25 million West Bank and Gaza refugees whose homes are temporarily leased from UNRWA. The Union of Youth Activity Centers/West Bank therefore demands the addition of a special category (property of UNRWA) to the census questionnaire (UYAC in Voice of Palestine, 4-12-97). 

The population count began on 10 December 1997  in the West Bank (East Jerusalem excluded) and the Gaza Strip. Israeli army forces erected road blocks on the main highways leading through Area C and by trying to prevent the conduction of the census in the Israeli-controlled center of Hebron (H1). The census is expected to be completed by 20 December 1997.