Palestinians

The Palestinians (Arabic: الفلسطينيون al-falasṭīniyūn), or alternatively the Palestinian people (الشعب الفلسطيني ash-sha‘ab al-falasṭīnī), are an Arab ethnic group which are the majority inhabitants of the Republic of Palestine. Palestinians share a common Levantine Semitic heritage, and are the modern descendants of the native inhabitants of the region preceding its Arabization, closely related to other native communities like the Jews and Samaritans. Unlike such minority groups native to Palestine, however, Palestinians (sometimes referred to as Palestinian Arabs to distinguish from other Palestinian nationals) are linguistically and culturally Arab, even if the major part of their gene pool is linked to earlier non-Arab native populations.

Also unlike most other peoples native to the region, Palestinian ethnic identity is independent of religious identity; almost 90% of Palestinian Arabs identify as Muslim—two-thirds of this Sunni and one-third Shia (mostly Nizari Ismaili)–while at least 10% are Christians almost entirely belonging to the Greek Orthodox denomination, and it is estimated that at least 1% are either atheists or converts to a faith more obscure in the region such as Buddhism or new age religions. Palestinian society, while retaining influential conservative segments especially within the large Sunni community, has been for the better part of the past two centuries a secular culture, at least in the mainstream, public domain. For example, it is considered taboo to question another's religious conviction or even to show off one's own, and it is generally avoided discussing issues such as interfaith conflict, even more so than political issues. In opinion polls conducted across the country over the past decade, a significant majority of respondents indicated their opposition to religious control over either politics or personal matters, and almost all indicated their opposition to violence in pursuit of religious goals.

The secular Palestinian culture also begets or at least supports a culture of gender equality, including such provisions as legally mandated equal pay across all professional fields for men and women, payed maternity leave, and laws protecting women from employer discrimination regarding actual or potential pregnancies and from sexual harassment, and equal access for all to sexual health resources. The culture of gender equality also reflects on Palestinian womens' sense of dress: while it is common to see Palestinian Muslim women, especially Sunnis, donning the hijab (actually meaning modest dress generally, including headscarf), many Sunni women and a majority of women of other denominations and Arab Christian women do not cover their hair in public at all; it is also worth noting that even the most fundamentalist Sunni families do not impose upon their daughters the headscarf until at least the start of puberty. Similarly, while Palestinian women and men generally trend toward more modest dress than westerners, it would not be acceptable for a woman to be called out for not dressing modestly enough (except perhaps at a mosque, synagogue, church or other holy site), reflecting mainstream Palestinian secular culture which emphasizes gender equality and strict secularity in all aspects of nondenominational public life.