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, the Palestinian people are linguistically and culturally Arab, even if the majority of their gene pool can be linked to earlier non-Arab native populations.

Also unlike other local native groups, Palestinian ethnic identity is independent of religious identity; almost 90% of Palestinians identify as Muslim—two-thirds of this Sunni and one-third Shia (mostly Ismaili)–while at least 10% are Christians mostly belonging to the Greek Orthodox denomination, and it is estimated that at least 1% of Palestinian people identify as either atheist or as being converts to a faith more obscure in the region such as Buddhism or new age religions. Palestinian society, while retaining influential conservative sections especially within the Sunni community, has been for the better part of the past century a secular culture, at least in the mainstream, public domain. For example, it is considered taboo to question another's religious conviction or discuss issues such as interfaith conflict, even more so than political issues. In multiple opinion polls conducted across the country over the past decade, a majority of respondents indicated their opposition to religious influence over either politics or personal matters, and a significant majority indicated their opposition to violence in pursuit of religious motivations.

This mainstream secular culture also begets or at least supports a culture of gender equality, including such provisions as equal pay across all professional fields for men and women of equal qualification, payed maternity leave and laws protecting women form employer discrimination regarding actual or potential pregnancies, 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 Arab women, especially Sunnis, donning the hijab (meaning modest dress in addition to a hair-covering headscarf), many Sunni women and a majority of women of other denominations do not cover their hair; it is also worth noting that even the most fundamentalist Sunni families do not impose upon thei daughters the headscarf until at least the start of puppetry. 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.