RAMALLAH — The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) Tuesday said that the Palestinian population in the world reached 11.8 million. PCBS said in a press statement on the occasion of 65th anniversary of the Nakba Day (catastrophe) that the Palestinian population was 1.37 million in 1948, but by the end of 2012 the estimated world population of Palestinians totaled 11.8 million. Nakba is used by Palestinian to describe the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, after the killings and massacres committed against Palestinian civilians and the forced displacement of Palestinians from their homeland. It is commemorated internationally on May 15. The Israeli Army Radio said that the Israeli forces will put on high alert at friction points in anticipation of clashes to mark the event. PCBS added that the figures indicate that the number of Palestinians worldwide has multiplied eight-fold in the 65 years since the Nakba. According to statement, the total number of Palestinians living in historic Palestine (between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean) by the end of 2012 was 5.8 million and this number is expected to rise to 7.2 million by the end of 2020, based on current growth rates. It said that 1.4 million Palestinians lived in 1,300 Palestinian towns and villages in 1948. According to the PCBS, more than 800,000 of the population were driven out of their homeland to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, neighboring Arab countries, and other countries of the world. Thousands of Palestinians were displaced from their homes but stayed within the Israeli-controlled 1948 territory. According to documentary evidence, the Israelis controlled 774 towns and villages and destroyed 531 Palestinian towns and villages during the Nakba. The atrocities of Israeli forces also included more than 70 massacres in which 15,000 Palestinians were killed. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) records showed that there were 5.3 million Palestinian refugees registered in mid-2013, constituting 45.7% of the total Palestinian population worldwide. They were distributed in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. The Nakba is considered to be the biggest catastrophe for Palestinians in modern history; the immediate consequences of the Nakba was the occupation, by Israel, of more than three quarters of historic Palestine and the expulsion of more than 85 percent of the population. Palestinian negotiator Sa'eb Erekat said that the Nakba of Palestinian people “is still ongoing until this day.” Erekat said in a press statement on the occasion that “Israel denies the refugees' their right of return to their homelands and it deprives them from their basic rights.” He added that the “Israeli measures, including the expelling of Palestinians from their homes, house demolitions, confiscation of lands, settlement activities, the construction of separation wall and the siege of West Bank and Gaza Strip generates new waves of refugees.” Erekat called on the international community to “shoulder its responsibility and put an immediate end to the Israeli policies and practices.”
