Census finds 3.76 million Palestinians

The Palestinian population in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem has grown about 30 percent in the past decade to 3.76 million, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reported Saturday.

The numbers could have some ramifications for peace talks, since higher population figures potentially bolster Palestinian territorial demands. The census results found an unexpectedly low number of Palestinians — 208,000 — in disputed east Jerusalem, whose fate is a key stumbling block in the conflict.

The east Jerusalem figure was immediately challenged by Hatem Abdel Kader, an adviser on Jerusalem affairs to Abbas' government.

"We doubt these numbers," Abdel Kader said, adding that he doubted the researchers visited all Jerusalem homes.

Israel captured east Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed the territory, which is claimed by the Palestinians for the capital of a future state.

The number of Palestinians with Jerusalem residency rights may be considerably higher than those actually living in the city because many have settled in nearby West Bank suburbs due to a housing shortage.

The census numbers were presented by the chief of the statistics bureau, Luay Shabaneh, at a press conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah. They put a total of 2.345 million Palestinians in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, and just above 1.4 million in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians have one of the highest birth rates in the world, forcing Israel to consider the possibility that Jews, despite ongoing Jewish immigration, could one day be a minority in historic Palestine, the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

In September 2007, Israel's population included 5.45 million Jews, 1.4 million Arabs and 310,000 others, according to Israeli government figures.