business
Country profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring
Efforts to create a Palestinian state on the West Bank of the River Jordan and Gaza on the Mediterranean coast have been frustrated by the continuing conflict with Israel and disputes over the status of diaspora Palestinians.
The war that followed Israel's declaration of independence in 1948 saw the former British mandate of Palestine partitioned between Israel, Trans-Jordan and Egypt.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced out of their native land during the war, in what they call the "Nakba" or "Catastrophe".
The demand of these refugees and their descendants to return to their former homes remains one of the most fiercely debated aspects of the dispute with Israel.
Image caption Palestinian women pray outside Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque
The Palestinian national movement gradually regrouped in the West Bank and Gaza, run respectively by Jordan and Egypt, and in refugee camps in neighbouring Arab states.
The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) emerged as its leading umbrella group shortly before the Six-Day War of 1967, during which Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, and conducted a protracted campaign of violence against Israel.
At a glance
Politics: Palestinians have been striving for self-determination but have achieved only limited control over their affairs. Relations with the Israeli authorities have been marked by violent conflict
Economics: The economy is fragmented and subject to Israeli restrictions. Much of the population is dependent on food aid.
Foreign relations: Hamas, which controls Gaza, is shunned by Israel, many Arab countries and the West.
Country profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring
The PLO under Yasser Arafat gradually won international recognition as the representative of the Palestinian people, culminating in the Oslo Accords with Israel in 1993.
These accords established a Palestinian National Authority (PNA - also referred to as the Palestinian Authority, or PA) as an interim body to run parts of Gaza and the West Bank (but not East Jerusalem) pending an agreed solution to the conflict.
The war that followed Israel's declaration of independence in 1948 saw the former British mandate of Palestine partitioned between Israel, Trans-Jordan and Egypt.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced out of their native land during the war, in what they call the "Nakba" or "Catastrophe".
The demand of these refugees and their descendants to return to their former homes remains one of the most fiercely debated aspects of the dispute with Israel.
Image caption Palestinian women pray outside Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque
The Palestinian national movement gradually regrouped in the West Bank and Gaza, run respectively by Jordan and Egypt, and in refugee camps in neighbouring Arab states.
The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) emerged as its leading umbrella group shortly before the Six-Day War of 1967, during which Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, and conducted a protracted campaign of violence against Israel.
At a glance
Politics: Palestinians have been striving for self-determination but have achieved only limited control over their affairs. Relations with the Israeli authorities have been marked by violent conflict
Economics: The economy is fragmented and subject to Israeli restrictions. Much of the population is dependent on food aid.
Foreign relations: Hamas, which controls Gaza, is shunned by Israel, many Arab countries and the West.
Country profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring
The PLO under Yasser Arafat gradually won international recognition as the representative of the Palestinian people, culminating in the Oslo Accords with Israel in 1993.
These accords established a Palestinian National Authority (PNA - also referred to as the Palestinian Authority, or PA) as an interim body to run parts of Gaza and the West Bank (but not East Jerusalem) pending an agreed solution to the conflict.
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