Palestine is the name of the area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. There isn’t a country called Palestine today, though there have been countries called Palestine in this region before.

While there is no country called Palestine today, there is a government of Palestine with diplomats and leaders, and even a President. This government is trying to work with Israel and the Middle Eastern countries to get land of their own.

Palestinians are people whose families came from Palestine, and there are between 9 and 11 million Palestinians in the world. The fight over control of Palestine has made it difficult for some Palestinians to stay in their homes, since the fight was over the land those homes were on. Palestinians that ran from home to avoid war are called refugees, and today about half of all Palestinians are refugees.

Copyright © ProjectExplorer 2009
Text: Ilana Fayerman & Matthew Boggie
Image: The Gaza Strip from the CIA Factbook