The Jewish population has increased dramatically in the last two centuries. In 1832, there were 1,500 Jews in Palestine. In 1860 the Jewish population had grown to 15,000 and in 1881 the Jewish population was 22,000. By 1944 there were 614,229 Jews and 1,363,387 Arab Palestinians (These figures are from the Palestinian Society of Demographic Education). At the time of the Balfour Declaration, in November, 1917, when the secular Zionist Movement was officially recognized, 92% of the population in Palestine were Arab Muslims and Christians (Ellis 1999: 19). Four years later, in 1921, there were 590,000 Muslims, 85,000 Jews and 89,000 Christians (Ateek 1989: 29). As we have seen, by May of 1948, when the State of Israel was declared, as was noted in a preceding paragraph, 800,000 of the resident Palestinians had left Israel as a result of being driven out by Zionist Jews entering the land. As of 2003–2004, the combined population in Israel and the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights was 51% Jewish and 49% Palestinian Arabs (Population Statistics/Demographics of Israel-Palestine).

In 2006, the Bishop's Committee on Justice and Peace in Israel/Palestine, in the Episcopal Diocese, in the western part of the State of Washington, published a fact sheet stating that the population in Israel/Palestine, at that time, was comprised of 18% Arab Palestinians Muslims, 72% Israeli Jews and 10% Arab Palestinian Christians. Several years later the Arab Palestinian Muslim population in Israel/Palestine is growing.