🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Palestinians

Palestinians are an Arab people connected with the historical region of Palestine on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, there were about 15.5 million Palestinians worldwide at the end of 2025: 5.56 million in the State of Palestine, 1.86 million in Israel and about 8.8 million in other countries.

The main rural tradition is the olive. According to the 2021 agricultural census, olives cover 85% of the orchard area. The olive harvest officially begins on 10 October and lasts through November; the fruit is picked by hand, and the whole extended family turns out to work. About 93% of the crop goes into oil, the rest into table olives, pickles and soap.

Milk comes from sheep, goats and cows: the same census counted 771,000 sheep, 240,000 goats and about 68,000 head of cattle. The best-known dairy product, as across the Levant, is labneh, a thick strained yogurt. It is eaten at breakfast with olive oil, and labneh balls are covered with oil so that they keep longer.

Craft is tied to oil as well. Since 2024 the tradition of Nabulsi soap has been on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage: the soap is made after the olive harvest, stamped with a family mark and aged for a year, then given as a gift for weddings and birthdays. The craft is handed down in families, olive oil mills and artisan workrooms. Everyday eating, meanwhile, is changing: since the 1990s bought and processed foods have become noticeably more common in the Levant.

Why it matters to you. The Nabulsi soap on the UNESCO list is made from just three ingredients: olive oil, water and lye. If an “olive soap” contains plenty of other fats, it is no longer the traditional recipe, so the ingredient list on the wrapper is worth reading.