Marriage and Fertility under Occupation: A Longitudinal Study of the West Bank of Palestine

Yara Jarallah, Brown University
Dennis Hogan, Brown University

This paper investigates the effects of the Israeli Occupation on the rate of marriage and fertility in the occupied Palestinian territories in light of the minority status hypothesis. This study uses data from the Palestinian Censuses of 1997 and 2007, conducted by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. The 11 governorates of the West Bank are divided into 33 distinct geographic areas, distinguishing urban, rural, and refugee camp localities. We test the hypotheses for women age 10 to 49 years in 2007, controlling for characteristics of their place of residence in 1997. The intensity of the Israeli Occupation is measured by the number of military checkpoints and the penetration of the settler population in each governorate. We find higher marriage rates among women who live in governorates with a larger number of checkpoints and a higher penetration of Israeli settlers. The results of the Occupation on marital fertility are mixed.