Many "Palestinians" may be of Jewish descent.

Group of Palestinians claims Jewish descent Four Palestinian Arabs from the Hebron area were presented to rabbis on Tuesday as the descendants of Jews who were forced to convert to Islam decades or even centuries ago, reported Ha'aretz. Some of the men testified that their families still had old Jewish religious artifacts in their possession that had been passed down from older generations. A researcher who accompanied the four said that he believes there are perhaps hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who are of Jewish descent. During various periods in the Middle East, regional and local Muslim authorities forced minorities to convert to Islam. At other times, minorities voluntarily converted to avoid the restrictions placed on non-Mulsims.