Deaf Palestinian

Locations

Identity

The Deaf of the West Bank and Gaza are the people who use Palestinian Sign Language and take part in Deaf life: schools for the deaf, clubs and associations. Palestinian Sign Language belongs to the Levantine branch of the Arab sign-language family with Jordanian, Syrian and Lebanese Sign Language. Deaf education began with Catholic and charity schools (Bethlehem, 1971-1972) that taught lip-reading; signing grew in schools and deaf clubs from the 1990s, and Gaza's programmes expanded after 1994 with the Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children, founded in Gaza City in 1992. The Palestinian Union for the Deaf, which merged eight local associations, and the Ramallah Benevolent Society for the Deaf work on a standard dictionary. Inherited deafness is frequent where cousin marriage is common. People who lose their hearing later in life and keep using spoken Arabic belong to their own peoples.

Culture & traditions

Deaf life centres on deaf schools, clubs and associations, where friendships and marriages between Deaf partners often begin, and on video-sharing in sign on social media, which during the Gaza war became a channel for Deaf vloggers to report displacement and hunger in their own language. Hearing children of Deaf parents often act as interpreters from a young age. Before the war Atfaluna ran a school, vocational workshops and community centres for Deaf children and adults in Gaza City, and the West Bank had five deaf clubs (2021).

Religious practices

Nearly all Deaf Palestinians belong to Muslim families and a small number to Christian ones. Friday sermons, Quran memorisation and church liturgy are spoken, so many Deaf people know little of their faith beyond prayer movements and fasting; Gaza charities have produced signed explanations of the Quran, though in Jordanian-style signs. Christian Deaf in Bethlehem and Ramallah have been served by a small Lutheran deaf ministry.

Gospel access

There is no Scripture, JESUS film or audio-visual Bible in Palestinian Sign Language. The JESUS film, New Testament passages and Bible stories exist in Jordanian Sign Language, which many Palestinian signers partly understand, and the Anglican Holy Land Institute for the Deaf in Salt, Jordan, belongs to the Jerusalem diocese. A Lutheran deaf ministry founded in 2011 has met in Bethlehem and Ramallah, and the Catholic Effeta Institute teaches deaf children in Bethlehem. Written Arabic Bibles are of limited use where literacy is low.

Deaf Gaza in the 2023-2026 war

Deaf Gazans faced the war without hearing warnings: they could not hear incoming strikes, evacuation calls from loudspeakers, or soldiers' orders at checkpoints, and some were shot in their homes or abused at checkpoints. By early 2024 at least 19 Deaf people had been confirmed killed and 30-40 were missing. The Atfaluna Society's centre in Gaza City was destroyed and its co-founder Hashem Ghazal killed in March 2024. Deaf vloggers such as Basem AlHabel and the Namous brothers recorded displacement and hunger in Palestinian Sign Language. Since the October 2025 ceasefire the main need is hearing care: Atfaluna and Hamad Hospital estimate 30,000-40,000 people with new or old hearing loss, and toddlers deafened by blasts need cochlear implants that can only be done abroad, while medical evacuations are largely suspended.

At a glance

Language: Palestinian Sign Language (no ISO code)
Language family: Sign Language
Affinity bloc: Deaf
People cluster: Deaf
Primary religion: Sunni Islam (c. 98-99%), Christianity (c. 1%)
Bible status: Portions
Jesus Film: No
Audio recordings: No
Gospel recordings: Not Available
Radio broadcasts: Not Available
Religious school: Shafi'i

Religious breakdown

Religion	%	Denomination	Notes
Islam	c. 98-99%	Sunni (Shafi'i)	Muslim by family; Friday sermons and Quran classes are spoken, so religious formation is thin; signed Quran tafsir projects in Gaza
Christianity	c. 1%	Greek Orthodox, Latin and Melkite Catholic, Lutheran	Mostly Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Beit Sahour and Ramallah; a Lutheran deaf ministry of about 30 people

Presence by country

West Bank / GazaNativeVerified presence

Population: ~20,000 (15,000-25,000)
Location: Throughout the West Bank and Gaza: Gaza City and the displacement sites of central and southern Gaza; Nablus, Ramallah and al-Bireh, Hebron, Bethlehem and Jenin in the West Bank (East Jerusalem's Deaf are counted with Israel)

Deaf Palestinians are a community of about 20,000 people bound together by Palestinian Sign Language, a Levantine sign language close to Jordan's that grew up in schools for the deaf and Deaf clubs from the 1970s, when the first school for deaf children opened in Bethlehem. Checkpoints, the separation of Gaza from the West Bank and the closure of Jerusalem have kept deaf people in different towns apart, so signs still vary from place to place and the Palestinian Union for the Deaf is working on a single dictionary. In Gaza the 2023-2026 war destroyed the main deaf children's centre in Gaza City, killed Deaf people who could not hear warnings or soldiers' orders, and left thousands of children, many of them toddlers, with hearing lost to blasts and infections, at a time when hearing aids and even their batteries cannot be brought in. Mosque sermons and church services are almost never signed, and no part of the Bible exists in their language.