Conflict and Fertility in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Yara Jarallah, Brown University

This paper investigates the effect of conflict captured by the Palestinian 1st and 2nd uprisings (intifadas) on the transition to births in the occupied Palestinian territories. In times of conflict, personal and group securities are usually in question where numerical strength of relatives justifies the high demand for children. This is especially true in the Palestinian context and it is thus hypothesized that transition to births is faster during the periods of the 1st and 2nd uprisings compared to periods before and after. Hazard regression models will be used where women year records are constructed under the assumption that all ever-married women enter the ‘risk period’ of birth at the age of 15 years. This study uses data from the 2004 Demographic and Health Survey DHS undertaken by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. Complete birth histories from women aged 15-49 at the time of survey will be used.