Demographic change scares Israelis into supporting peace efforts
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 12/16/2003

Experts in demographics expect that the Palestinians, including the Palestinians of the territories of 1948, will be the majority in the lands dominated by Israel, situated between the Jordan river and the mediterranean by the fall of 2010. This trend in population, pushed some Israeli politicians to embark on plans to support the idea of two separate states.

This means that the Arabs of Israel, tolled 1.3 million, and the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, numbering 3.5 million, will in a short time have an increase over the number of Jews in Israel, numbering 5.1 million.

The former Israeli minister Yusi Belin, a prominent opposition member, expressed the fears of the Israelis from the accelerating population growth rate among the Palestinians. He said "we will, not in a long time, have to face a position similar to racism in South Africa, in which the Palestinians will ask for one voice for each voter, and then it will be the end of Zionism."

Belin and Palestinian officials had drawn the "Geneva document" peace plan which proposed the elimination of most of the Jewish settlements from the West Bank, and the foundation of the Palestinian state on most of the lands of the West Bank and Gaza.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat says he is committed to US sponsored Roadmap plan, but he also talked about a winning final paper if diplomacy fails, namely the "womb of the Palestinian woman." On average, the Palestinian woman gets five births. In Gaza it is 6.6 births, one of the highest birth rates and fertility in the world. The average of births among Jewish women is only 2.7%.

A very recent opinion poll showed that 12% of the Palestinians prefer a joint state, while some 64% of them prefer the establishment of two states. But 80% of the Palestinians consider that the settlements whose number doubled in the ten past years and Israel's building of the "separation wall," including settlements ,makes it more difficult to found a credible Palestinian state.

However, the Israeli opinion poll showed that only 6% of the Israelis want the one state formula, in comparison with 78% who agree to the foundation of two states.

Worthy mentioning that the collective Jewish migration to Israel that Israel used to embark on strongly diminished after the flow of the Soviet Jews one decade ago, and also the increase in the prosperity in the Diaspora. A matter which pushed many Jews to stay outside Israel.

Moreover, number of the Israelis living abroad in recent years had also increased as a result of the adverse migration ( from Israel to abroad), because of the economic and security conditions inside Israel.

Previous Stories:
  Satterfield succeeds in arranging a Palestinian- Israeli meeting   (12/15/2003)
  Three Palestinians killed, legislative council convenes first session   (12/3/2003)
  Geneva peace accord kicks off; peace plans with stages are designed to fail   (12/2/2003)
  Palestinians and Israelis Sign a Model Peace Accord   (12/1/2003)
  Arafat doubts Sharon's seriousness, Hamas renews rejection of the truce   (11/26/2003)

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