Israel considered Arab birth control in the 50s
Israel-Palestine, Judicial, 3/7/1998

Late in the 50s, the government of Israel prepared a plan of birth control for the Arabs in the state in order to minimize their numbers and to solve the demographic problem which Israel believed was detrimental to the Jewish nature of the state.

The plan did not come out of concern for the well being of Arab families but stemmed from the fact that Arabs in Israel posed a danger that had to be minimized, either by transfer plans or even by introducing birth control rules that are applied to those Arabs who chose to remain.

AS-SINNARA Arabic biweekly in Nazareth said on Friday 6 March it learned of the plan from state archives that have not yet been opened to the public, not even to researchers. It said it tried to get any sort of confirmation from "security sources" that dealt with the question of the Arabs in Israel in the late 50s and early 60s but was unlucky. "Those who spoke to us about the plan denied it ever existed while others said that even if there were plans like those, sure none of the senior officials would have adopted or supported them."

The paper said it prepared three questions and sent them to three Israeli officials who played leading roles in that era. The questions were (I) Is it true that the government of Israel in the 60s or in any other period prepared a plan for Arab birth control; (II) Is it true that the main element of the plan was to hand over contraceptives either to men or to women; and (III) Is true that a possibility to impose contraceptives on Arabs was discussed? The paper sent three written questions to Shimon Peres, who was very close to Israel's prime minister David Ben Gurion and under him was the director general of the defense ministry. Peres did not send any response to the paper. And neither did Haim Yisraeli who was Ben Gurion's secretary and who lately won Israel's prize for his services to the state in the field of security.

Former president Yitzhak Navon, who also was close to Ben Gurion, was the only one who replied. He said there were no such plans and suggested that the paper does not even deal "with such an outrageous issue." Yet the paper insisted that it was told a plan existed but said that the majority of those who attended the discussion sessions, including security officers and politicians, decided to drop the idea.

Israel's state-run television these days airs a special documentary marking the 50th anniversary of the creation of Israel. In one episode that has not been aired yet, Navon said there was a plan to solve the demographic question. "Since a state is born for the Jewish people and Jews would come from all over the world, including from Argentine, where many had vast areas of lands there, some suggested that Arabs can be sent to live there. I suggested I should go first and check. I found that the idea was neither practical nor reasonable. First because the Jews who lived in Argentine and owned lands were not ready to leave, and, secondly, the Arabs living in Israel were not ready to leave and live in Argentine either," said Navon in the documentary. Navon's statement in the film followed the sound of the narrator who said: "After the creation of Israel in 1948, some 150,000 Palestinian Arabs remained in the state. Those were considered by the Israeli leadership and the command of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] a dangerous mine, a fifth column and people of dual loyalty. A number of ideas were discussed about their fate and Ben Gurion even considered converting them to Judaism or sending them to Latin America."

In his book "More lands and less Arabs" Palestinian researcher Nur Eddin Masalha referred to a plan that existed in Israel in the 50s to move Arabs out of the country to Argentine. The book was published some years ago.

Previous Stories:
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  Israel decided to stop Palestinians from getting into Palestine   (1/16/1998)

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