Haifa University Professor Arnon Savir, an expert in
demographic issues, attacked the international report on world
population increase to be inaccurate and misleading.
The international report on the world population released Tuesday
projected that the Palestinian population will exceed the Israeli
population by the year 2050.
Savir, who claimed that the released report incorrectly deals with the
available demographic data, expected for that to happen as soon as the
year 2020.
Savir said that the Arab citizens of Israel should be counted as part
of the Palestinian, not the Israeli population, therefore he calls for
demographic statistics to be carried based on nationality, not
citizenship.
Based on Savir calculations, right now Jews in Israel are 5.2 million,
Palestinians in West Bank and Gaza are 3.8 million, and Palestinians
living inside Israel are around one million; almost equal numbers of
Jews and Palestinians.
By the year 2020, Savir predicts that the population of Palestinian
citizens of Israel will double (arrive at 2 Million), 6.1 million
Palestinians will be living in the West Bank and Gaza, while 6.3
Million Jews.
Instead of investing efforts to create conditions that allow
coexistence of different national and ethnic groups, Israeli experts in
demography are sending signals that are seen as frightening in the
current conflict environment.
While demographic future projections could be used to justify a variety
of political and ideological agendas, ranging from a two state solution
to demographic isolation of certain groups or even forced expulsions,
treating the a group of state citizens as a demographic threat could
only lead to a growing racism.
