- A Haifa University demographer said Tuesday that there
is already a majority of non-Jews within the total area of Israel, the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
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- Demographer Amnon Sofer also said that recent estimates
of the number of Palestinians to be enclosed on the Israeli side of the
West Bank fence had been vastly exaggerated, and that the maximum number
would not exceed 30,000.
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- "At this very minute, within the western land of
Israel from the [Mediterranean] Sea to the Jordan [River], there is already
a non-Jewish majority," Sofer told Israel Radio.
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- He apparently included in his assessment the large population
of foreign workers in Israel, as well as non-Jewish immigrants.
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- Palestinian officials, commenting on the Monday UN General
Assembly decision to ask the International Court of Justice to issue an
advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israel's construction of
the separation fence, said that the barrier would trap well over 400,000
Palestinians on the Israel side of the fence.
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- Sofer said that the actual number would be much lower.
"My estimate is that the increase will be a maximum of 30,000 people."
He said the higher figures were "exaggerations for the sake of political
considerations."
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- Asked about the possible influence of future Jewish immigration
from France and elsewhere, Sofer said that the society must also take into
account the influence of the burgeoning population of the Holy Land as
a whole.
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- Even if predicted immigration from France, the United
Kingdom, and Belgium does not materialize, "within 17 years, some
six million people will be added to the population, most of them poor Palestinians.
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- "This land is entering into a demographic-ecological
whirlwhind," he said.
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