Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05TELAVIV633
2005-02-02 12:28:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Tel Aviv
Cable title:  

NEW DEMOGRAPHIC REPORT FUELS DISENGAGEMENT DEBATE

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TEL AVIV 000633 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/31/2015
TAGS: PGOV SOCI KWBG IS GAZA DISENGAGEMENT GOI INTERNAL ISRAELI SOCIETY ISRAELI PALESTINIAN AFFAIRS
SUBJECT: NEW DEMOGRAPHIC REPORT FUELS DISENGAGEMENT DEBATE


Classified By: Ambassador Daniel C. Kurtzer; Reasons: 1.4 (B) and (D).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TEL AVIV 000633

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/31/2015
TAGS: PGOV SOCI KWBG IS GAZA DISENGAGEMENT GOI INTERNAL ISRAELI SOCIETY ISRAELI PALESTINIAN AFFAIRS
SUBJECT: NEW DEMOGRAPHIC REPORT FUELS DISENGAGEMENT DEBATE


Classified By: Ambassador Daniel C. Kurtzer; Reasons: 1.4 (B) and (D).


1. (C) Summary and Comment: A recent study claiming that the
Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza is
overestimated by up to 1.5 million people has made headlines
in Israel and provided ammunition to opponents of Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan. The new numbers,
however, did little to sway the Prime Minister or his
supporters, who have often cited the Palestinian "demographic
threat" to the Jewish majority as a main reason for
disengagement. By maintaining control over what will become
a majority Arab population between the Mediterranean and
Jordan River, proponents of disengagement have argued, Israel
would lose its character as a Jewish, democratic state.
Regardless of whether this argument -- or the population
figures contained in the new report -- are valid, PM Sharon
remains determined to move ahead with his disengagement plan.
End Summary and Comment.

--------------
Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics
--------------


2. (U) Israeli demographers, led by Professors Sergio Della
Pergola in Jerusalem and Professor Arnon Sofer in Haifa,
first warned of a "demographic threat" in the late 1990s,
after analyzing data released by the Palestinians Central
Bureau of Statistics in 1997. Although the details vary
depending on the model used, these initial studies predicted
high growth rates for the Palestinian population. Della
Pergola's model predicts that the Jewish population in
Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza will be a minority by 2010.
Sofer maintains that even without the Territories, the
proportion of Israel's population that is Jewish will
decrease (from over 80 percent today to 64 percent in 2020).


3. (U) In January 2005 the American Research Initiative (ARI)
issued a new study claiming that the "demographic threat" is
exaggerated. ARI's report said that the generally accepted
figures for the combined Palestinian (3.83 million) and
Israeli Arab (1.3 million) population living in Israel, the
West Bank, and Gaza are inflated by as many as 1.5 million

people. ARI's assessment is based upon registered births and
deaths from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, immigration
and emigration data from the Israeli Border Police, as well
as statistics from the Israeli Ministry of Interior, the
Civil Administration for the West Bank and Gaza (COGAT),and
the Palestinian Central Elections Commission. Using these
statistics, ARI maintains that previously predicted
Palestinian growth rates of 4-5 percent are unrealistically
high. ARI also claims that the PA's 1997 baseline improperly
double-counted Arabs living in Jerusalem and included many
non-resident holders of PA identity cards.


4. (U) ARI concludes that the Palestinian population has
remained stable at approximately 25 percent of the total
population between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan
River, where Jewish and Jewish-affiliated groups (e.g.,
Russian immigrants not considered Jewish under religious law)
comprise a 60 percent majority. According to ARI's findings,
Jewish residents currently outnumber Arabs by a total of
four-to-one inside Israel (including Jerusalem but not Gaza
or most of the West Bank). Upon releasing the report, ARI
said that the challenge facing the GOI is one of dealing with
a large Arab minority in Israel; not one of dealing with an
eventual Arab majority.

-------------- --
Is Israel's Status as a Jewish State in Danger?
-------------- --


5. (U) For the demographers, the debate is a dispute over the
actual size and growth rate of the Palestinian (and Israeli
Arab) populations in relation to Israel's Jewish community.
Della Pergola, among others, claims that fertility rates used
by ARI are "unrealistically low;" while the birth rate among
Palestinians is falling, Della Pergola notes that families in
the West Bank still have an average of 5.4 children, while
those in Gaza have 7.4.


6. (C) Behind the academic facades, however, are conflicting
socio-political agendas. Although the U.S. businessman who
financed the ARI report denied to poloff that he has any
political agenda, he is known to support settler groups and
is the founder of the "American Friends of the Golan." Sofer
recently sent a letter to PM Ariel Sharon urging him to
physically separate Israel from the Palestinians or face "the
end of the Jewish state of Israel."


7. (C) For the politicians, the statistics are important
because they cut to the core of Israel's unique status as a
Jewish and democratic state. In the past few years,
politicians from almost every sector of the political
spectrum have used the data to argue both for and against
policies such as accelerated negotiations with the
Palestinians, construction of the fence, and disengagement.
On the left, the Labor Party has long maintained that the
rapid increase in the Palestinian population is cause for
urgency in concluding a broad agreement with the PA. Vice PM
Shimon Peres once told reporters that "the demographic clock
is not ticking in Israel's favor."


8. (C) Opponents to disengagement have used demographics
(including the new ARI study) to counter such arguments.
After hearing a presentation of the report, the Chairman of
the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yuval
Steinitz, told reporters that the research suggests that
Israel can afford to remain in Gaza and the West Bank for a
longer period of time until a political solution is reached.
Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu caused an uproar last
year when he claimed the only "demographic bomb" threatening
Israel came from Israeli Arabs. His Ministry later announced
that a decrease in the birthrate among Israeli Arabs had been
the result of cutbacks in child welfare allowances.


9. (C) PM Sharon has not been swayed by the IRA statistics.
The day after the report was released, Sharon publicly
downplayed the numbers, saying he sees "no reason to worry
about that." In the past, he has used demographic data
indirectly to support his disengagement plan, maintaining
that withdrawal from overwhelmingly Palestinian areas will
safeguard Israel's character as a Jewish, democratic state.
Deputy Prime Minster Ehud Olmert has made similar arguments,
raising the specter that Palestinians will oppose a two-state
solution if they believe they will eventually comprise a
majority of the population. "I shudder to think that liberal
Jewish organizations that shouldered the burden of the
struggle against apartheid in South Africa will lead the
struggle against us," he said when asked about possible
Jewish rule over a majority Arab population.


10. (C) Comment: In the end, the "demographic threat" is only
one of Sharon's justifications for the disengagement plan.
Even if further debate validates the new population figures
in the ARA report, Sharon has other -- and more important --
strategic, economic, and political factors that will keep him
on the path to disengagement. More disturbing is that the
politically explosive issue of demographics is now in play
again and that the contradictory conclusions will be used by
each side to advance its political aims, despite disputed
facts.

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