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No, Arabs Living under Israeli Control Are Not Going to Outnumber Jews Any Time Soon
(Volokh Conspiracy) David Bernstein - I often see articles about Israel like this March 5 story from AP: "...with Arabs living under Israeli control expected to outnumber Jews in the coming years." There are approximately 6.4 million Jews and 1.6 million Arabs living in Israel, and 2.5 million in the West Bank, of whom 2.3 million live in areas under Palestinian civil control, and joint Israeli-Palestinian military control. Even giving a liberal construction to "living under Israeli control," that makes roughly 6.4 million against 4.1 million. Given a Jewish birth rate of 2.9 per family, plus net Jewish immigration to Israel, there is not likely to be a majority of Arabs in the territory under Israeli control any time soon. If you add in the population of Gaza, things start to get closer. But even the most liberal definition of "living under Israeli control" can't possibly include Gaza, where there is not a single Israeli civilian or soldier. It irks me that journalists reporting on Israel and the Palestinians seem to parrot things they pick up from various activist groups, without bothering to check easily discoverable facts. The writer is a professor at the George Mason University School of Law.