The population of Israel/Palestine

On February 2nd, the day before I arrived (but probably not connected), the Palestinian Authority announced that religion was being removed from the Green ID card carried by all Palestinians. The decision has raised various reactions, some in favour as being non-discriminatory, others fearing that this is connected with the peace negotiations and the possibility of Jews living in Palestine legally.

One of the questions asked of Palestinian Christians at the Conference last week was "When did you become a Christian". They normally looked puzzled at the this question. Religion is still assigned at birth - mainly Muslim, Christian or Jew. 

Of course, the Christians have been here from the beginning of the Church. In 1922, there were just under 760,000 people living in Mandate Palestine (i.e. present Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories combined). 78% were Muslim, 11% Jewish and 10% Christian. The UK Government completely ignored these people and gave away their land. Quoting from Sir Anthony Nutting on the  Balfour Project website:-

‘The weak point of our position’, Balfour wrote to Lloyd George in February 1919, ‘is of course that in the case of Palestine we deliberately and rightly decline to accept the principle of self-determination’.[14] If the existing population were consulted, he added, they would ‘unquestionably’ return an anti-Zionist verdict. And in reply to Curzon, Balfour stated quite categorically that

‘in Palestine we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country …. The Four Great Powers are committed to Zionism. And Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land’.

By 1945, this had risen to 1.76 million people (60% Muslim, 31% Jewish, 8% Christian). There were 34,000 Christians around Haifa (where I am now), comprising around 47% of the population. 24% of the people in Nazareth were Christians. 

And now there are 8 million people in the State of Israel, of which around 20% are arabs - those who were here gained citizenship in 1967. Those out of the country have never been allowed back. The population has grown enormously. Towards the end of the British Mandate, the Palestinians were offered the West Bank and refused to accept it. Looking back, this seems strange, as it now looks like a good offer. However, the arab perspective was that they were the majority and owned the majority of the land - why should they accept only 43% of the land. They were slow to realise or anticipate the huge immigration of Jews that would reverse the ethnic population shares, or the strength of international support for the Jews. 

Here in northern Israel, there are no walls, no checkpoints and life appears relatively normal, certainly compared with the tensions in the West Bank. Jews, Muslims and Christians all live here. The school here was 50% Christian 50% Muslim, but is now 75% Muslim, 25% Christian. This reflects the simple fact that Muslims tend to have many more children than the Christians. Of course, the story here is probably more complicated, as it always is.