THE DEMOGRAPHIC BOMB IS TICKING IN OCCUPIED PALESTINE

"The number of Palestinian Arabs on both sides of the green line is equal

to the number of Jews in all of occupied Palestine,

namely about 5,100,000 persons of each group.

The editor of the Israeli affairs of As-Safir Beirut daily wrote:

The annual report published by the Israeli Central Department of Statistics, said the total number of the inhabitant of the Zionist entity is 6,631,000. The report pointed out that the percentage of Jews dropped to 77% of the total number of inhabitants, that is about 5,0992,600 Jews. The report added that the annual increase in the population dropped by 2% compared to the annual increase in the population in the early eighties, that is before the new wave of immigrants arrived from the former Soviet Union.

The report added that the number of Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza is 3.600,000 persons, noting that usually the about 180,000 Arabs inhabitants of Jerusalem are not included among the inhabitants of the 1967 occupied parts of Palestine. This means that the number of Palestinian Arabs on both sides of the green line is equal to the number of Jews in all of occupied Palestine, namely about 5,100,000 persons of each group.

The report said that the density of the population in occupied Palestine reached 299/sq km, which is about the same density of the population in India that is 300/sq km, compared to a density of population in the United state of 29/sq km, Syria 89/ sq km and Egypt 68. The density of the population in Palestine in 1948 was 43/sq km.

The report notes that the majority of Jews in occupied Palestine are Ashkenazim, that is the immigrants from European countries or their descendents, namely 2,200,000 persons out of whom 1,160,000 came from the former USSR, followed by Jews of African origin 860,000 persons, out of whom about 500,000 came from Arab north Africa. Jews of Asian origin totaled 707,000.

Other than the Ashkenazim and Sephardim classification 63% of the Jews were born in occupied Palestine.

The number of Jews increased in 2002 compared to 2001 by 1.4% in comparison to an Arab increase in population of 3.4% per annum. The percentage of the Arab populations remained static namely 19% of the total population, while the percentage of Jews was 76.8%.

91% of the Jews live in cities and 43.6% of them live in metropolitan Tel Aviv, that is a density of population in this area of 2077/sq km.

The number of the unemployed in 2002 was 292,400. In the same year the number of discharged employees formed about 64% compared to 55% in 2001 of the total unemployed work force. The number of the unemployed in 2002 increase by about 30,000 compared to the previous year.

The report noted a considerable difference in the percentage of the working force compared to the total population between Arabs and Jews, for while it is among Jews 57% it is among Arabs only 39%. Among the female working force Jews 53,8 against 17.1 among Arab women. The working force among Jews reached its peak between the ages of 35 - 44 years of age, which is 82% of the total Jewish working force, while among Arabs the peak was between the ages 25 - 34 years.

During the year 2002 the Zionist entity received 33,600 immigrants a decrease of 23% compared with 2001, (which we believe is due to the INTIFADAH) which is the lowest figure since 1990, the report also noted that the negative emigration remained constant in 2002 compared to 2000.