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Anti-Israel activists often make accusations of “ethnic cleansing,” despite the fact that the Arab population in Jerusalem continues to grow.
By Yakir Benzion, United With Israel
A new study released Wednesday by the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research shows that since 2000 there has been a 10% increase in the proportion of the Arab population in Jerusalem, destroying anti-Israel claims that Israel is somehow “Judaizing” or “ethnically cleansing” the city.
The new report was published ahead of Jerusalem Day, June 10, which commemorates the reunification of the city in 1967. The data shows that the city’s population at the end of 2020 numbered more than 950,000 residents – of whom 38% were Arabs, up from around 34% in 2010.
The numbers totally discredit anti-Israel propagandists who parrot the Palestinian claim that Arabs in Jerusalem are being pushed aside and “ethnically cleansed.” The reality is that under Israeli control the Arab population of the capital city has grown to the highest number in history.
Surprisingly, despite the Palestinian propaganda pushed by PA leaders and their supporters that Israel is chasing Arabs out of the city, the Palestinian Authority’s own office of statistics confirms the Israeli numbers.
The Palestine Central Bureau of Statics in Ramallah (PCBS) reported that in 2010 there were 385,669 Arabs in Jerusalem, and the latest PCBS report said the estimated population in Jerusalem for December, 2020 is 466,750 – amounting to a whopping 21% overall increase in the past decade.
Although tourism, normally a huge factor in the local economy, has been stagnant due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research report showed there was good news in other areas:
– Israel’s capital has the largest and most diverse education system in the country, with 293,600 students, numerically exceeding the entire population of Haifa.
– Jerusalem has the second-largest economy in Israel, with 344,300 employed persons, who account for 9% of the total in Israel (Tel Aviv has 11%). In Jerusalem’s hi-tech sector, which includes American tech giants like Intel and Cisoc, the annual trend of growing numbers of employees continues for the fifth year in a row.
– In higher education, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has the highest rate of increase in the number of students and remains the university with the largest number of doctoral students at 2,300, with 13% of the student body being Arabs.
Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin received a copy of the study, commenting that it “convey[s] a true picture of what transpires in Jerusalem.”
“The Statistical Yearbook contains important information pertaining to all of Jerusalem’s strata, all its neighborhoods – east and west, old and new, religious and secular, Jewish and Arab,” said Rivlin. “Jerusalem’s future is also the future of the State of Israel. Jerusalem is a microcosm of our existence here.
“Despite all the complexities, Jerusalem embodies the solution. It is in fact here, in the city that comprises the full range of Israel’s demography in all its richness, that we need to find a way to create a dialogue, to connect, to cooperate,” Rivlin said.
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