The Palestinian Authority is gearing up for its first census in a decade, hoping the results will help Palestinian negotiators make their case in future peace talks with Israel. Demographics play a central role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Rapid Palestinian growth would bolster Palestinian territorial demands in future peace talks, while Israelis' fear of being outnumbered in areas they now control might make them more willing to consider a West Bank withdrawal.
Later this week, some 5,000 census-takers will fan out across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, first to count buildings, and in December, to count people. Results are expected by February. The first Palestinian census, conducted in 1997, counted 2.89 million Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, the territories Israel captured in the 1967 Six Day War. According to estimates by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the figure now stands at 3.9 million.
Some Israeli critics have dismissed the 1997 figures and the current projections as inflated, a charge denied by Palestinian census officials, who say the counts are being conducted under international scrutiny. In December 2006, Israel's population included 5.4 million Jews, 1.4 million Arabs and 310,000 others, according to Israeli government figures. The census will cost $8.6 million (€6.34 million) cost, with the Palestinian Authority paying 20 percent. The rest comes from a UN agency, Saudi Arabia, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the Netherlands and OPEC, census officials said.
No word whether the PA will include ISM supporters, settlers or the dead in the finally Pally head count. I can't wait to see how many lean-tos get counted as buildings.
No comments:
Post a Comment