Sheri Oz – ‘Peace Now’ And Racist Demographics
When ‘Peace Now’ began decades ago, I was among those who thought they had the right idea. Working for peace. Who could be against that? Maybe they were not racist back then, but I think they are now.
I will show you some material from their website and what came to my mind when I saw it. Let us start with this graphic representation of the population of the so-called West Bank (Judea & Samaria) as it appears on the Peace Now website:
Now, this is what I saw in my mind’s eye:
When Peace Now refers to “settlers” versus “Palestinians” they are actually referring to Jews versus Arabs. But if they put it in those terms, it would look a bit racist, no?
Demographic Data for Judea & Samaria (aka The West Bank)
Also, they do not cite the sources of their data and when I searched the Internet I found some inconsistencies. First of all, the World Population Review gives 2014 stats of 2.8 million Arabs in J&S. They give a larger number estimated for 2018 but include eastern Jerusalem suburbs in that count. Confusing the issue, the same website has a separate page for “The West Bank” on which they claim that according to 2007 census, there were over 3.2 million people living in J&S and eastern Jerusalem; of these 85% are Muslim and 15% Jews and other religions.
According to the CIA World Factbook, there are only 2.75 million people in J&S (they seem to be including eastern Jerusalem) as of 2017, of which about 390,000 are Jews in J&S (as of 2016) and 200,000 are Jews in eastern Jerusalem (as of 2014). That would mean that over 20% are Jews.
The Palestinian Bureau of Statistics puts the 2017 population of the so-called West Bank at 3.01 million. They did not count Jews at all. We are probably added into the figures for cattle and sheep. (Sorry for that nasty comment.)
Now, perhaps a few hundred thousand people here or there do not make much of a difference to overall statistics. But reliable data would make a difference.
What if we make comparable graphics for Israel?
Times of Israel published a summary of the latest census in Israel and I filled the data into the graphic prepared by Peace Now:
This is remarkably similar to the guestimated population figures for J&S. If 15-20% of J&S is Jewish, then perhaps Peace Now be amenable to the idea of a population exchange — you know, like the Muslim-Hindu population exchange when Pakistan and Bangladesh were carved out of Indian land in order to try to get some peace and quiet in that region. Peace Now is not saying that that was immoral, so perhaps they would agree to do that in our little corner of the globe.
Unfortunately, there are two major problems with this possibility:
- Try getting the Arabs living in Israel to move voluntarily to the Palestinian Authority. I think it might turn out to be at least as violent and heartbreaking as it has been dragging Jewish families from their homes in Gaza (2005) and in J&S (since 2005). The world, and Jewish leftists, cheer the latter but I do think they would take us to The Hague over the former. Who said life is fair?!
- Seems to me that the population exchange between India and Pakistan/Bangladesh did not bring peace to the region. I have heard that the Muslims want more pieces of India than they already got. Sound familiar?
So what do you call an organization that gives those “bad Jews” over there the label “settlers,” thereby taking away both their identity and their humanity? I call it the kind of racism that is called antisemitism.
