Jews now a 47% minority between Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River: demographer

Arnon Soffer says proportion of Jews lower than widely believed when non-citizens are taken into account.

Jewish people make up less than 47 percent of all those living west of the Jordan River, an Israeli demographer warned Tuesday, claiming that most of the Israeli population is unaware of the democratic peril the country is sliding into by possibly becoming a ruling minority in the area.

Arnon Soffer, a professor of geography at Haifa University, told Army Radio Tuesday that in addition to the Jewish and Arab populations, he reached his figures by taking into consideration the hundreds of thousands of non-Jewish people residing in Israel who are not citizens.

According to Soffer, there are 7.45 million Jews and others along with 7.53 million Arab Israelis and Palestinians living in what he termed the Land of Israel, meaning Israel plus the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

When the number of non-Israeli nationals is taken into consideration, it leaves the Jewish proportion at between 46% and 47% of the total, he claimed.

According to Israel’s official Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2021, 9.449 million people live in Israel (including Israelis in West Bank settlements).

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Jews now a 47% minority in Israel and the territories, demographer says (Times of Israel)

Photo: Nationalist Israel Jews wave Israeli flags as they march outside the Damascus Gate to Jerusalem's Old City, on June 15, 2021. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)