The data cited this week in the Knesset by a top Israeli official would hardly have generated the storm it did were it not for the push by the Israeli right, mainly the HaBayit HaYehudi party, to annex West Bank lands and thwart the two-state solution.
At the March 26 session of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Col. Uri Mendes reported that according to official data compiled by the Palestinian Authority (PA), some 5 million Palestinians are registered in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Mendes is the deputy commander of the Israeli Civil Administration, tasked with administering the daily life of Palestinians in the areas under Israeli control. The figures he cited, along with the number of Israeli Arab citizens and Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, some 1.8 million according to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, bring the total to 6.8 million Arabs living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. Israel’s Jewish population numbers slightly over 6.5 million.