T. Belman. David Horovitz, the Editor of TOI, just wrote this editorial. Don’t mess with the Law of Return. The Right would like to remove the grandfather clause so only Halachic Jews have the right of return. What’s at stake is whether we let gentiles increase in number. No one mentions that Israel is heading for “extreme over-population… in the Jewish sector of the population!” For this reason alone , Israel should remove the grandfather clause.
“Israel will have the highest population density in the Western world.” May 2017
Warnings of a demographic threat have been periodically issued in Israel in recent years. This time, however, the concerns are not of the risk of an Arab majority but rather, of extreme over-population… in the Jewish sector of the population!
The demographer, Yakov Faitelson has conducted a study which refutes these fears. Here are the main findings:
- The changes in the Jewish population’s overall fertility in the State of Israel have been characterized by an interesting phenomenon. Although the overall rate of fertility among Haredim has declined during the last 15 years, the overall Jewish fertility rate has increased. This can be explained by a rise in overall fertility among secular Jews. As of 2016, the official rate of overall Jewish fertility stood at 3.16 children per woman, compared to 2.53 in 2001.
- Since 1960, there has been an increase in the ratio between the population aged 65 and upwards and that of working age (15-64), both in Israel and in the other member countries of the OECD.
The significance of this change is a growth of the aging population in relation to the productive population. - From 2020, this ratio in Israel is expected to be the lowest of all OECD member countries.
- Israel’s population is younger than that of most OECD member countries. According to the organization’s official forecast, Israel is expected to have the largest population in the 20-34 age group of all OECD member countries by 2050.
- Continued growth in the overall fertility in Israel will indeed lead to an increase in population density, an increase that can nevertheless be combatted with prudent policy capable of encompassing the growing population.
- The study reveals that it is specifically those densely populated cities that frequently possess high standards of living. For example, Bnei Brak – Israel’s most densely populated city – is in fourth place in standard of living while Beersheba, the city with the lowest level of population density, is graded in only 12th place (of Israel’s 14 largest cities).
- In recent years, Israel is in 19th place in the HDI (Human Development Index) after countries with a much higher population density – Singapore (in 6th place) and South Korea (18th).
- Furthermore, a rapid growth in the population can lead to economic growth as demonstrated by countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore, and others.
- The best response to population density is prudent policy that invests in development of infrastructure and technologies aimed at the efficient running of crowded cities.
- The growth in the population of the Jewish state will not continue unabated and, like the world’s other countries, Israel too will reach a stage of sustainable equilibrium at which the size of the population will gradually adjust itself to the ecological niche’s capability to supply the population’s physical needs.
- Until then, it can be expected with a reasonable degree of certainty that Israel may benefit from its increased population and resultant economic growth.
This was the argument of the British during the Mandate – the land has no capacity to withstand the Jewish population growth but we need WORKERS! Let’s bring in more Arabs!
And they DID while locking the Jews out of Palestine for the Germans to kill them off.
Now the Jews (in Israel yet) are repeating the same argument!
Ayelet Shaked said that Israel needs to bring in Moroccans(!?)
because there is a shortage of labor, thousands of the PA Arabs work in Israel – yet the Ukrainian “immigrants” (Israel pointedly avoids calling them “olim”) can’t find jobs or ulpanim!
The answer to this so-called “overpopulation” is increased construction all over the country and population and construction growth in Judea and Samaria and through aliyah (“facts on the ground”, anyone?).
For some reason, Israel pays a lot more attention to restricting aliyah than to the 4 million strong Arab 5th column for whom there is always enough space and money.
@Jonathan Haven’t you heard? Because that goes against Jewish values. 😀
(Whatever that means.)
@Frank Adams
I have a different point of view with regards to squeezing the Arabs out of J&S. I would suggest that the the transfer of social welfare, free education and free healthcare from Israel to somewhere else, such as Jordan, would actually wick away a good many of the Pals from Judea and Samaria. It is the foundational keystroke of the Jordan Option and is entirely based on Economics 101, as you say. It is also not the only string pulling the Pals out of J&S, as they would receive free housing, a productive job in a growing economy, living outside of a war zone under better management,… things such as these. Of course, even these incentives will not draw off all the Pals in one go, but the positive reports coming from those who go, which will be reported back to those who remain, will add to the pressure of leading those who remain to go as well – a bit of Psychology 101.
However, if we respond by improving education and development for the Arabs in J&S, they will none of them leave. In truth, I don’t want to diminish their fertility rate, I just want them to leave. Let them be as fertile as they care elsewhere, and Jordan will be a good spot to raise a family far from harm, amid a growing economy, but whatever fate they choose for their reproductive lives, let them choose it outside of our ancestral lands. This is the point of the Jordan Option, and I believe it is a better one to choose over providing the Arabs with education and development in J&S.
As you astutely note, water only flows downhill, so providing the Arabs with the means to thrive where they are will only serve to solidify the gains they have right now, which is the last thing we should choose to enable – the very last thing I would suggest.
Overpopulation, globally, is threatening everyone’s future.
First it is Economics 101 that labour moves towards investment and does NOT leave prosperous areas unless forcibly expelled. Herzl was brilliant at a lot but NOT economics and he already suggested paying the local Arabs to go elsewhere BUT that does NOT work Jonathan.
Civilians run away from open warfare as did the Poles in 1915, the French from Paris in 1940 and the Arab immigrants to British Palestine in 1948. Many of them were Egyptians who had arrived as British military labourers in both World Wars and then sent for their brides. In 1948 they tried to “go home” to Egypt BUT “Farouq the Crook” as the Tommies dubbed him, had his provost (MP’s/snowdrops) close the frontier to his own (!) people to cause a political weeping sore. This is why a third of Gazans are named Misri/Masri and another third have Hijazi and Yamani toponyms for surnames.
The only way to squeeze the Arabs of Judea and Samaria is – strange to say -education and development because urban educated women cut their fertility as has happened. Then the politcal incompetence of the PA will encourage them to emigrate elsewhere eg EU and the Americas – as has already happened in part.
Good idea, Jonathan. I hope the Israeli government does declare sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. And as you rightly say, G-d has shown that the Jews must act in their own interests to keep the land that He gave them. As for the grandfather clause, it’s my understanding that it stems from the fact that the Nuremberg laws of Hitler’s time said that those with a Jewish grandfather could be sent to the concentration camps, hence Israel embodied the right in law that such people could emigrate to Israel. I had a Jewish grandfather myself, and have always been grateful to that law, because antisemitism is becoming so rife in Europe now that it may be I would need that protection myself some day. But the grandfather clause should have the addition that people making aliyah under its provision should be expected to convert to Judaism if they decide to stay.
God has led the way in the Torah in showing us that Jews must do whatever is necessary to protect themselves from evil and to act strongly in their own interests.
If Israel is going to be overpopulated why isn’t it declaring that Judea and Samaria is an integral part of Jewish Israel and encourage the unsatisfied Arabs to leave the country to settle in Jordan. Jordan is free to kill as many of them as they like without criticism.