Palestinians may soon outnumber Israeli Jews

Demographics have always played a major role in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. When Israel was proclaimed in 1948, the population of Palestine was 1.3 million Palestinian Arabs and 700,000 Jews. Israel currently has a population of 5.45 million Jews, 1.4 million citizens of Palestinian origin, and 310,000 others

This means that the Palestinian population of Israel and the occupied territories is 5.16 million, 290,000 fewer than the Jewish population. Since the Palestinian growth rate is 3 per cent and the Israeli rate of increase from births and immigration is 1.7 per cent, Palestinians could outnumber Jewish Israelis within a few years

Israel has been forced to consider that its Jewish population could become a minority in the region

Demography is also propelling his successor Ehud Olmert to negotiate a two-state solution with the Palestinian Authority which is demanding the entire West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem for the proposed state