Len, one day, Zyklon might help solve Israel's "demographic problem"....
Monday, September 09, 2002
Wombs in the service of the state
By Gideon Levy
haaretzdaily.com
Excerpt:
In the early 1970s, the Gafni Commission, an interministerial body with task of "examining the rate of development in Jerusalem," was established. Its recommendations, which were submitted in August 1973, stated: "The ratio of Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem must be preserved" - the ratio at the time was 73.5 percent Jews and 26.5 percent Arabs. Since then, Israeli governments have invested great efforts to implement that recommendation - innumerable new neighborhoods have been built for Jews only, while the lives of the city's Palestinian residents are turned into a living hell. They are stripped of residency rights, their homes are demolished, they are denied construction permits, they receive meager services and master plans for their part of the city are not approved. The aim of all this is to push them out of the city and maintain the sacred balance. The result? Twenty-nine years after the Gafni Commission turned in its report, the Palestinian minority in Jerusalem has increased to 32.5 percent. The conclusion? Either a population transfer or the end of the occupation in Jerusalem. No commission is needed to conclude that.
Israel is a binational, multicultural state, and it is high time we recognized that fact. The only way to cope with it is to become a society that is more just. The only legitimate way to preserve the Jewish majority, for those to whom that goal is of overriding importance, is to end the occupation and perhaps also step up immigration. Defining the Arab citizens of Israel as a "demographic problem" raises harsh memories and sends them a highly offensive message.
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