Demographic Balance
By But he [Avigdor Lieberman] also had a formulation that I haven’t seen before:
First of all, we really don’t have any intention to change the demographic balance in Judea and Samaria.
Couple things there. First, “Judea and Samaria” are the biblical names for the West Bank, and are typically used by irredentist Jews as a subtle but agressive way of saying “this land is ours and we’re not giving it up,” in the same way that calling Jerusalem “al-Quds” is a way for Arabs to stake their own claim not to give up on controlling the city. Second, emphasizing the “demographic balance” of the West Bank — let’s see if the Israelis stick with that. It would appear at first blush to be a way of shifting the conversation away from the actual Palestinian land controlled by Israel and onto the people who inhabit that land. That would be a handy, if transparent, way of moving away from the terms of the Road Map.
But what could it really mean? In arguing against a settlement freeze, Lieberman made a point of saying ” in every place around the world, baby are born (inaudible), people get married, some pass away.” Uh, sure, and all of that changes the “demographic balance,” particularly as the same holds true for the Palestinians of the West Bank.
Far be it from me to question the honesty and ethics of Avigdor Lieberman, especially on the settlements issue, but can’t “demographic balance” mean a lot of different things? I can easily imagine how an intent to maintain the demographic balance (which is a slightly different wording, but I think is close enough) could justify increased Jewish settlement in the West Bank. I don’t have the statistics at hand, and thus could be quite wrong about this, but I think that even given the relatively high birth rates of Jews in West Bank settlements that the “natural increase” is slower than that of the Palestinian population. If it’s Lieberman’s intention to peg a particular demographic balance (and I think that his phrasing bears this interpretation, while not mandating it), then the settling of Jews within the West Bank would be necessary. The rhetorical framing of “demographic balance” could thus be cover for increased settlement activity.