The Israeli Law of Return and Nationality

“An emigrant is a Jew who leaves Israel for any reason and does not return for at least one visit within 4 years”- Israeli Government’s definition of an emigrant, according to the New York Times.

The Israeli government’s statistical manipulation, whereby most Israeli emigrants are counted as still present in Israel is one of the many myths and distortions they try to create as fact. The above definition also exposes the blatant racism of the illegitimate state of Israel.

No matter how Israel tries to distort facts, the “facts on the ground” written in Palestine suggests that in the year 2050, the whole of occupied Palestine will be 80% Palestinian and 20% Jewish.

This is because of a startling contrast in Palestinian Arab and Jewish growth rates. Statistics from the population of Washington D.C. Reference bureau show Israel’s Jewish population doubling in 45 years – that of the West Bank in 21 years and that of Gaza in 15 years. No figures are given for Palestinians inside “Israel”, but in keeping with the Palestinian tradition of big families, they would roughly match that of the West Bank.

Of  a claimed population of 6 million in occupied Palestine, the Israeli government admits that 1.1 million are Palestinians. That means that there are 5 million Jews in Israel. But as of 1980, according to the Jewish Agency, 500 000 of these were settled in the U.S. So this half-a-million might be subtracted from Israel’s 5 million Jewish citizens. That would leave Israel’s current Jewish population to 4.5 million.

This can’t be officially verified because Israel’s own population information is uniquely (and purposely) uninformative. The figures are classified as a state secret, so no statistics are available at all on emigration.

One of the last published numbers on emigration was a 1975 Associated Press item quoted above, saying that 20 000 emigrated from Israel the previous year.

Using that sole figure, no one can prove that the figure of 20 000 Israeli emigrants to the U.S. has decreased. Therefore if ONLY 20 000 Israeli’s settled, half-a-million can be subtracted from the 4.5 million Jews in Israel. This leaves a population of 4 million Jews in occupied Palestine. This barely exceeds the 3.5 million Palestinians- 1.4 million in the West Bank, 1 million in Gaza and 1.1 million in Israel- proper.

Is it a wonder why the 5 million Palestinian refugees are not even considered in any of the peace accords? If this happens, the Palestinians will be in the majority! It is also a fact that only a Jew from any part of the world gets automatic citizenship to Israel, whereas the Palestinians to whom the land belongs, are languishing in refugee camps or are herded into hell-holes and ghetto’s on pieces of land called the Palestinian state (Palestans akin to Bantustans).

It is for the above reasons that Israel is an illegitimate state, which needs to be brought to terms, like the Apartheid regime.

The world must demand that the Zionist occupiers allow the return of all Palestinian refugees, do away with all borders within the whole of occupied Palestine and have a free and fair election. Anything less would be unjust, and there can be no peace without justice.

(Mr. Firoz Osman is Secretary of the Media Review Network, which is an advocacy group based in Pretoria, South Africa.)