Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Test your knowledge

Of Middle Eastern politics:

16. Israel has often been accused of “ethnic cleansing” of the Arabs in the “occupied territories”. The demography bears this out, because the Arab population of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza has:
a) plummeted from 6,500,000 in 1967 to 3,000,000 in 2009;
b) plummeted from an estimated 5,000,000 in 1967 to less than 2,000,000 in 2009;
c) remained steady at 3,000,000, despite huge natural growth in the rest of the world;
d) increased at one tenth of the pace of natural population growth;
e) increased from about 750,000 in 1967 to an estimated 3,700,000 in 2009, a population growth of nearly 500% in barely more than a generation, which is one of the highest rates of increase anywhere in the world.

17. Israel has also been accused of “ethnic cleansing” of Arabs who are citizens of the state, and deliberately enforcing policies designed to keep the Arab population small. This, too, is shown by the demography, in that the Israeli Arab population has:
a) dropped from slightly over 1,000,000 (40% of the overall population) in 1948 to 750,000 (20% of the population) in 2009;
b) remained at a steady 1,000,000 from 1948 to 2009, while the overall population has increased seven-fold;
c) increased from 500,000 in 1948 to 1,000,000 in 2009, representing a drop from 35% of the overall population to just 12% in 58 years;
d) decreased steadily by 2% per year from 1948 onwards;
e) increased from 150,000 (15% of the overall population) in 1948 to about 1,420,000 (22% of the overall population) in 2009.
Via Snoopy.

2 comments:

Minnie said...

Just as I was beginning to pat myself on the bag (swot!), I saw the final sentence: am now officially 'right wing' - and quite possibly a 'fascist' and Zionist to boot. Well, the latter certainly (with reasonable reservations); but the rest of it ... nooo. Before I go off to lie down in a darkened room, just wish to add: great blog, + glad to see you flagging the issue of Seismic Shock vs Rev Sizer.

Minnie said...

Er, 'bag'? Freudian slip? And who cares, anyway - of course, I meant BACK (must now type 'back' out x 100 before much-needed lie-down - damn!).