April 2003, based on statistics released by the Israeli
Central Bureau of Statistics
The population in communities in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip
grew three times as fast as in Israel overall in 2002.
The population in Yesha grew by 5.7 percent in 2002, compared to
an overall population growth of 1.9 percent in Israel.
This 5.7 percent growth in Yesha for 2002
is up from its 5 percent level in the previous year.
See chart below for relative growth in 2000-2002.
Of the twelve Israeli municipalities to shrink in population size in 2002,
only one is located in Yesha (Emanuel).
Five Yesha communities grew at below average rates:
Elkana (0.3%),
Oranit (0.9%).
Karnei Shomron (1.2%),
Kiryat Arba (1.6%),
Givat Zeev (1.8%),
Despite the on-going war of terror, however, the overriding majority
of towns in Yesha (70%) experienced
population growth above the national average!
In order of percent growth, they are:
- Ofra (2.3%)
- Kedumim (2.4%)
- Beit Arye (2.5%)
- Ariel (2.5%)
- Maaleh Adumim (2.9%)
- Shaarei Tikva (3.5%)
- Neve Dekalim (3.9%)
- Alfei Menashe (4.2%)
- Efrata (4.4%)
- Alon Shvut (4.8%)
- Beit El (5.7%)
- Modiin Illit (Kiryat Sefer) (14.3%)
- Beitar Illit (16.3%)
- Kochav Yaakov (33.4%)
Among the top four fastest growing municipalities in Israel, only one is
not located in Yesha. Communities in Yesha placed 2nd, 3rd, and 4th!
By: Gil Sedan
JERUSALEM, April 30, 2002 (JTA)
Thirty-four years after the first Israeli settlement was established in
Hebron, the Jewish settlement network in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
continues to grow.
As of February, 2002, the settler population was estimated at 230,000, having
approximately doubled in the past decade. The figures were confirmed by both
the left-wing Peace Now movement and the settler´s Yesha Council.
In the West Bank, 206,000 Israelis live in 130 settlements. In the Gaza Strip,
6,400 Jews live in 16 settlements. ...
These figures do not include some 170,000 Jews living in Jewish neighborhoods
in eastern Jerusalem. These territories also were annexed to Israel after the
Six-Day War, but some Palestinians consider residents there as settlers.
Roughly half of the settlers live in large population areas such as Ariel
(population 15,600) in the northern West Bank, Ma´aleh Adumim (24,900) and the
group of settlements known as the Etzion bloc near Jerusalem, and Kiryat Arba
(6,380) near Hebron.
Almost, all Israeli governments, Labor and Likud alike, have built settlements
since 1967. In some cases, the settlements constituted a return to land that
was owned by Jews until Arabs killed or exiled the Jewish residents, as in
Hebron in the 1929 riots or Gush Etzion in the 1948 War of Independence.
...
Figures released last year by the Central Bureau of Statistics showed a sharp
decrease in the annual growth rate of Jewish settlers to 4.4 percent last
year, compared to an average of 8 percent in each of the five preceding years.
According to the CBS, the net increase of settlers was only 2,500, compared to
5,000 to 7,000 in each of the 10 preceding years.
According to the Yesha Council of Jewish settlements, however, only 3,000
settlers - comprising roughly 1.4 percent of the settler population - left the
settlements during 2001, despite the massive wave of terror the Palestinians
have directed at settlers since the intifada began in September 2000.
This exodus was more than offset by natural increase and an influx of new
residents, enabling the settler population to grow at a rate of 5 percent
during this time, according to Yesha figures.
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