Israeli Deputy Ambassador Jacob Doron submitted figures today to counter renewed Arab charges this week that Israel was “depopulating” the administered territories. The areas’ population has increased from 942,000 in 1968 to 977,000 in 1971 to more than a million today, Doron told the General Assembly’s Special Political Committee, which is discussing the refugee problem.
“The government of Israel,” the envoy said, “has over the last four years admitted thousands of Arabs to the administered territories for permanent residence as former displaced persons under family-reunion schemes and on an individual basis. So much for a policy of mass displacements,”
In the Assembly’s Middle East debate yesterday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed H. el-Zayyat charged that Israel was engaging in a “policy of deliberate depopulation” by “continuously” deporting Arabs “out of their country” and confiscating, expropriating or demolishing their property and crops.
Regarding the territories’ economy, Doron said today that their gross national product had almost doubled since the beginning of 1968 and that their agricultural production had tripled. Fifty thousand Arabs from the territories working in the Israeli economy earned IL 300 million in fiscal year 1971-72, Doron said.
Doron stated further that: the educational budget for the territories rose from IL 26 million in 1967-68 to IL 39 million in 1971-72; 7500 Arabs are working in the territories’ educational system and only 16 Israelis–as liaisons to the Education Ministry; the teacher total rose from 3743 in 1967 to 5682 in 1971; there are 19 vocational schools with 7000 pupils in the territories; and the health budget for the area rose from IL 5.6 million in 1967-68 to IL 15.3 million in 1970-71.
In the Gaza Strip since the beginning of 1968, Doron continued, 117 economic enterprises and 430 industrial workshops have been established and the number of workers has risen from 1500 to 5500. Regarding the West Bank, the envoy said exports’ value rose from IL 220 million in 1970 to IL 305 million this year, while imports’ value rose from IL 270 million to IL 301 million.
The total Israeli budget for the administered areas is IL 168 million, with Israeli taxpayers providing most of it and the local population only a small part, Doron said. On another point, Doron reported that since 1967, Arab terrorists have killed 239 Arabs and wounded 1300 Arabs.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
