Israeli Media: Settlers in the West Bank deliver a population boom

Tuesday August 14, 2007 12:46 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News & Agencies

An Israeli news website issued a reported on Tuesday stating that the population growth rate of illegal Israeli settlers is twice that of those in Israel.

Israeli settlers in the West Bank - file 2007

According to the online daily Haaretz, ultra-Orthodox setters hold responsibility for half of this annual growth.

The news paper has based the report on figures issued by the Israeli ministry of interior for the year of 2006.

Those ministry numbers show that in the last year, the illegal settlers' population has grown by 5.45 percent, from 260,932 to 275,156. However, when the growth of the ultra-Orthodox setters is excluded the growth rate, it stands at 3.7%.

40,000 ultra-Orthodox setters are living in the illegal settlement of Mode'em Ilit, located near the occupied West Bank city of Jerusalem; this settlement scored the highest population growth per year, at 12.5%.

The second highest was the settlement of Beitar Ilit's, home to 35,000 illegal ultra-Orthodox setters; this settlement scored 10% growth rate per year.

In 10 to 15 years the Israeli ministry of interior predicts that Betar Ilit's settlement population may consist of some 100,000 residents. Currently the settlement has 5,828 occupied housing units, while another 1,102 units are under construction. 5,800 others are being planned. Modi'in Ilit is expected to reach 150,000 setters in the coming years.

According to the International law and Geneva conventions, all West Bank settlements and those surrounding Jerusalem are illegal. The Israeli government is in the process of building an illegal wall to annex those settlements to Israel, meaning that 54% of the West Bank will be annexed to Israeli.

The settlements in the West Bank were built and continue to be built on lands that illegally annexed from Palestinian owners.

west bank | israeli settlement | news report ghassanb at imemc dot org