Is the Arab population of Judea and Samaria 2.9 million according
to Abbas or 1.8 mill according to Israeli demographers?
Media reports about the Arab struggle to retrieve the lands of
Amona has been presented by politicians and the media as part of an Arab
tradition of loyalty to their land.
Indeed,
one of the Arab claimants against the Amona community has been quoted as
saying, “If your child dies, you can make another one in his place, but land
that you sold cannot be replaced.”
And
yet, a report in the weekends Makor Rishon suggests reality on the ground in
Judea and Samaria reflects a somewhat different set of values. Local Arabs may
not be willing to sell their land, but many of them don’t live on said land
either, preferring instead to emigrate to the US.
According
to the papers reporter, Route 60, which runs from Afula, on Israel’s side of
the “green line” through Jenin, near Shechem, through Ofra and outside Ramallah
to Jerusalem and then through Gush Etzion, past Hebron all the way to Be’er
Sheva, features ghost villages on either side of the highway. The Jewish
settlers of Ofra and Amona have been wondering what has happened to neighboring
Arab villages such as Silwad, three miles from the main road and about 8 miles
north-east of Ramallah. A visitor to the village can see numerous, luxurious
villas, that are deserted.
The
reporter describes those empty homes as “white elephants.” He met in Silwad a
man in his 79s named Salah, who sat with him over a cup of coffee and revealed
that he’s been living in Puerto Rico for 52 years. Having left in 1964, before
the Israeli liberation of 1967, Salah got his BA in Puerto Rico and MA in
Tennessee, and now he is retired and living off his rental property on the
island. His children were born in the US, one is a lawyer, the other a
pharmacist, both Harvard graduates. Sadly, they’ve only visited the old country
once – but both speak Arabic.
Hamza
Awada, 21, who lives with his parents in Arizona, met the reporter in Dir
Dibwan, not far from Silwad. He is visiting to conclude a two-year wife search.
It’s an arranged marriage, and after the wedding the happy couple will move to
America. Hamza has lived in New York City and in Arizona, as well as in Jordan.
“Life here in the village is quaint, but it’s not for me.”
Hamza
describes himself as a Palestinian, not as an American, and he likes the sense
of community in the village his parents had left in their youth. He’d even like
to come back some day, maybe. But “life here is difficult,” he says. “It’s hard
to find work, make a living and earn enough to support the lifestyle I’m used
to abroad.” He plans to maintain the same ties to the old place his parents
have kept: visit every few years. He speaks Arabic with his parents at home,
but at school and elsewhere outside the home it’s all English.
According
to the report, between 80 and 90 percent of Dir Dibwan’s residents have an
American citizenship. One local resident, Muhammad Manasra, who splits his life
between the village and California, estimates the population in the two
neighboring villages at 16,000, most of them living abroad.
One of
the most common methods used to obtain a US Visa is marrying an American
citizen. In many cases, Arab wives who discover the US lifestyle after having
grown up in poverty in Judea and Samaria, refuse to go back.
Arab
immigration from Judea and Samaria has been going on for decades. Official
Palestinian Authority figures suggest there are three million Arabs living
there. In reality, the figures are much less by at least one million, according
to many experts. Since 1997, Israel is no longer operating the census there,
and the PA count does not abide by international norms, whereby a person who
has been absent for a year or more from his country is no longer counted. Israeli
demographers suggest the figure of 1.8 million Arabs in Judea and Samaria, as
opposed to the PA claim of 2.9 million.
