The root of the Israeli dilemma is that you cannot have a democratic Jewish state in which Jews are the minority.
When you complicate this with an Israeli Arab population that is growing much more quickly than the Israeli Jewish population, you have a problem.
A recent study carried out by Professor Sergio Della Pergola at Hebrew University predicted that, if current demographic growth rates continue, only 60 percent of the population of Jerusalem will be Jewish within 13 years.
Another survey suggests that Jews could make up only half of the population within 25 years.
At a special Israeli cabinet meeting May 13, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert described his plans to “advance and encourage Jerusalem,” announcing that his government will spend the equivalent of $1.43 billion over the next five years to reverse the current demographic trends.
However, the problem with maintaining the Jewish majority is that it cannot be achieved without serious discrimination against Palestinian civilians by the Israeli government.
B’Tselem, the Israeli information center for human rights in the occupied territories, describes several infringements on the rights of Palestinians living in Jerusalem.
These include discrimination in land expropriation, exclusive demolition of Palestinian homes, and preferential revocation of residency from Palestinians who are unable to prove that Jerusalem is their center of life.
Additionally, Israeli authorities have built a line of Jewish settlements that severely restrict access between East Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied West Bank. A plan has recently been proposed to build three new Jewish settlements, comprising about 20,000 homes, in East Jerusalem, but has yet to receive final approval.
Many of these policies designed to manipulate the demography of Jerusalem in favor of Jews violate international law.
East Jerusalem is considered to be occupied territory by the international community.
Jerusalem serves as a case study for the larger Israel proper.
As the Israeli Arab population is growing at a faster rate than the Jewish population, the only way for Israel to maintain its Jewish majority ““ and hence both a democracy and a Jewish state ““ is for its government to discriminate against Israeli Arabs.
A more peaceful alternative would be to acknowledge that Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories are a diverse place where people of many different ethnicities and religious faiths reside.
Although it may eventually mean abandoning Israel’s Jewish identity, celebrating religious and ethnic diversity will ultimately be the only way to avoid even greater discriminatory policies in decades to come.
Marshall is a graduate student in the department of biomathematics. He is a former Viewpoint columnist.