To set the facts straight

Submitted by Yoel Lerner (Israel), May 4, 2010 at 05:25

It is imprecise, at least, to say that Christian and Muslim Arabs had long formed a majority in what was to become Israel. Before the 1917 Balfour Declaration, the population of the land was sparse, and it was only afterwards, during the Mandate Period, when the slowly growing Jewish population began to make the land viable once again and even economically enticing, that large numbers of Arabs streamed illegally into the country from the surrounding territories. So, true, the Arabs had made up a majority, but not a large one, and certainly not for long.

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