Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, or religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making the society ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal such as deportation or population transfer, it also includes indirect methods aimed at forced migration by coercing the victim group to flee and preventing its return, such as murder, rape, and property destruction.
An example of this occurred after May 1948, when the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan occupied Samaria / Judea, and the western part of Jerusalem; their “winnings” in the Israel/Arab War of 1948. Jordan proceeded to bulldoze whole villages, farms, moshavim and kibbutzim (some of which had existed since the mid 1800’s); destroy synagogues and all Jewish infrastructure. They wanted to erase the Jewish presence from that territory. They succeeded.
Is this what Israel is doing today, particularly in Samaria/Judea (aka “the West Bank”)? That’s how it looks to a lot of people, with Jewish settlements growing by leaps and bounds throughout that the region. If this is true, if Israel is committing ethnic cleansing, a noticeable change in the Arabic population should be obvious. Let’s see:
1947 Mandate for Palestine Population:
Arab (Christian and Moslem): 1.8 million
Jewish: 630,000
2024 Israel Population (excludes Gaza):
Arab (Christian and Moslem): 2.1 million
Jewish: 7.7 million
It looks like the Arab population of Israel has increased by almost half! Either ethnic cleansing by Israel is either just an outright lie, or they are really, really bad at it.
What I personally find more interesting it the change in population in Bethlehem, the city Jesus was allegedly born in. Every Christmas Bethlehem becomes the worlds biggest tourist attraction, bringing in Christians from all over the planet. When I lived in Israel in 1974, there was a significant Arab Christian population there, as one would expect:
1974 Population of Bethlehem:
Christian: 24,000
Muslim: 6,000
and now:
2024 Population of Bethlehem:
Christian: 2,800
Muslim: 22,872
Here’s your ethnic cleansing, but it’s not being perpetrated by Israel against Palestinians. No, it’s the policy of Islamic extremists against Christians. https://honestreporting.com/history-repeating-itself-as-bethlehems-christians-face-extinction/
