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May 17, 2009

Ha'aretz's AngloFile Errs on Israel's Christians

Ha'aretz's AngloFile erred on Israel's Christians Friday:

The official status of the [Christian] institution -- according to Raed Mualem, the institution's vice president -- will help Israel retain more Christians, whose presence here has drastically fallen over the past decades. (Emphasis added.)

In fact, the opposite is true -- the Christian population in Israel has drastically grown -- not fallen -- over the past decades. According to the Statistical Abstract of Israel 2008 published by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (Chart 2.2), there were 34,000 Christians in Israel in 1949; 48,300 in 1959; 73,500 in 1969; 87,600 in 1979; 107,000 in 1989; 131,800 in 1999; and 151,600 in 2007 (most recent available figure.) Thus, Israel's Christian population has grown by 345 percent since 1949.

Stay tuned for an update -- will Ha'aretz wisely set the record straight or once again stubbornly adhere to its quasi-policy not to correct straight-forward factual errors?


Posted by TS at May 17, 2009 05:29 AM

Comments

I'm not sure that Snapshots is 100% accurate in this case. Most of the recent Christian increase comes from non Jewish family members from the former Soviet Union. The figures may also include foreign Christian workers.

Arab Christians, typically better educated with transferable trades; more Western in outlook and a network of successful immigrant contacts tend to be better candidates to gain permission to immigrate to the West than Arab Muslims.

Posted by: deegee [TypeKey Profile Page] at May 26, 2009 12:02 PM

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