Talk:Israel/Israel and the Occupied Territories-1

Israel and the Occupied Territories
I do not believe this article should cite the number of Israelis living the West Bank and those in Gaza who "lead lives similar to other Jewish Israelis" without mentioning that 3.2 million Palestinians (this number is exaggerated, there are a bit more then 2 million) also live in the West Bank and Gaza - even though they are not Israeli citizens and even though the Occupied Territories are not legally part of Israel. You can't have it both ways. Either erase mention of Israelis living in the OT or include mention of the Palestinians living in the OT. This gross editorial bias is emblematic of Zionist efforts to negate and erase the existence of Palestinians since the establishment of the Jewish state. Alberuni 00:35, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)


 * The demographics of Israel include Israeli citizens living in the territories. Since the Palestinians are not Israeli citizens (nor do they want to be), nor are they living in Israel, they are not part of Israeli demographics, but rather part of Palestinian demographics.  It is in articles like West Bank etc. that you will find the relevant figures.  Including them in Israeli population figures is itself an act of imperialism; regardless, the article is about Israel and Israeli demographics.  Please do not turn these pages into a venue for promoting political agendas. Jayjg 01:04, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * If the logic of including Israelis in the OT has nothing to do with the Israeli occupation of the OT then why don't you include the numbers of Israelis living in the USA, Europe, Asia, Africa, etc? Please do not begin your ad hominem attacks by accusing me (or others with whom you disagree) of turning these pages into a venue for promoting political agendas. I won't return the charges although it is quite clear that you suffer severe biases and a conceited arrogance that you need to check at the door. You are not an objective arbiter of objectivity. Your brand of extremism is easily recognized. You are POV incarnate. Alberuni 01:22, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Israelis living in USA, Europe, etc. do not pay Israeli taxes, serve in Israel's army, work in its cities, receive Israeli government services etc. Israelis living in the territories do.  For that matter, there are hundreds of thousands of non-Israeli citizens (foreign nationals, guest workers, etc.) living in Israel who are not mentioned in the demographics section either.  As for the rest, your comment made it clear that you wanted to make a political point by including the information about the Palestinians, in that you wanted to counteract "Zionist efforts to negate and erase the existence of Palestinians since the establishment of the Jewish state".  Whatever wrongs you think have been done Palestinians by "Zionists", inserting irrelevant material in Wikipedia pages is not the way to right those wrongs. Jayjg 01:33, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Palestinians also pay taxes into Israeli coffers, work in its cities, receive Israeli government services, are subject to Israeli military courts, etc. BTW, Israelis living in the USA do serve in the Israeli military. Your arguments against recognizing the presence of Palestinians in the OT, unsurprisingly, do not hold water. If there are "hundreds of thousands" (~10% of the population? doubtful) of foreign workers in Israel, that should be mentioned. Whatever wrongs you think have been done to the "Jewish nation," spewing Zionist propaganda throughout Wikipedia pages only serves to perpetuate negative stereotypes about the "Jews". You should heed your own advice - although I doubt you (plural) have the ability to perceive your arrogance and deep bias. And so the conflict continues. Alberuni 01:54, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Since the Oslo accords the vast majority of Palestinians are under Palestinian administration, not Israeli. They do not fall under Israeli civil administration since, as you yourself have pointed out, they are not Israeli citizens. A brief perusal of demographics sections in other articles on nations shows that they do not discuss the demographics of non-citizens; this appears to be the Wikipedia standard. Regarding your next claim, of course I "recognize the presence of Palestinians" in the territories; how could I not? However, their demographics are discussed in the relevant articles, those of the territories themselves. The point of this section in the article is not "recognition" of Palestinians, but a description of the demographics of Israelis; this is exactly what I meant when I objected to the injecting a political agenda into a section which does not warrant it. Regarding the number of foreign workers in Israel, at the end of 1995, the ICBS counted a total (legal and illegal) of 120,000 foreign workers. The State Comptroller's Office placed the total number at 172,000. The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs estimated the total to be 190,000. Unofficial sources put the total at 250,000 (then), and the number is estimated at well over 300,000 today. In 2003 alone Israel deported 50,000 illegal foreign workers, and foreign workers are currently estimated to comprise around 6% of the Israeli workforce (your 10% number was a little high). This does not include tens of thousands of other foreign nationals who work in Israel as embassy staff, U.N. staff, NGO staff, volunteers, etc. In closing, I strongly recommend avoiding ad hominem comments, and I am baffled as to why you refer to me as "pural". Jayjg 02:30, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I think you are injecting a grossly biased political agenda in this section by stubbornly maintaining a description of 7500 extremist settlers living in militarily occupied Gaza surrounded by 1.2 million disenfranchised (and unmentioned) Palestinian refugees as "leading lives similar to other Jewish Israelis". Perhaps there's more ironic and symbolic truth to that description than you recognize. Alberuni 02:54, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

That's not my text, so I haven't "injected" a "a grossly biased political agenda" into anything. This is an accusation that you and HistoryBuffEr have continuously and erroneously made; that by defending a text written mostly by others, a text that has been arrived at by lengthy and sometimes painful negotiation, I have somehow become the creator of that text, and therefore responsible for injecting "bias" into the article. In addition, I'm not particularly wedded to that specific wording, but note that you did not attempt to modify the sentence in question, but rather added all sorts of other irrelevant information. In any event, why do you think it is inaccurate? Also, you haven't answered my question; in what way am I "plural"? Jayjg 03:07, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)


 * Oh, also, in what way do Israelis living in the USA "serve in the Israeli military"? Jayjg 03:12, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)


 * I'm not completely sure, but I believe Israeli citizens living in the USA are expected to report for military service at age 18, and if they don't, they are looked down upon somehow when they go back to Israel. This may only apply to citizens born in Israel. Can anyone confirm this? Sycocowz 00:48, Oct 22, 2004 (UTC)


 * Yes. As I already mentioned bellow, they do not serve while overseas. In answer to your question: if they return to Israel they are expected to serve their term. This applies to all Israeli citizens. El_C

They do not. Also, S/he said plural not "pural," which I understood to mean 'generic you' or something to that effect. At any rate, these comments are totally inappropriate, I urge Alebruni to cease from such rhetorical exclamations &mdash; what is the point anyway, these innuendoes only take away from his or her argument. I do not object to the number of Palestinians being mentioned. The Occupied Territories are in the news enough (compared to, let say, Western Sahara), so it may be beneficial to have the Palestinian inhabitants of The Territories noted 'precisely' in the Israel article &mdash; at the same time, I do not see it as essential since it is, as mentioned, only a click away. I do, however, see a different cannot have it both ways problematic: if we mention the 7500 Israelis living -outside the country- in the Gaza Strip, for example, why not mention the (appreciable) number of Israelis who live in the United States, et cetera. True, it is contiguous and militarily occupied, but it is also outside Israeli territory. Finally, that They are subject to Israeli law and lead lives similar to other Jewish Israelis line is silliness, at best. I am in favour of it being deleted. El_C


 * I'll just briefly re-iterate; the Israelis living in the territories are different from Israelis living in the United States because "Israelis living in USA, Europe, etc. do not pay Israeli taxes, serve in Israel's army, work in its cities, receive Israeli government services etc. Israelis living in the territories do."  As for the line about "lives similar etc.", as I said earlier, I'm not wedded to it either, but I would have liked to hear a rational explanation for re-wording or removing it. Jayjg 03:49, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)


 * Oh, and regarding "pural", that was my typo, I understood the word was actually "plural" (as my subsequent comment shows). However, I think Alberuni meant something entirely different by it than what you assume.  Regardless, only Alberuni can explain what he/she meant by it. Jayjg 06:02, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Oh? Do fill me in, please. Back to your preceding message, fair enough (especially the taxes), but there are Israelis living abroad who do recieve Israeli government services, I know some in-person &mdash; granted, not to the same extent as those in The Territories, but (and this leads me towards the 'lead similar lives' line) the latter also recieve government services which are very different from the average Israeli (very costly, highly specialized security expenses, for example). Israelis in the Territories do not lead similar lives as the average Israeli, they lead very different lives by virtue of living in the midst of and surrounded by a much larger hostile population. We can go into details into how the lives of the average Israeli in The Territories differ (dramatically) from that of the average Israeli in Israel, but it should be clearly evident upon an even cursory examination, I would think (at any rate, I could get into details if needs be). At the event, it remains silly at the best, and intellectually dishonest and even propagandist, at worse. To reiterate, I find it to be an inappropriate closing sentence for that section specifically, and a highly questionable (I argue, incorrect) claim, in general. El_C


 * Very well. What would you like me to fill you in about, what I think "plural" actually meant? Jayjg 14:40, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)


 * Yes, that. Thanks for deleting that problematic line, Jayjg, the Demographics section reads much better now. I would value any thoughts you may have on some of the other issues I raised above. El_C


 * "Plural" refers to people who do not act on their own, but rather as a part of a unified conspiracy. Are there any other outstanding issues on the page as you see it? Jayjg 03:34, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)


 * That is how I read it as well, it just sounded odd at the time since, in addition to the aforementioned contributor, it was only the two of us engaged in that particular discussion. No outstanding issues that I can immediately think of. I'll let you know if any come to mind. Thanks. Note: I archived this talk page rather unselectively (chronologically), I invite other contributers to create more refined archive page(s). El_C

Would it be possible to put the country profile and some of the other boxes in ? The Hebrew and Arabic characters in them makes it hard for me to edit without accidentally destroying those characters. Palestine-info 14:50, 13 Oct 2004 (UTC)


 * I'm reverting your edits. Proper procedure before making such widespread edits on a contentious article is to first propose the amendments on this talk page, and then consensus can be reached. The current wording in the article has been reached after many, many discussions in here. So first propose the changes you wish to make here, before making them on the article, please. Impi 14:57, 13 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Fine.