According to a new study tracking Jewish population growth in Israel, the number of Jews living in Yehuda and Shomron has increased by 23 percent during the past five years to a population of 420,899.
The population figures, according to the study’s organizers, eliminate the possibility of effectively implementing a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“We are talking about a situation that is unchangeable. It’s very important to know the numbers, and the numbers are growing,” Yaakov Katz, a prominent figure among the communities in Judea and Samaria, said Sunday while presenting the new population data, The Associated Press reported.
He added, “Whatever [German Chancellor] Angela Merkel or [President Donald] Trump or anybody else is thinking about, it (the two-state solution) belongs to the past, not to the future.”
The statistics—which were compiled using data from Israel’s Interior Ministry that has not yet been made public—do not include an additional 300,000 Jews living in eastern Jerusalem.
The left-wing Israeli NGO Peace Now said the newly compiled population figures “appeared reasonable.” JNS.ORG
{Matzav.com Israel}
