The demographic dispute in a nutshell

This analysis of the demographics in Israel and their controlled territories was done by someone I respect. I will disclose who it is when I have his permission. I believe Ettinger’s numbers.

If one uses the Israeli population statistics for 2015 (the Israeli bureau reports new numbers every Rosh Hashana, so it hasn’t reported the 2016 numbers yet), they are:

6.3m Jews
1.75m Arabs
.35m Russian Christians from Jewish families.

Throw in the estimates of Palestinian population and you get these estimates of population in Israel-controlled territory, including the West Bank:
Della Pergola –
6.3m Jews
4.15m Arabs
.35m others
Arabs –38.4%
Jews – 58.3%

Ettinger –
6.3m Jews
3.5m Arabs
.35m others
Arabs – 34.5%
Jews – 62.1%

Finally, if you exclude areas A and B from the definition of Israeli-controlled territory, you get Jews 73.6%, Arabs 22.2%.

The figures for area C are relatively agreed upon, though wildly different numbers are reported depending on how one deals with Arab towns that straddle the areas C-B or C-A borderlines. If one includes the entirety of such population in area C (as OCHA, et al, do), you get to an area C Arab population of 300,000. If you do the opposite, and count all such borderline towns as areas A-B, the Arab population of area C is about 50,000-70,000. The estimate without these accounting tricks is 150,000 Arabs.