Pro Palestinians like to believe that the increase in the Arab population during the Mandate period was attributed to the fact that birth ratios were much higher than death ratios. I am not saying that these ratios did not contribute to the increase of Arabs in the region, but they are FAR from being the only, or even the biggest contributing factor to the increase of Arabs.
We've all heard how Arabs flocked to the region to take advantage of better wages and improved living conditions that the Jews in the region made possible. Pro Palestinians do not want to believe this, but it's absolutely true.
Here is an excellent article explaining in great detail (using graphs as well) why many Arabs from surrounding countries migrated to Mandatory Palestine. Please red the whole article.
Here are some key parts:
Evidence for Arab Migration
There are several problems associated with estimating Arab immigration into Palestine during the 1920s, the principal one being that Arab migration flows were, in the main, illegal, and therefore unreported and unrecorded.[17] But they were not entirely unnoticed.
Demographer U.O. Schmelz's analysis of the Ottoman registration data for 1905 populations of Jerusalem and Hebron kazas (Ottoman districts), by place of birth, showed that of those Arab Palestinians born outside their localities of residence, approximately half represented intra-Palestine movement—from areas of low-level economic activity to areas of higher-level activity—while the other half represented Arab immigration into Palestine itself, 43 percent originating in Asia, 39 percent in Africa, and 20 percent in Turkey.[18] Schmelz conjectured:
The above-average population growth of the Arab villages around the city of Jerusalem, with its Jewish majority, continued until the end of the mandatory period. This must have been due—as elsewhere in Palestine under similar conditions—to in-migrants attracted by economic opportunities, and to the beneficial effects of improved health services in reducing mortality—just as happened in other parts of Palestine around cities with a large Jewish population sector.[19]
We've all heard how Arabs flocked to the region to take advantage of better wages and improved living conditions that the Jews in the region made possible. Pro Palestinians do not want to believe this, but it's absolutely true.
Here is an excellent article explaining in great detail (using graphs as well) why many Arabs from surrounding countries migrated to Mandatory Palestine. Please red the whole article.
Here are some key parts:
Evidence for Arab Migration
There are several problems associated with estimating Arab immigration into Palestine during the 1920s, the principal one being that Arab migration flows were, in the main, illegal, and therefore unreported and unrecorded.[17] But they were not entirely unnoticed.
Demographer U.O. Schmelz's analysis of the Ottoman registration data for 1905 populations of Jerusalem and Hebron kazas (Ottoman districts), by place of birth, showed that of those Arab Palestinians born outside their localities of residence, approximately half represented intra-Palestine movement—from areas of low-level economic activity to areas of higher-level activity—while the other half represented Arab immigration into Palestine itself, 43 percent originating in Asia, 39 percent in Africa, and 20 percent in Turkey.[18] Schmelz conjectured:
The above-average population growth of the Arab villages around the city of Jerusalem, with its Jewish majority, continued until the end of the mandatory period. This must have been due—as elsewhere in Palestine under similar conditions—to in-migrants attracted by economic opportunities, and to the beneficial effects of improved health services in reducing mortality—just as happened in other parts of Palestine around cities with a large Jewish population sector.[19]
