Monday, 28 September 2015

A little noted aspect of the Israel-Palestine conflict

One of the often overlooked aspects of the Israel-Palestine conflict is demography, in particular the ever rising amount of people fighting over a relatively small piece of territory.

Israel has a population of roughly 8.2 million, in an area of 8,500 square miles. Its population density is 1,0004 per square mile. It is 263 miles long and its width ranges from 71 miles at its widest to 9.3 at its narrowest. It is No.32 in the list of the world's most densely populated countries according to Wikipedia.

Of course, the situation in the Palestinian territories is infinitely worse. The Gaza Strip is 139 square miles with a population of 1.8 million and a density of something approaching 10,000 per square mile. It is a mere 25 miles long and roughly 6 miles wide. The West Bank has a population of 2.3 million within 2,180 square miles. Taken together, the Palestinian territories rank at No.20 in the world list of population density.

As a result of the Israeli blockade and assault of 2014 it is estimated the area may be uninhabitable by 2020:

Gaza uninhabitable within 5 years

Perhaps one could imagine a bizzare reversal of the Jewish Exodus in the years to come, as millions of Palestinians simply march into Israel, unable to subsist in their present state.

Water is also a scarce and vital resource in the area as a whole and control of it is used as a weapon in the conflict.

Children are also used as weapons, both in the desire to keep the populations of both peoples rising and also as future and present soldiers. Palestinian children also represent a disproportionate number of casualties due to the enormous population density of the Gaza strip.

Children in the Israel-Palestine conflict

From the AN perspective, the area is the world in a microcosm....

Addendum:  "Israel is on the road to an ecological, social and quality of life disaster because as the population density rises it becomes more violent, congested and unpleasant to live in and with absolutely no room for any species other than humans."

Israel running out of room

Friday, 11 September 2015

More, More, More

The current crisis in Europe fills me with a weary despair. Putting aside the issue of potential ISIS infiltrators and so on, the site of hundreds of thousands of desperate people being added to the pre-existent millions, all prepared to work in shit jobs, live in shit accommodation, do whatever it takes to cling to life, and all the while no doubt procreating is not likely to fill those who find themselves on this blog with joy.

American readers may wonder why I go on about this so much, but bear in mind that your country has one of the lowest population densities in the world, heck you even have a Witness protection scheme that assumes your country is big enough to disappear in. Such schemes would be extremely difficult to operate in Europe.

But anyway, nihil novi.....