Report: Arabs could outnumber Jews in Israel by 2020

(JNS.org) On top of Hamas terrorism, the Iranian nuclear program, the implications of unrest in Syria and the rise of an Islamist government in Egypt, another growing challenge Israel faces in 2013 and beyond is a demographic one. The Jewish state could lose its Jewish character within this decade, according to new estimates from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

On Tuesday, the bureau said birth rates indicate that Israel’s Arab population will match its Jewish population by 2016 and surpass it by 2020, the Associated Press reported.
Year-end Israeli population data for 2012 said that 6 million Jews live in the country, compared with the 5.8 million Arabs the Palestinian bureau said live in Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and eastern Jerusalem. By 2020, Arabs will outnumber Jews by 7.2 million to 6.9 million, according to the Palestinian bureau.