Is there any problem of overpopulation in Israel?

Answer 1

Answer 1

1) Let me tell you a little story. At some point around the year 1920 or so, one of the high-ranking officials of the British Mandate did an extensive survey of the area that is now called Israel. After his careful study, he officially published the opinion that "the region between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean will certainly not be able to support a population of more than five hundred thousand."

Yet today Israel has seven million people. And still plenty of extra space.

2) In 1990, very large numbers of people from the former Soviet Union began emigrating to Israel. Within a just few years, one million of them had settled in Israel. Yes, there was a brief housing crunch, but that was followed by a massive upswing in new construction. Entire cities were built from scratch at that time (such as Modiin Illit and Betar). And the economic situation of these immigrants was and remains vastly better than what it had been in the USSR.

3) The Talmud (Ketubot 112b) assures us that Israel has a special quality which enables it, through God's blessing, to provide space and sustenance for those who live there.

Israel's population has increased twelvefold since 1948, while the quality of life has steadily gone up, not down.

Answer 2

Israel does have some problems on account of its sizable population, but none of them are unique to Israel. All of the surrounding countries have these problems and are typically in a worse position to ameliorate them than Israel is, since Israel's government actually functions.

The bigest overpopulation issue in Israel is water scarcity. The Sea of Galilee, Israel's largest freshwater body has seen its levels decrease. Correspondingly, Israel has invested heavily in desalination technology in an attempt to reverse the trend.

Unlike its neighbors (especially Egypt), Israel is a net exporter of food products and since it does not have the explosive growth rates of Arab countries, sees increases in farming efficiency come before the population is too massive to overwhelm the supply.

There is some crowding in cities, but the Israeli government takes an active role in building new viable cities in sparsely populated areas and developing the countryside which prevents the kind of urban price jumps that are seen in Vietnam where the government does not make similar investments.