The World - News from Aug. 11, 1989

The population of Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip has grown by 6,500 over last year’s figures, despite the 20-month-old Palestinian uprising, the government said. The figures, released by the government-run Central Bureau of Statistics, show that Jewish settlements grew almost 400% more than Jerusalem, the second-fastest growing area. The bureau reported that 66,500 Jews lived in the occupied territories in late 1988, an increase of 10.3% over 1987. Settler leaders attributed the continued growth to right-wing activists moving to the occupied lands in a show of Jewish resolve to hold onto the disputed lands. However, in 1986, the year before the uprising, the settler population increased by 15.8%, the bureau said.