Yair Lapid
צילום: יוני המנחם
The facts have died
Op-ed: How many people live in Judea and Samaria? One’s answer depends on ideology
So who’s responsible for housing prices?
The contractors say it’s the government, the government says it’s the Israel Land Administration, the Administration says it’s bigwigs, the bigwigs hint that it’s the foreign workers, and everybody thinks it’s the wealthy. It’s unclear which wealthy; some kind of wealthy.
The question of what prompts housing prices to rise is an economic one. Economics is supposed to be a science. A white-haired man in a suit and tie should have appeared and presented us with an orderly table and colorful graphs that would explain everything – including who’s at fault. The problem is that in recent days we saw 10 people like that, and each one said something entirely differently.
So how many people live in the territories?
Seemingly, it’s a simple question. There’s a certain area called “Judea and Samaria,” where a certain number of people live. What’s this number?
Yet a raging, almost violent debate surrounds the answer. The numbers range from two million to four million Palestinians (which, according to the economist from the previous clause, is a difference of no less than 100%) and somewhere between 200,000 to 350,000 settlers.
The debate pits the demographers of the Right against the demographers of the Left and each one vehemently accuses the other of twisting the figures. As far as I know, demography is also supposed to be a science whose results are set in stone. Is there such thing as “mathematicians of the Left or “chemists of the Right?”
Here are a few more quick questions:
Did the defense budget increase or decrease in recent years? What did the Winograd Commission actually decide? How many Israelis were killed because of previous prisoner swaps? Would it surprise you to discover that the answer to the last question depends on one’s view of the Shalit deal?
We can take it to another direction as well: Who sold the most records ever, ABBA, The Beatles or Michael Jackson? Would you be surprised to discover that the answer to this question depends on which band one writes about at the moment?
And let’s go back to more serious issues:
“Israel is home to 141,710 battered women” (according to the press, based on a University of Haifa study.) “Israel is home to more than 200,000 battered women” (according to the same press, based on a study submitted to the Welfare Ministry.) “Israel is home to some 50,000 battered women” (one of the researchers behind the previous study changed his mind.)
How could it be? It can happen because the tables have turned: Once upon a time, the facts were permanent and everyone formulated views about them. Today, the views are permanent and everyone can get the facts he or she requires. When the Internet entered our lives, we were exposed to an ocean of information. We thought back then that if we all have access to all the information, we’d be able to base our arguments on accurate data and reach the truth.
Yet as it turned out, there is no truth, or at least not just one truth. Instead of in-depth studies and well-argued positions, we got a dispute between neighbors where everyone stands in the stairwell and yells at each other: “The time has come for you to face the facts.”
These are not facts, but rather, just figures we collected in a random manner so that they help us contend with the nagging concern that we may be wrong and the other side is right.
- Follow Ynetnews on Facebook
