Figures

NPR has admitted is "has underestimated the number of Israeli Jews living in settlements in the West Bank and Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem". Alicia Shepherd, NPR's ombudsperson (?), then continued:

NPR was wrong simply because the source it used – the much-respected CIA "World Factbook" – is wrong on that point and has been for several years.

In June 2009, NPR reported the total number of settlers as 250,000 and then corrected the figure to "460,000 to 480,000."...On May 11, NPR reported the number at 365,000, and Henry Norr, of Berkeley, CA, demanded a correction. “How can NPR possibly have so much trouble getting straight the basic facts about the Israeli occupation of Palestine?” wrote Norr, a Jewish Palestine-solidarity activist.

“The [CIA] Factbook relies on population data provided by the international programs division of the U.S. Census Bureau,” said CIA media spokeswoman Paula Weiss. When I asked Peter D. Johnson of the U.S. Census Bureau's International Program Center about the mystery, he replied, "The information I got is the numbers may have come from some open public source but we don't know which one...“I’m surprised and displeased, and it makes me wonder what other information is out-of-date or incorrect in the CIA World Factbook,” said Chuck Holmes, foreign editor for NPR Digitial.

...The Israeli government’s Central Bureau of Statistics, estimated 301,000 Israelis live in Judea and Samaria, the biblical name for the West Bank, as of Sept. 1, 2009.

The Israeli government doesn’t provide a separate population figure for East Jerusalem because it considers that part of the city to be Israeli territory and part of Jerusalem. Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem has not been acknowledged internationally, by the United Nations, the United States, or most other countries.

The number of Israeli Jews living in East Jerusalem is generally believed to be between 180,000 and 200,000...Numbers matter for journalistic accuracy and credibility – and, in this particular case, for an internationally important practical reason.

Israeli settlements in both the West Bank and East Jerusalem have been a central issue in every attempt to negotiate a long-term peace agreement in the Middle East.

Palestinians claim that for decades the Israeli government has been building settlements, and encouraging Israelis to move into them, to create "facts on the ground" that will block any peace deal from turning the West Bank and any part of East Jerusalem over to the Palestinians.

Israel doesn't officially acknowledge this as a motivation for the settlements. But many settlers (backed by powerful political allies in most recent governments) say their presence guarantees permanent Israeli control of the land – and so more settlers equals more certainty for this goal.

With that in mind, my suggestion is that in the future, when reporting on Israeli settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, NPR should use the figure of "nearly 500,000," attributed to the State Department. For now, the CIA numbers are not reliable.

NPR's foreign desk now agrees and will use the 500,000 figure in the future, said Roberts...

Guys, my figures are no more than 320,000 in Judea and Samaria and at least 200,000 in Jerusalem's new neighborhoods.