Démographie et conflit : une analyse de la fécondité en Israël et en Palestine

Demography is central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the consequences of high Palestinian and Israeli fertility have interested many scientists, as population balance is a key determinant in a potential peace settlement. Many researchers from various disciplines such as sociology, political science, or even philosophy contributed to the general understanding of the origins of the conflict and of its consequences on human populations. It goes without saying that to fully understand the issues and consequences of the conflict, a multidisciplinary approach is required. However, because this is a thesis in demography, we limit ourselves to the demographic aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For a more holistic approach, many important works are available.  The exceptionally high fertility in the region is often described as a “war of the cradles” ultimately aimed at gaining majority over the land. Such theories implying a political fertility have never been tested empirically simultaneously on both Palestinian Arabs and Jews (in Israel and the settlements in the Palestinian territories). The objective of this thesis is thus to explore different avenues allowing to expand knowledge on fertility dynamics in the region and to contribute to the existing literature on the demography of conflict and more precisely, on the consequences of an endemic conflict on fertility behaviour.  In the first of three articles, we are producing a descriptive portrait of fertility among Israelis and Palestinians living in Israel and the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip with a particular interest for a number of fertility determinants such as contraception, age at marriage, immigration, and religiosity among others. Despite a clear heterogeneity between the subgroups, we aim at finding some resemblances among them, all exposed at different intensities to the consequences of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This represents the first attempt to analyze all groups in the same project using survey data.  The aim of the second article is to highlight the differences in fertility behaviour of the Jewish population living in Israel and to that of the Jewish population living in the settlements of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and to distinguish the effects of various determinants of Israeli fertility (nationalism, religiosity, and socioeconomic status) in both regions and over time using data from the 1995 and 2008 censuses. Even though many articles have studied the impact of such determinants of fertility in Israel, none yet has put the emphasis on the largely unknown settler population that has a significantly higher fertility than their counterparts in Israel.  In the last article, we are interested in quantifying the impact of individual and contextual factors on Palestinian fertility in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. We thus specifically evaluate the impact of contextual variables (number of checkpoints and year of violent uprising) and nationalism (proportion of Jewish settlers living in the same district) associated with the conflict while controlling for various socioeconomic and demographic variables often used in fertility studies. Even though the consequences of the conflict are often brought up as an explanation for the high Palestinian fertility, no research has tried to empirically test the validity of such hypotheses using survey data.  This thesis brings important contributions to the literature on fertility in this region. Indeed, it appears a though the usual determinants of fertility change do not seem to have an important effect on these populations. The inefficiency of such determinants can be partly explained by the consequences of the conflict. They led to an increased religiosity among many population groups, to a strong nationalist sentiment, and to institutions trying to alleviate most of the obstacles to fertility by generous fiscal incentives. In an uncertain social and political climate, traditional values such as family provide stability.

Keyphrases: Arabes, Religion, Contraception, Fertility, Israel, Jews, Arabs, Jewish settlements, Nationalism, Conflict, Nuptiality, Socioeconomic status, Contextual effects, Multilevel modelling, Survival analysis, Generalized ordered models