Shift on Settlements: Sharon's 'Painful' Course:
"Mr. Sharon recently said that unlike many other Israeli leaders, he foresaw no threat that Arabs might do by demography and democracy what they had been unable to do by force: overwhelm Israel's Jewish character. But his plan suggests that he is worried about exactly that.

The Gaza Strip is home to more than one million Palestinians, and by unloading it Mr. Sharon would postpone the possibility of an Arab majority in Israel and its occupied land. Further, Mr. Sharon told the daily Maariv that he had requested a legal analysis about transferring a large Israeli Arab town, Umm al Fahm, and its surrounding villages from Israel to the Palestinian Authority.

Doing so would further diminish Arabs' presence in Israel, and the idea was angrily rejected by Israeli Arab leaders. 'It is a very racist proposal,' said Hashem Mahameed, an Israeli Arab politician from Umm al Fahm. 'We never looked at Jews as a problem. I look at those who want to transfer me as a problem.'"

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/04/international/middleeast/04MIDE.html?pagewanted=all&position=