Quds city, Sept 14, SPA -- Israel had a population of 6.75 million in 2003, an 1.8 percent increase from the year before, the Central Bureau of Statistics said. Israeli Arabs made up 19.3 percent of the population. The Arab minority has a growth rate of 3 percent, compared to 1.4 percent among the Jewish majority, the statistics bureau said. Tourism increased by 23 percent in 2003, a reversal of a slump that begin with the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in 2000. Most visitors came from the United States, the bureau said.
