A new study by Oxford University scholar Sara Hirschhorn on the makeup of settlers in the occupied West Bank has revealed what she described as a "strikingly over-represented" number of American settlers. Some 60,000 Americans are settlers, fully 15% of the overall settlement population.

By comparison, only 170,000 American immigrants are living in Israel all told, including the children of immigrants, which means that the overall Israeli-American population of Israel is just about 2%. It is puzzling, then, to find such a huge number of American settlers.

Hirschorn is planning to publish an entire book on the phenomenon of Jewish-American settlers in the occupied territories, with some other surprising demographic facts about them. She noted that a large number of them were politically active American Socialists in the 1960's and 70's.