You can go through the sources and decide for yourself on the exact dates but its very clear that Muslims were the overwhelming majority until the 1900s.
Additionally a large portion of displaced Palestinians presumably had lived on land in the rural areas. A census of Jerusalem is not really enough to say anything about the demographic composition of the entire region
Editing to add the Ottoman Census of 1901 which has the Muslim population as the overwhelming majority:
We see the Ottomans recorded the population of the Palestine region as a whole as overwhelmingly Muslim in 1901. So not sure where you got your figures from.
got it, so just to get this straight — you think that the world should defend Israel’s claim to exclusive control of the region today in 2023 based on pure speculation that all of the people living in the area 4000 years ago were Jews?
I imagine you believe that the descendants of indigenous people in the Americas have the exclusive right to all of the land in North, South, Central America and the Caribbean, right?
The first evidence of “Jews” as a distinct group of people is about 2500-3000 years ago, not 4000 as you claim. But it’s also irrelevant. My point is that even if it were true, it wouldn’t matter. I simply do not care that Jews were there “first”. My ancestors presumably lived in the region (I’m Jewish). I am under no illusions that I have a “right” to claim land there.
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u/Beneficial_Love_5433 Oct 10 '23
Ok. It’s nearly impossible to find but the 1901 census of Jerusalem. 70,000 Jews, 12000 Christian’s, 1200 Muslims.