British Consul in Jerusalem in 1864 Confirms the Jewish Majority

French diplomat Cesar Famin reported a Jewish majority in 1853. His report was repeated by Karl Marx in 1854. Then, Gerardy Santine asserted in 1860 that Jews were "a good half" of the city's population. Next, in 1864, Noel Temple Moore confirmed the Jewish majority in Jerusalem [for Famin, Marx and Santine, search this blog].

Moore is cited by Martin Gilbert, a historian who has written both about the history of the Land of Israel and about the life and political career of Winston Churchill. In fact, Gilbert is the authorized biographer of Churchill. No doubt he had easy access to British Foreign Office records.

By 1864 the resident Jewish population of Jerusalem constituted a majority of the city's inhabitants, according to the British consul in Jerusalem, Noel Temple Moore, who estimated the total population of the City at 15,000: 8,000 Jews; 4,500 Muslim Arabs, and 2,500 Christians and Christian Arabs [or Arabic-speaking Christians]. All 8,000 Jews lived within the Old City, mostly in the Jewish Quarter.
[Martin Gilbert, Jerusalem, Illustrated History Atlas (New York, London, 1977), p 47]

Gilbert reminds us, as does Yehoshua Ben-Arieh in his book Jerusalem in the Nineteenth Century, that Jews were a majority in the Old City in the second half of the 19th century. The last Jewish inhabitants of the Old City were driven out in May 1948. Able-bodied men were jailed by the Jordanians, while women and children were allowed to leave, taking only those possessions that they could carry.

The Arab and pro-Arab propaganda so commonplace in our times conveniently overlooks facts like the Jewish majority in Jerusalem since the mid-nineteenth century.
- - - - - - - -
Coming: More on Jews in Jerusalem and Hebron, peace follies, propaganda, etc.