Quote:
Originally Posted by _Q_
The info in that link looks extremely shoddy. How is it that the Muslim population decreases between 1882 by 1,000 and the Christian population dramatically increases by around 9,000? Then the following period the Christian population decreases again? Also, remember, Christian and Muslim populations are both Palestinian, so if you were to take these numbers as fact, Jews don't really have a majority until around 1931, when the Zionist movement picked up steam. Add in the fact that Palestinian society was mostly agricultural in the 1700s/1800s, so you might not get an accurate read on the population in the region looking at these numbers.
|
I don't disagree that the numbers are anything but exact. If you read the entire wiki article, you'll see it points out there was a lot of incentive to exagerate or downplay numbers based largely on tax consequences. However, my more crucial point that the area was far from a built up Palestinian area that was taken over by Jews stands.
Also, the Christians in old Jerusalem were mostly Greek Orthodox and Aremenian. They are considered a distinct ethnicity from both the Palestinians and Jews, as they are considered of Armenian and Greek descent.