[dennisw]

At least that's something. Palestine was agriculturally productive in some places but still depopulated. The Jews paid steep prices for marginal land and made something of it. No land was stolen.

In 1875 the Temple Mount looks like a dump. This not what a productive and populated land does with it most important religious shrines. Where were all the Muslims back in 1875 to make the Dome of the Rock and Al Aksa Mosque look at least semi-decent?

[Sheapdog]

The Wailing Wall which is where Muslims now claim Mohamed tied is flying horse to is where they had rows of out houses backed up to so they could hsit on it. Even today they have a bus station and a parking lot next to the the garden tomb and what is possibly Golgotha with a Muslim burial ground above to keep people away. They definitely laugh and think how foolish are the Christians for allowing a place that should be honored to be treated the way it is.