Posted on 07/24/2002 5:24:33 PM PDT by Alouette
Report: Muslim Strength Up in Old City
by Yated Ne'eman Staff
Jews and Christians together make up about 30 percent of the population of Jerusalem's Old City, making them minorities in a place that is central to their religion, said speakers at the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies.
Israel Kimhi of the institute said the proportion of Jews is increasing, from 8.6 percent in 1995 to 11.34 percent in 2002. There are some 33,500 people living in the Old City today. Kimhi said most of the Jewish population growth has been in the Muslim Quarter, which now houses 800 Jews.
The number of Christians is dropping, Kimhi said, but he could not say by how much. In 1995, according to a report issued by the institute last week, out of the 32,488 people living in the Old City, 70.6 percent were Muslims and 20.3 percent were Christians.
The report showed that out of the 879 dunams of land in the Old City, 24 percent is owned by the Islamic Wakf, 28 percent by Muslims, 29 percent by Christians and the remaining 19 percent by Jews.
A spokesman said Christians are leaving in the face of increasing Islamic fundamentalism, despite their strong religious connection to the Old City. They feel there is no room for them there as Christian Palestinians because they are not accepted by Muslims. This reflects a nation-wide trend, he said.
The Old City is growing more religious in its character, according to the report. The number of holy places has grown from the 30 cited in a 1949 United Nations list to 328 in 2000, Lapidot said. Among the Jewish population, 70 percent are charedi, and another 25 percent are religious. Only 5 percent are secular, compared to 40 percent among the Jews who returned to the Old City after 1967.
Overall, the Old City's population has grown by 36 percent since 1967, with the highest absolute growth in the Muslim community. The Muslim population remained constant from 1967 to 1983, but then jumped from 16,760 in 1983 to 22,814 in 1995.
The Christian population dropped from 6,994 in 1967 to 6,483 in 1983. In 1995, there were 6,570 Christians in the Old City and the numbers have dropped since then, according to Kimhi. Because of Muslim population growth and the return of Jews, the percentage of Christians living in the Old City dropped from 29.5 percent in 1967 to 20.3 percent in 1995.
The Jewish population has risen from zero in 1967 to 2,235 in 1983, 2,802 in 1995, and 3,800 today. Kimhi said that a large amount of illegal construction has accompanied the population growth, but the institute's study has no exact numbers, Kimhi said.
People are building without licenses, because construction laws are very restrictive, Kimhi said. They are adding rooms in basements and courtyards so they can't be seen from the street, Kimhi said. There is little supervision of illegal construction in the Muslim and Jewish Quarters, Kimhi said.
Lapidot said that the Old City suffers from overcrowding, with an average of 70 people per dunam.
A very bad state of affairs for the Jewish character of the state -- not just the old city.
Haredi Jews have babies.
Arabs and communists worldwide specifically target women and children to murder.
Right! But it's not enough to change the demographic trend. Rabbi Kahane, Z"tl had the right idea in throwing the Arabs out.
An exchange of populations as was done throughout the 20th century.
Obviously this is in error, everybody knows that Jews and Christians are the racist, closed-minded elitists and Muslims are the open-minded, accepting, peaceful multiculturalists so beloved by the "progressives" among us who are wisely deciding our fates behind closed doors at the UN.
Oh my, that sounded terribly sarcastic, didn't it?
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