How many Arab Muslims immigrated to Palestine before 1948?

Question

How many Palestinian Muslims before 1948 were actually descendants of people who actually lived in Palestine before the first big Jewish immigration?

How many were immigrants and descendants of immigrants before European Jews arrived?

Valid sources please.

Answer 1

Here's the thing, the nature of the data from that time period and area do not permit precise conclusions about the Arab population of that area in Ottoman and British times.  Anyone who says otherwise is trying to mislead you, as understandably it would give greater strength to whichever side it ended up being in favor of.

However, there are some conclusions that can be made from the available data.

1) It was not an empty land when Jewish immigration began. The lowest estimates claim there were about 410,000 Arab Muslims and Christians there in 1893. A Jewish estimate claimes there were over 600,000 Arabs there in the 1890s. At this time, the number of Jewish immigrants was still negligible by all accounts. It is unlikely that arab immigration prior to this period was due to Jewish development.

2) Jewish settlement between 1880 and 1948 did not displace or dispossess Arabs. Every indication is that there was net Arab immigration during this period, and that the economic situation of the Arabs improved tremendously under the British Mandate relative to surrounding countries. By 1948, there were approximately 1.35 million Arabs and 650,000  Jews living between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, more Arabs than had ever lived there before, and more Jews than had lived there since Roman times. Analysis of population by sub-districts shows that Arab population tended to increase the most between 1931 and 1948 in the same areas where there were large proportions of Jews. Therefore, Jewish immigration did not displace Arabs.

3)The city of Jerusalem itself there was a Jewish majority since about 1896, but probably not before.

4) In 1949, UNRWA reported 726,000 Arab refugees. By 1950 they reported 914,000, an increase of 26% that could not come either from births or further displacement of refugees, which were negligible.

5) It is not possible to estimate illegal Arab immigration directly, but apparently there was some immigration. The total Arab immigration was recorded or estimated by the Mandate government was in the neighborhood of 45,000. Illegal immigration that was not recorded would not register in the final population figures for 1945, because those figures were estimates. We simply do not know how many Arabs and Jews there were there before the declaration of the state of Israel. It is probable that there were about 100,000 Arab immigrants into though.

6)There are large discrepancies between official population figures and the  number of Arab refugees  -  An analysis of population by subdistricts and villages, shows that there were about  736,000 Muslim and Christian Arabs in the part that was to become "Green Line Israel" in 1949. There would not have been more than 620,000 refugees in 1949 if these figures are correct, since the Israeli census showed 156,000 non-Jews living there in November 1948, of whom about 14,000 were Druze. The number of refugees reported by UNRWA in 1948 was 726,000. It might indicate that an unregistered and illegal population of 100,000 was included in the refugees.

In summation, most of the data is pretty worthless from back then, but from what consistency actually exists the numbers indicate a tremendously high percentage of Arab immigrants *after* Jewish emigration began.  Also, the statistics don't differentiate between Christian and Muslim Arabs.

[EDIT] No problem One lala, glad I could help.

[EDIT] naan, clearly you didn't read what I wrote.  I never denied that once not that long ago Jews were the minority while muslims were not.  I also never denied that Jews immigrated and changed the balance.  However, if you read the entire thing above it clearly shows how while Jews immigrated, the population of  arabs increased too rapidly then can be accounted by natural birth/death rates, the only solution meaning the arab population had a number of immigrants as well, in substantial numbers to boot.  Though of course there are all the known and recorded arab immigrants as they entered the country, the data I'm reffering to shows that even *more* than that must've immigrated illegally who did not show up on records.  As for your assertion that Jews only began immigrating to the Land of Israel (which later became the State of Israel) once "the British promised to establish a jewish land in the ME" is only completely untrue.  Especially considering the substantial numbers of Jews recorded immigrating before the area was even under British control, not to mention the ones who did so illegally and therefor wouldn't be on the official records of the Ottoman Empire.

Answer 2

Jonathan, sorry but that is a funny question...

its not the muslims who immigrated to Palestine, Palestinians, locals living in that Land are mostly muslims, christians and there were a small jewish Minority. Jewish people from around the world , Europe, Russia and other countries immigrated to what is called now Land of Israel after the British promised to establish a jewish land in the ME.

Answer 3

My Family has lived in Palestine for a very long time before 1948.

We are from a valley by Jerusalem.

and after the 1948 invasion, we were forced to immagrate to refugee camps, and later on to Jordan, and we have been here since then.

I never had the chance to see Palestine, and hope one day inshallah, that i get to see it.

Answer 4

What I get from this, ignoring the hateful and ignorant insults that have nothing to do with the question, is that there were Jews Muslims and Christians all living together and suddenly the Jew group got a lot  bigger and took over.

No one was hurt except the Arabs that ran away and they gave up their rights to come back by declaring on the side of an intended Genocide.  The real kind not the kind some talk of here.

The Jews got it as God said they would.  They are going to keep it as God said they would.  All the cry-baby give me a handout whining won't change that a bit.

Answer 5

You should excuse for your ignorance!

Answer 6

Most people were native people of the land and there are few people who came from all over the world and lived in Palestine and today they call themselves Palestinians.

Answer 7

There were no Muslim Arabs in Palestine. There were Palestinians: Palestinian Muslims, Palestinian Christians, Palestinian Jews.

If you have any historic source that tells you anything else, please let us see it.

Answer 8

1000s

Answer 9

You need to spend time at a library. "The brits" did not "take over" in 1917; the Mandate began in 1920 and jewish immigration was not subject to any restrictions until 1937.

First you say "before 1948" now you say "before 1882",make up your mind and learn how to post an intelligent question. If you just want to waste everyone's time with low-I.Q. propaganda,go start a blog.

Mandate census records make no distinction between Christian and Muslim Palestinians. There was no immigration during the Mandate except for jews. Jew immigration was limited under the Ottomans; migration throughout the Empire was unlimited for Ottoman subjects. Including David "ben Gurion" real name Gruen.

Answer 10

The British Mandate authorities did not permit any emigration except for jews. All Palestinians,whether Christian or Muslim,are descendants of persons resident in Palestine prior to 1920. Feel free to consult any history of the Mandate - or stick with the usual propaganda line,which - frankly - doesn't fool anyone. Any educated person knows the Palestinians have been there for hundreds and possibly thousands of years. In 1910 David ben Gurion wrote a book speculating that Palestinians are descended from the ancient Hebrews and that contemporary jews are descendants of European converts from the medieval period. Se footnote in Tom Segev's "One Palestine,Complete".

Answer 11

Don't  the israeli govmt feel shame to expell innocent people out of their homes and throw them to the street ?

What did jews feel when hitler did the holocaust?

Belfor used to "hate" zionism, but not judaism...

Belfor wanted to get rid of zionism away from his country, but he didn't matter about judaism.

REMEMBER THESE WORDS:

"One day or another, the evil individuals will get the suitable punishment ! "