ABC Mini-Encyclopedia

Arab East Jerusalem

This term is demographically and historically misleading. Demographically, the eastern part of the city is about evenly divided between Arabs and Jews. The entire Old City of Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount (where the Jewish First and Second Temples once stood) and the Western Wall, is within eastern Jerusalem. Statistical data from many sources, only some of them Jewish, confirm that there were many Jewish residents, institutions and holy sites throughout Jerusalem, including the eastern portion, until 1948 when Jordan gained control of that part of the city. Jordan killed or expelled all the Jewish residents there, and, in an effort to erase evidence of centuries of Jewish presence, destroyed all 58 synagogues. Also in eastern Jerusalem are Hebrew University (built in 1925), the Jewish National and University Library (built in 1930), and Hadassah Hospital (built in 1938).