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JewishHistoryעברית

Removal of the Jews from the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, 1948

Date
28 May 1948 – 29 May 1948Hebrew date: 19th of Iyyar, 5708 – 20th of Iyyar, 5708
Location
Jewish Quarter, Old City of JerusalemIsrael
Perpetrators
  • Arab Legion (Military)
Killed (estimate)
No reliable estimate
Expelled (estimate)
2,000[1]About 2,000 evacuated to the new city (source 1). The 300 men of military age taken prisoner are not included in this count.
Locality

120% of the Jewish population of Jewish Quarter, Old City of Jerusalem[2]The expelled estimate is higher than the population estimate.

Worldwide

0.017% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1948)[13]

Category
Expulsion
Confidence
High

Summary

On 28 May 1948 the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem surrendered to the Arab Legion. A United States consular telegram of 29 May recorded the terms agreed with Major Abdullah el-Tel, the Legion commander in the Old City: about 2,000 women, children, elderly people, and religious people were to be evacuated to the Jewish areas of the new city under the International Red Cross; 300 men of military age were to be taken as prisoners to Amman; and of 150 wounded, the lightly wounded were to be prisoners and the seriously wounded were to be turned over to the Red Cross. The telegram's note, citing the Truce Commission, states that the surrender took place at 6 p.m. on 28 May, and a United Nations official who was in the Old City told the consulate that the Legion carried out the evacuation according to the agreement; el-Tel reported the next morning that it was complete except for the wounded. The Central Zionist Archives states that about 2,200 Jews lived in the Quarter when the partition plan was declared, that about 500 left during the siege, and that about 1,700 remained when the British left on 13 May.

Sources

  1. The Vice Consul at Jerusalem (Burdett) to the Secretary of State, 29 May 1948. Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State (Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, Vol. V, Part 2) (1948)
  2. The Fall of the Jewish Quarter. Central Zionist Archives

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 11,500,000[13]c. 1948DellaPergola's Fundamentals Table 2 gives 11.5 million Jews worldwide in 1948.
  • Jewish Quarter, Old City of Jerusalem: 1,700[2]Jews remaining in the Quarter on 13 May 1948. The Central Zionist Archives states that about 2,200 lived there when the partition plan was declared, and that about 500 left before the British departure.

Sources for population estimates

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  11. Sergio DellaPergola, Some Fundamentals of Jewish Demographic History. Berman Jewish Policy Archive (PDF) (2001)
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