The Old City

Founded around 4000 BC, the Old City is divided into four quarters: Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Armenian. The present walls surrounding the Old City were built by the Ottomn Sultan Suleiman Al-Qanouni in 1542. The walls stretch over 19.3 km with a diameter of 3.2 km and an average height of 12 m. Of its 11 gates, the following seven are presently open: Damascus Gate, Herod’s Gate, Jaffa Gate, Zion Gate, Al-Magharbah Gate, Lion’s Gate/St., Stephen’s Gate, and New Gate.

¹Incl. the 135 dunums of Al-Sharif compound. If this area is not counted, the population density in the Muslim Quarter rises to over 70.
² Not including some 600-1,000 settlers occupying houses in the Muslim Quarter.

Settlers in the Old City

The Old City, the adjacent village of Silwan, and more recently the neighborhoods of Ras Al-Amud and Sheikh Jarrah are exposed wide public to extremist Jewish settler groups, such as Ateret Cohanim, Elad, Amana, and Hay VeKayam, which enjoy wide public support in their effort to take over as much Palestinian property as possible. The presence of the settlers, who often threaten and attack the Palestinian inhabitants and damage their properties as well as the settlers’ ongoing attempts to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque, are sources of constant tension and frequently lead to clashes in the Old City. The public cost of providing private security guards for the 1,500 Israeli settlers in the aforementioned areas amounts to NIS 20 million annually as budgeted by the Min. of Housing – not including the cost of regular police and border patrol. (Kol Ha’ir, Aug. 6, 1999).

Source: Palestinian Acadimic Society for the Studies of Interntional Affairs. (PASSIA )