Reply #26: Jewish Population in Palestine

[Gimel]

The Jews have not lived in Palestine since about 200 AD, while the
Arabs have lived there continuously since the 600s.

While the Jews have lived in the land of Israel continuously since about 1000 b.c.e. The Muslim religion was only created in 600 c.e., so if you are referring to religion, that would include the holiest sites of Islam, in Mecca. Arab is not the true ethnic origin of the Palestinians.

In 1914 there were approximately 60,000 Jews in Palestine. That is not just a few, by the population levels in that day. Between 1919 and 1922 Jewish migration to Palestine was 27,008. While a minority in the population, the immigration preceded the Holocaust, and most of the immigrants were from Muslim nations. Many Jews were forcibly expelled from nations such as Iran and Iraq.

More than half of the population of Israel today originated in Eastern and North African nations. Spanish and Moroccan Jews are also grouped here, and none of them are refugees from the European Holocaust.