Could Monte Be Right, After All?

[Shusha]

One of Monte's claims is that there was virtually no immigration of Arabs into Israel/Palestine, that Israel/Palestine was only ruled by the Arab Muslims and that the Palestinians are, in truth, Jews who converted to Christianity and eventually to Islam and adopted Arabic culture and language.

I discovered this book yesterday, while researching a somewhat unrelated topic. I had never heard of it before. It is a tour and census of Israel/Palestine in the year 1695 by Dutch scholar Adriaan Reland. Sadly, it is written in Latin and I am unable to find an English translation online.

From the linked article:

1. Not one settlement in the Land of Israel has a name that is of Arabic origin.
Most of the settlement names originate in the Hebrew, Greek, Latin or Roman languages. In fact, till today, except to Ramlah, not one Arabic settlement has an original Arabic name.

2. Most of the land was empty, desolate.
Most of the land was empty, desolate, and the inhabitants few in number and mostly concentrate in the towns Jerusalem, Acco, Tzfat, Jaffa, Tiberius and Gaza. Most of the inhabitants were Jews and the rest Christians. There were few Muslims, mostly nomad Bedouins. Nablus, known as Shchem, was exceptional, where approximately 120 people, members of the Muslim Natsha family and approximately 70 Shomronites, lived.

In the Galilee capital, Nazareth, lived approximately 700 Christians and in Jerusalem approximately 5000 people, mostly Jews and some Christians.

In Gaza for example, lived approximately 550 people, fifty percent Jews and the rest mostly Christians. Tiberius and Tzfat were mostly Jewish.. A town like Um el-Phahem was a village where ten families, approximately fifty people in total, all Christian, lived and there was also a small Maronite church in the village (The Shehadah family).

3. No Palestinian heritage or Palestinian nation.
In Granada, Spain, for example, one can see Arabic heritage and architecture. In large cities such as Granada and the land of AndalucÃa, mountains and rivers like Guadalajara, one can see genuine Arabic cultural heritage: literature, monumental creations, engineering, medicine, etc. Seven hundred years of Arabic reign left in Spain an Arabic heritage that one cannot ignore, hide or camouflage. But here, in Israel there is nothing like that! No names of towns, no culture, no art, no history, and no evidence of Arabic rule;


So, is Monte correct after all? Was Israel primarily Jewish and entirely lacking in an Arab Muslim population all the way up until 1700? If so, where did all those Arab Muslims suddenly come from between 1700 and 1850? Unless there was a sudden influx of Arab Muslim immigrants in the early 1800's.

But wait. That means the Palestinians are largely made up of relatively recent immigrants to the area. Oops.

 

[Coyote]

That doesn't make sense.

The chart here: Demographic history of Palestine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia indicates differently.

 

[The Irish Ram]

The area was wasteland before it was deeded to the Jews after the war. Here is what Samuel Clemens observed in the 1860's:

There was no "Palestinian population" that was displaced to make way for the Jews. The Arabs that moved to Israel when Israel was established, were asked to leave before Egypt invaded Israel. They did. Egypt lost. The "refugees" were not permitted to enter Egypt so the squatted on the border. < Those Arabs had been in Israel for less than 24 months, and didn't even qualify for refugee status or aid. This is an Egyptian mess, not an Israeli mess. Egypt needs to cough up some land to correct the problem THEY created, not Israel.

 

[Shusha]

That doesn't make sense.

The chart here: Demographic history of Palestine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia indicates differently.

But what are the primary sources used for the periods prior to 1850?

 

[aris2chat]

One of Monte's claims is that there was virtually no immigration of Arabs into Israel/Palestine, that Israel/Palestine was only ruled by the Arab Muslims and that the Palestinians are, in truth, Jews who converted to Christianity and eventually to Islam and adopted Arabic culture and language.

I discovered this book yesterday, while researching a somewhat unrelated topic. I had never heard of it before. It is a tour and census of Israel/Palestine in the year 1695 by Dutch scholar Adriaan Reland. Sadly, it is written in Latin and I am unable to find an English translation online.

From the linked article:

1. Not one settlement in the Land of Israel has a name that is of Arabic origin.
Most of the settlement names originate in the Hebrew, Greek, Latin or Roman languages. In fact, till today, except to Ramlah, not one Arabic settlement has an original Arabic name.

2. Most of the land was empty, desolate.
Most of the land was empty, desolate, and the inhabitants few in number and mostly concentrate in the towns Jerusalem, Acco, Tzfat, Jaffa, Tiberius and Gaza. Most of the inhabitants were Jews and the rest Christians. There were few Muslims, mostly nomad Bedouins. Nablus, known as Shchem, was exceptional, where approximately 120 people, members of the Muslim Natsha family and approximately 70 Shomronites, lived.

In the Galilee capital, Nazareth, lived approximately 700 Christians and in Jerusalem approximately 5000 people, mostly Jews and some Christians.

In Gaza for example, lived approximately 550 people, fifty percent Jews and the rest mostly Christians. Tiberius and Tzfat were mostly Jewish.. A town like Um el-Phahem was a village where ten families, approximately fifty people in total, all Christian, lived and there was also a small Maronite church in the village (The Shehadah family).

3. No Palestinian heritage or Palestinian nation.
In Granada, Spain, for example, one can see Arabic heritage and architecture. In large cities such as Granada and the land of AndalucÃa, mountains and rivers like Guadalajara, one can see genuine Arabic cultural heritage: literature, monumental creations, engineering, medicine, etc. Seven hundred years of Arabic reign left in Spain an Arabic heritage that one cannot ignore, hide or camouflage. But here, in Israel there is nothing like that! No names of towns, no culture, no art, no history, and no evidence of Arabic rule;


So, is Monte correct after all? Was Israel primarily Jewish and entirely lacking in an Arab Muslim population all the way up until 1700? If so, where did all those Arab Muslims suddenly come from between 1700 and 1850? Unless there was a sudden influx of Arab Muslim immigrants in the early 1800's.

But wait. That means the Palestinians are largely made up of relatively recent immigrants to the area. Oops.

A Tour and Census of Palestine Year 1695

Jordan is Palestine: Observations of 'Adrian Reland' of Palestine in 1695

 

[Phoenall]

That doesn't make sense.

The chart here: Demographic history of Palestine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia indicates differently.

You do realise the source is a banned person for abusive use of multiple accounts


And the entry has been edited by numerous people that source to Islamic groups

 

[montelatici]

One of Monte's claims is that there was virtually no immigration of Arabs into Israel/Palestine, that Israel/Palestine was only ruled by the Arab Muslims and that the Palestinians are, in truth, Jews who converted to Christianity and eventually to Islam and adopted Arabic culture and language.

I discovered this book yesterday, while researching a somewhat unrelated topic. I had never heard of it before. It is a tour and census of Israel/Palestine in the year 1695 by Dutch scholar Adriaan Reland. Sadly, it is written in Latin and I am unable to find an English translation online.

From the linked article:

1. Not one settlement in the Land of Israel has a name that is of Arabic origin.
Most of the settlement names originate in the Hebrew, Greek, Latin or Roman languages. In fact, till today, except to Ramlah, not one Arabic settlement has an original Arabic name.

2. Most of the land was empty, desolate.
Most of the land was empty, desolate, and the inhabitants few in number and mostly concentrate in the towns Jerusalem, Acco, Tzfat, Jaffa, Tiberius and Gaza. Most of the inhabitants were Jews and the rest Christians. There were few Muslims, mostly nomad Bedouins. Nablus, known as Shchem, was exceptional, where approximately 120 people, members of the Muslim Natsha family and approximately 70 Shomronites, lived.

In the Galilee capital, Nazareth, lived approximately 700 Christians and in Jerusalem approximately 5000 people, mostly Jews and some Christians.

In Gaza for example, lived approximately 550 people, fifty percent Jews and the rest mostly Christians. Tiberius and Tzfat were mostly Jewish.. A town like Um el-Phahem was a village where ten families, approximately fifty people in total, all Christian, lived and there was also a small Maronite church in the village (The Shehadah family).

3. No Palestinian heritage or Palestinian nation.
In Granada, Spain, for example, one can see Arabic heritage and architecture. In large cities such as Granada and the land of AndalucÃa, mountains and rivers like Guadalajara, one can see genuine Arabic cultural heritage: literature, monumental creations, engineering, medicine, etc. Seven hundred years of Arabic reign left in Spain an Arabic heritage that one cannot ignore, hide or camouflage. But here, in Israel there is nothing like that! No names of towns, no culture, no art, no history, and no evidence of Arabic rule;


So, is Monte correct after all? Was Israel primarily Jewish and entirely lacking in an Arab Muslim population all the way up until 1700? If so, where did all those Arab Muslims suddenly come from between 1700 and 1850? Unless there was a sudden influx of Arab Muslim immigrants in the early 1800's.

But wait. That means the Palestinians are largely made up of relatively recent immigrants to the area. Oops.

Adriaan Reland was a Dutch Jew that never left Holland. He was never in Palestine. Think of it as an early Hasbara work. Reland did despise Islam and was quoted as saying Islam must be understood to be defeated.

A certain Hasbara type called Avi Goldreich started infesting the internet with claims that Reland did visit Palestine, but he never did. The book itself states as much. The work is made up and/or used informal reports from Jews that did visit Palestine to reinforce the sense of presence in Palestine of Jews, when in fact it is well known that, prior to 1850 there were only a handful of Jews in Palestine.

"AN INTERIM REPORT
ON THE
CIVIL ADMINISTRATION
OF

PALESTINE,

during the period
1st JULY, 1920--30th JUNE, 1921.


AN INTERIM REPORT
ON THE
CIVIL ADMINISTRATION
OF
PALESTINE.

"Prior to 1850 there were in the country only a handful of Jews."

https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal.nsf/0/349B02280A930813052565E90048ED1C

As far as the names of places not being in Arabic? How would he have known what the towns and cities were actually called in 1695,the names of the cities were in Turkish at that time, FFS.

Kudüs was Jerusalem, Yafa was Jaffa (Jaffa itself come from the ancient Egyptian Ya-Pho), Bethlehem was Beytüllahim and Ramallah was Ramallah, how Hebrew is that name?

So, the propaganda does not change the facts.

 

[Coyote]

According to this article - which was used as the source for the Wikipedia chart: Demographic Trends in Israel and Palestine by Sergio Dellapergola

Population distribution by main ethnoreligious groups shows an uninterrupted presence of Jews, and subsequently Christians
and Muslims, over most of the last two millennia, along with significant changes over time in the absolute and relative size of these
groups. Archaeological and documentary evidence points to the early prevalence of Jewish population, political organization, and
culture. Then, between the fourth and seventh centuries—the Byzantine period—the majority of the population was Christian.
With the rise of Islam after the seventh century, a Muslim majority emerged. This lasted through 1947, when, out of an estimated
total population of about 2 million, close to 1.2 million (60 percent) were Muslims, about 650,000 (32 percent) Jews, and about
150,000 (7 percent) Christians.12​

Following Israel's 1948 War of Independence and the farreaching political changes that came in its wake, a Jewish majority
emerged again in the whole territory of historic Palestine. One of the determinants of this shift was the flight from Palestine
of 625,000-675,000 Arabs, according to Israeli sources,13 or 700,000-850,000, according to Palestinian sources.14 These have
been recognized, together with their descendants, as the Palestinian refugees.15 Another key determinant of population change beginning
with Israeli independence was large-scale, unrestricted Jewish immigration, which amounted to 2,850,000 between 1948
and 2000. Differential natural increase of the main ethnoreligious groups further contributed to the changes in population size and
composition.​

From page 19, he talks about Arab immigration into Israel for jobs:

The consequence for Israel was that an Arab labor force becameone of the essential prerequisites for the construction of a modern
Jewish state. And as far as the Palestinians were concerned, were it not for the existence of the State of Israel, a large share of
the Palestinian labor force, unable to find employment locally, would have been forced to migrate elsewhere in search of work. Indeed,
about 140,000 Palestinians emigrated from the West Bank during the 1960s—ruled, at the time by Jordan—looking for jobs.
Afterwards, from the 1967 Israeli occupation until 1989, 171,000 Palestinians left the West Bank and 114,000 the Gaza area in search
of the new opportunities opening up in the booming economies of the Gulf States. After the 1991 Gulf War, about 30,000 returned,
and another 30,000—mostly people related to members of the Palestinian Authority's administration and military forces—came
back to Palestine after the Oslo agreements.27​

Part of the problem with historic population analysis though is that data can be very unreliable since it's not based on modern methodology. From: MidEast Web - Population of Palestine

Economics and Immigration - Under the British Mandate, which began after WWI, Jewish population increased due to immigration, especially in the 1930s. Arab population also increased at an exceptional rate. According to records, about 18,000 non-Jews entered Palestine between 1930 and 1939 when there were more or less reliable figures. In the same period, about 5,000 non-Jews left. This does not count illegal immigration of course, or immigration prior to 1930. Economic analyses show that by the 1930s the standard of living of Palestinian Arabs was approximately twice that of Arabs in surrounding countries, whereas in Ottoman Turkish times it was lower than in surrounding countries. Some of the farm population may have suffered economic hardship, characteristic of any industrializing and urbanizing society, but in the main, the standard of living improved, and it improved much faster than it did in surrounding countries. There is no doubt that this improvement in conditions was an attractant for immigrants as well as resulting in improved health and larger families. Additionally, British activity in building the port of Haifa during the 1920s and in operating it during WW II undoubtedly attracted at least some immigrants. However, there is no hard evidence that more than 100,000 or 200,000 (out of about 1.3 million in all of Palestine, and about 7-800,000 in the area that was to become Israel in 1948) Palestinians had immigrated to the land that was to become Israel. It is impossible to determine at present when this immigration took place. 100,000 Arabs immigrating in 1880 would have produced many more descendants by 1948 than 100,000 Arabs immigrating in 1930. However, since economic conditions did not improve until mandatory times, it is unlikely that the bulk of the immigration occurred under Turkish administration.
​

This author also makes the following conclusions: Palestine was not an empty land when Zionist immigration began (estimates range from 410,000 to over 600,000 Arab Muslims and Christians in the 1890's); Zionist settlement did not displace or dispossess Palestinians and while it's not possible to estimate illegal Arab immigration directly, there was some.

 

[Coyote]

That doesn't make sense.

The chart here: Demographic history of Palestine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia indicates differently.

You do realise the source is a banned person for abusive use of multiple accounts


And the entry has been edited by numerous people that source to Islamic groups

I posted the source that particular chart came from - an article by Sergio Dellapergola, based on data from Roberto Bachi.

 

[Shusha]

According to this article - which was used as the source for the Wikipedia chart: Demographic Trends in Israel and Palestine by Sergio Dellapergola

Population distribution by main ethnoreligious groups shows an uninterrupted presence of Jews, and subsequently Christians
and Muslims, over most of the last two millennia, along with significant changes over time in the absolute and relative size of these
groups. Archaeological and documentary evidence points to the early prevalence of Jewish population, political organization, and
culture. Then, between the fourth and seventh centuries—the Byzantine period—the majority of the population was Christian.
With the rise of Islam after the seventh century, a Muslim majority emerged. This lasted through 1947, when, out of an estimated
total population of about 2 million, close to 1.2 million (60 percent) were Muslims, about 650,000 (32 percent) Jews, and about
150,000 (7 percent) Christians.12​

Following Israel's 1948 War of Independence and the farreaching political changes that came in its wake, a Jewish majority
emerged again in the whole territory of historic Palestine. One of the determinants of this shift was the flight from Palestine
of 625,000-675,000 Arabs, according to Israeli sources,13 or 700,000-850,000, according to Palestinian sources.14 These have
been recognized, together with their descendants, as the Palestinian refugees.15 Another key determinant of population change beginning
with Israeli independence was large-scale, unrestricted Jewish immigration, which amounted to 2,850,000 between 1948
and 2000. Differential natural increase of the main ethnoreligious groups further contributed to the changes in population size and
composition.​

From page 19, he talks about Arab immigration into Israel for jobs:

The consequence for Israel was that an Arab labor force becameone of the essential prerequisites for the construction of a modern
Jewish state. And as far as the Palestinians were concerned, were it not for the existence of the State of Israel, a large share of
the Palestinian labor force, unable to find employment locally, would have been forced to migrate elsewhere in search of work. Indeed,
about 140,000 Palestinians emigrated from the West Bank during the 1960s—ruled, at the time by Jordan—looking for jobs.
Afterwards, from the 1967 Israeli occupation until 1989, 171,000 Palestinians left the West Bank and 114,000 the Gaza area in search
of the new opportunities opening up in the booming economies of the Gulf States. After the 1991 Gulf War, about 30,000 returned,
and another 30,000—mostly people related to members of the Palestinian Authority's administration and military forces—came
back to Palestine after the Oslo agreements.27​

Part of the problem with historic population analysis though is that data can be very unreliable since it's not based on modern methodology. From: MidEast Web - Population of Palestine

Economics and Immigration - Under the British Mandate, which began after WWI, Jewish population increased due to immigration, especially in the 1930s. Arab population also increased at an exceptional rate. According to records, about 18,000 non-Jews entered Palestine between 1930 and 1939 when there were more or less reliable figures. In the same period, about 5,000 non-Jews left. This does not count illegal immigration of course, or immigration prior to 1930. Economic analyses show that by the 1930s the standard of living of Palestinian Arabs was approximately twice that of Arabs in surrounding countries, whereas in Ottoman Turkish times it was lower than in surrounding countries. Some of the farm population may have suffered economic hardship, characteristic of any industrializing and urbanizing society, but in the main, the standard of living improved, and it improved much faster than it did in surrounding countries. There is no doubt that this improvement in conditions was an attractant for immigrants as well as resulting in improved health and larger families. Additionally, British activity in building the port of Haifa during the 1920s and in operating it during WW II undoubtedly attracted at least some immigrants. However, there is no hard evidence that more than 100,000 or 200,000 (out of about 1.3 million in all of Palestine, and about 7-800,000 in the area that was to become Israel in 1948) Palestinians had immigrated to the land that was to become Israel. It is impossible to determine at present when this immigration took place. 100,000 Arabs immigrating in 1880 would have produced many more descendants by 1948 than 100,000 Arabs immigrating in 1930. However, since economic conditions did not improve until mandatory times, it is unlikely that the bulk of the immigration occurred under Turkish administration.
​

This author also makes the following conclusions: Palestine was not an empty land when Zionist immigration began (estimates range from 410,000 to over 600,000 Arab Muslims and Christians in the 1890's); Zionist settlement did not displace or dispossess Palestinians and while it's not possible to estimate illegal Arab immigration directly, there was some.

So, you don't know what the primary source documents are either, then?

 

[Shusha]

Adriaan Reland was a Dutch Jew that never left Holland. He was never in Palestine.

Source? Link?

 

[Coyote]

That doesn't make sense.

The chart here: Demographic history of Palestine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia indicates differently.

But what are the primary sources used for the periods prior to 1850?

Not sure, the author of the data is Bachi, Roberto.

 

[Coyote]

The OP isn't exactly "primary" either and seems to be based on one ancient text that contradicts much of what is said by modern demographers and historians. A source who's footnote goes to Answers - The Most Trusted Place for Answering Life's Questions is not really inspiring of confidence and the author of the OP seems to base his entire claim on only that.

 

[Coyote]

Adriaan Reland was a Dutch Jew that never left Holland. He was never in Palestine.

Source? Link?

He was the son of a Protestant minister...I doubt that makes him Jewish. He traveled to over 2500 places that he surveyed.

 

[Coyote]

Actually....it doesn't seem that he traveled. He's a fascinating scholar though...from
adriaan remand and islam

...On the whole, however, he avoids the insulting epithets common among his contemporaries and treats Islam with respect. In this, and in his systematic confutation of Christian prejudice, Reland is reminiscent of Henry Stubbe whose Rise and Progress of Mahometanism was written in the 1670s and remained in manuscript. But there could hardly have been a greater difference between the two men. Stubbe (who was no Arabist) had been known for his radical views and verged steadily closer to Deism.2 Reland had been brought up in the strictest Reformed orthodoxy, at a time when Dutch uni versities were crossing one of the most conservative periods of their history. His father was a preacher. He himself had studied at the university of Utrecht. He had been taught Hebrew by Johan Leusden, a loyal follower of Gisbertus Voetius and an opponent of Cartesianism and Arminianism; theology by the equally orthodox Melchior Leydekker and the only slightly more moderate Herman Witsius; and philosophy by the staunchly anti-Cartesian Gerard de Vries. He had then proceeded to Leiden. In 1700, at the age of twenty-four, after a brief appointment at Harderwijk, he was nominated professor of oriental languages at Utrecht on the recommendation of the King and the Earl of Portland. And in Utrecht, that bastion of orthodoxy, Reland remained from the time he took up his chair in 1701 to his death from smallpox in 1718. He rejected posts offered him in Franeker and Leiden. Reland was one of the most versatile scholars of his day. He was praised for his Latin poetry and admired for his cartographical studies of Palestine, Persia, Japan and Java. He produced work of enduring value on Biblical archeology. He was revered as an expert on Persian and Arabic and for his skill as a Hebraist, and he was esteemed for his linguistic theories on Malay, Urdu, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese and the languages of the American Indians. Yet he never budged from his university. He was described by Edward Gibbon as "a judiciousstudent" who "had travelled over the East in his closet at Utrecht". 3

 

[José]

Originally posted by Coyote
He was the son of a Protestant minister...I doubt that makes him Jewish. Hetraveled to over 2500 places that he surveyed.

I have never read any reference to Reland being a Jew either, he was a christian... you seem to be right on this issue.

I could be wrong because I don't claim to be his official biographer.

As far as Reland's travel to Palestine is concerned, you got royally duped by a zionist blog (by Avi Goldreich ).

Reland never left his native Holand in his entire life.

 

[José]

Originally posted by Coyote
Actually....it doesn't seem that he traveled. He's a fascinating scholar though...from
adriaan remand and islam

 

[Coyote]

Originally posted by Coyote
He was the son of a Protestant minister...I doubt that makes him Jewish. Hetraveled to over 2500 places that he surveyed.

I have never read any reference to Reland being a Jew either, he was a christian... you seem to be right on this issue.

I could be wrong because I don't claim to be his official biographer.

As far as Reland's travel to Palestine is concerned, you got royally duped by a zionist blog (by Avi Goldreich ).

Reland never left his native Holand in his entire life.

I have a bad habit of posting as I think of things - he's a very interesting scholar though.

 

[aris2chat]

According to this article - which was used as the source for the Wikipedia chart: Demographic Trends in Israel and Palestine by Sergio Dellapergola

Population distribution by main ethnoreligious groups shows an uninterrupted presence of Jews, and subsequently Christians
and Muslims, over most of the last two millennia, along with significant changes over time in the absolute and relative size of these
groups. Archaeological and documentary evidence points to the early prevalence of Jewish population, political organization, and
culture. Then, between the fourth and seventh centuries—the Byzantine period—the majority of the population was Christian.
With the rise of Islam after the seventh century, a Muslim majority emerged. This lasted through 1947, when, out of an estimated
total population of about 2 million, close to 1.2 million (60 percent) were Muslims, about 650,000 (32 percent) Jews, and about
150,000 (7 percent) Christians.12​

Following Israel's 1948 War of Independence and the farreaching political changes that came in its wake, a Jewish majority
emerged again in the whole territory of historic Palestine. One of the determinants of this shift was the flight from Palestine
of 625,000-675,000 Arabs, according to Israeli sources,13 or 700,000-850,000, according to Palestinian sources.14 These have
been recognized, together with their descendants, as the Palestinian refugees.15 Another key determinant of population change beginning
with Israeli independence was large-scale, unrestricted Jewish immigration, which amounted to 2,850,000 between 1948
and 2000. Differential natural increase of the main ethnoreligious groups further contributed to the changes in population size and
composition.​

From page 19, he talks about Arab immigration into Israel for jobs:

The consequence for Israel was that an Arab labor force becameone of the essential prerequisites for the construction of a modern
Jewish state. And as far as the Palestinians were concerned, were it not for the existence of the State of Israel, a large share of
the Palestinian labor force, unable to find employment locally, would have been forced to migrate elsewhere in search of work. Indeed,
about 140,000 Palestinians emigrated from the West Bank during the 1960s—ruled, at the time by Jordan—looking for jobs.
Afterwards, from the 1967 Israeli occupation until 1989, 171,000 Palestinians left the West Bank and 114,000 the Gaza area in search
of the new opportunities opening up in the booming economies of the Gulf States. After the 1991 Gulf War, about 30,000 returned,
and another 30,000—mostly people related to members of the Palestinian Authority's administration and military forces—came
back to Palestine after the Oslo agreements.27​

Part of the problem with historic population analysis though is that data can be very unreliable since it's not based on modern methodology. From: MidEast Web - Population of Palestine

Economics and Immigration - Under the British Mandate, which began after WWI, Jewish population increased due to immigration, especially in the 1930s. Arab population also increased at an exceptional rate. According to records, about 18,000 non-Jews entered Palestine between 1930 and 1939 when there were more or less reliable figures. In the same period, about 5,000 non-Jews left. This does not count illegal immigration of course, or immigration prior to 1930. Economic analyses show that by the 1930s the standard of living of Palestinian Arabs was approximately twice that of Arabs in surrounding countries, whereas in Ottoman Turkish times it was lower than in surrounding countries. Some of the farm population may have suffered economic hardship, characteristic of any industrializing and urbanizing society, but in the main, the standard of living improved, and it improved much faster than it did in surrounding countries. There is no doubt that this improvement in conditions was an attractant for immigrants as well as resulting in improved health and larger families. Additionally, British activity in building the port of Haifa during the 1920s and in operating it during WW II undoubtedly attracted at least some immigrants. However, there is no hard evidence that more than 100,000 or 200,000 (out of about 1.3 million in all of Palestine, and about 7-800,000 in the area that was to become Israel in 1948) Palestinians had immigrated to the land that was to become Israel. It is impossible to determine at present when this immigration took place. 100,000 Arabs immigrating in 1880 would have produced many more descendants by 1948 than 100,000 Arabs immigrating in 1930. However, since economic conditions did not improve until mandatory times, it is unlikely that the bulk of the immigration occurred under Turkish administration.
​

This author also makes the following conclusions: Palestine was not an empty land when Zionist immigration began (estimates range from 410,000 to over 600,000 Arab Muslims and Christians in the 1890's); Zionist settlement did not displace or dispossess Palestinians and while it's not possible to estimate illegal Arab immigration directly, there was some.

So, you don't know what the primary source documents are either, then?

They were posted, link in red

http://www.ajcarchive.org/AJC_DATA/Files/2003_3_SpecialArticles.pdf

MidEast Web - Population of Palestine

You can question the research of the originators, but as far at Coyote, the information of sources is correct.

>>Sergio DellaPergola is an Italian-born Israeli demographer and statistician. He is a professor and demographic expert, specifically in demography and statistics related to the Jewish population.<<

 

[aris2chat]

If you don't have a clue, Wiki can be a beginning. From there you can research further.
If it can cross reference to three unbiased articles, then wiki can be used as a source.
For me wiki is a refresher of facts, but I like to do more checking on my own.

I've posted British and Ottoman demographics before on the influx of arab immigration to the mandate that show over double that of jews. Jews created jobs and muslims wanted the higher wages and ease of religious constraints. It was their yellow brick road.

Under the ottomans, the land was not producing enough taxes to cover the costs of government operation. They wanted the jews to invest and build the area, they invited jews to return to their historic homeland. They knew the jews would modernize the economy.

When the brits came, it was a mixed bag. Promises made but placating the arabs at the same time.

It was 100 yrs ago, different conditions, under populated, under developed. It was not brimming with arab. Most people that lived there did not on their homes or land, it was still feudal, where everyone worked for their "lord of the manor", usually someone that had served the ottomans and rewarded with land, which they rarely developed or invested in.

Population and land ownership is a complex issue and there are widely differing opinions and research, depending on the goal they are looking for.

For arabs to own land, they had to register for military service, and they could then vote. Many did not want to serve the Ottoman or the Brits. They did not take the opportunity to register land when they had a chance. They did not have or want to pay taxes. A door key does not mean ownership.
Populations of arabs came and went depending on growing seasons. Men might check out the work and housing one year and bring their family the next.

It really is not as simple as counting heads. Borders were porous, traders and Bedouins came and went through the desert, not through ships, roads or entry crossings.

Truth is probably somewhere in the middle.